[dramatic tone]
[tense music]
* *
[all chanting]
- Aotearoa-- South Island, New Zealand--
a land of impossible beauty and proud tradition--
[all chanting]
- Let's go, New Zealand!
- --the ideal stage for the next chapter in the most
harrowing adventure race--
- Shit.
- --ever conceived.
- I am so ready to get her done.
This is going to be crazy.
- New Zealand is a monster.
It can eat you up.
It can spit you out.
But I'm ready to go in and conquer it.
- Over 150 miles and 40 days of hell await
nine pairs of elite athletes--
- Ah! [laughs]
- --survivalists--
- Oh-ho-ho!
- --and adventurers--
- Let's go, brother.
We're up against the clock right now.
- --across the harshest landscape on the planet.
- This race is one of the coolest opportunities
I've ever had.
It's not something I take lightly.
I've trained for it. I'm ready.
- Big sweeper. We're going to hit it.
- Hardest thing I've done in my entire life.
- We ain't gonna quit.
- Where do you think we are?
- Freaking lake in freaking New Zealand.
- Each leg is designed to push them past the physical
and mental breaking point.
- I don't know if I can jump that, Emilio.
- You ready for this, girl? - Yeah.
I've never been away this long.
I'm going to miss my husband and my kids.
I am scared for that.
- And they'll do it all with only
what they can carry on their backs.
- Not just race, right?
You have to survive.
- Every finish line, comfort, and calorie,
they'll have to earn.
- I am starving.
This is food.
- The weakest will be eliminated,
and those who remain, left for days to survive on their own--
- Yes, monster.
- --all for the chance to claim a life-changing
$500,000 prize.
- [shouts]
- It's the ultimate test of will.
- We'll go till I die. I don't care.
- And it starts now.
- Ah! - Look out.
- Oh, Jesus.
- Holy-- Frank--
- [grunts]
- I'm miserable.
- There's blood everywhere.
- That's the first time I've heard the helicopter this race.
- This is so bad.
- Do you want me to leave right now?
- Do it, I ------- dare you.
- [shouts]
- The race is on.
The race starts now.
The race starts now, baby!
Let's go!
- This is "Race to Survive:
New Zealand."
[dramatic music]
* *
- There's a crate, brother. - There it is.
Let's go! Let's go!
- The crate-- - Whoo!
- Oh, my God. - Let's go.
- Right over there.
- Let's go!
- Yeah, bro.
- Crate, the crate.
- OK. - What do we got?
Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime.
- And competition like no other.
- It all starts today, your first race leg-- water and ice.
- Whoo!
- The first multiday race is a physical nightmare
crafted to separate the contenders
from the pretenders--
a 40-mile gauntlet with five unique zones to test decision
making, teamwork, and stamina, launching with a charge across
a muck-laden bog and an arm-burning canoe trek across
an 8-mile lake, climbing 6,000 feet over a frigid mountain
pass before descending through a sharp,
narrow chasm and down class IV whitewater to the finish.
Even at a sprint, teams will need
over 20 hours to get it done.
- We've got alpine pass and whitewater, which will be rad.
- Their maps designate course boundaries,
mandatory challenges.
And this season--
- You'll be given no food for the duration
of this competition. - What?
- Whew. - Oh, shit.
- So no food's given to us at all?
Ain't that some shit.
- You will have to forage, hunt, or earn every calorie.
- Their only opportunity for rations--
time-sapping detours to optional food caches.
So teams will have to decide, do they risk
starvation or elimination?
- Grab the cache, and then start heading out?
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, think just ride the coast.
- I think this plays a lot into some of our strengths
as commercial guides, which is awesome.
- So to me, it looks like, by the contour lines,
we've actually got something to work with along the river,
which is amazing.
- That's good for us ultra runners.
So maybe--
- We've only had a little bit of time
sizing up the competition.
We don't really know what they're made
of, what they're capable of. - Yeah.
- I really don't see any competition.
- We're all here competing for the same thing,
and that's half a million dollars.
Jesus Christ, that would change everything.
That would change my life. That would change her life.
- The first teams to reach the finish crate claim medallions
allowing them to race again, and for the top finishers,
a game-changing advantage.
- For the first team to the crate,
there will also be reward items.
- That will greatly help your success at survival camp.
- Choose wisely.
- The last to arrive--
nothing but a hearty handshake and a plane ticket home.
- Whoo! Come on, guys!
- We're going to count it down, all right?
- The daily race clock is set at 12 hours,
and the fight for $500,000--
all: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
- --is on.
[horn sounds]
[cheering]
- Let's do this.
- Whoo! - Whoo!
- Oh, shit.
[yelling]
- Do it, bro.
- This is wild.
* *
- Ah!
- Marsh, marsh.
Oh, yes.
Come on.
- Oh, my God.
- Looks can be deceiving out here in New Zealand.
This terrain is tough.
[grunting]
- Oh, my God.
- Whoa.
There's some deep mud.
- New Zealand beauty's kicking our ass right now.
- This is a bucket of suck, like that.
Clearly, we don't have this stuff in the city.
I run a little gym in Warwick, and he
popped in about six years ago.
And he used to grade me on every class.
I'd be done teaching.
He'd be like, that, that was like a 9, 9 1/2.
- Ready for any challenges.
I'm probably going to be the oldest male on this course.
I'm 56 years old.
So to be here to have a chance to win $500,000--
it's incredible for us.
I mean, we're so pumped. We're so excited.
We're going to kick some serious butt.
- I'm going to start crawling.
- Here we go, baby.
Get a canoe.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Hell, yeah.
Let's go, Tyrie.
- Get out there, dude.
- Yeah, buddy. Let's go.
[laughter]
- Ryan, get my pack out.
- Whoa, there.
Got to get there, bro. - Set, E?
- What's that? - You set?
- Yeah. - OK, load that up.
They're heading out. - Get your shit on.
We're right there. - Let's go.
- And we're off.
I'm on right, you're on left.
[dramatic music]
- Love it, dude.
Whoo.
- That's how we ------- do it.
Get off the beach.
- Yeah, boss.
Corry and I met--
- That's a good story.
- --as kayak guides in Hawaii back in 2017.
And then I followed Corry to Jackson
to become a raft guide.
- I would describe our friendship as a partnership
and a brotherhood.
Yee-hoo!
- We are super well-rounded, and I think
that's our biggest strength.
Being in the Tetons, cutting our teeth out
there has elevated us as athletes.
Whoo!
I've told people that if we don't win,
we're not going to come home.
So--
- Yeah.
Keep it up. Keep it up.
- Going to end these boys.
- Our pro paddlers are about to get passed, huh?
- Yeah.
Ah, shouldn't be too cocky.
They're going to use that.
- Shit talk all you want.
- Yeah.
- It's part of the game.
- Them boys are flying.
- We got Corry and Oliver.
- You're going to be saying our name a lot, buddy.
- [shrieks]
- Where are we, fourth?
- Yep.
You did so good on that. - Thank you.
- I'm so proud of you.
- Thank you.
I'm proud of me.
- Yeah.
- I'm proud of you, too, for making it through there.
Paulina and I met seven years ago at a party.
And saw this girl out on the dance
floor with this big, curly hair, and I fell in love.
[laughter]
- Yeah.
And then we dated for about five years, were--
- Married for two.
Got divorced and got a call about this race four days
after our divorce.
And now here we are.
- Yeah.
- What? - I don't know.
- Oh.
- I can't see the teams in front of us.
Your hair is too big.
- Oh.
- [laughs]
- No, no.
Going to paddle left, paddle left, paddle left.
- Wrong way, Nik.
Come on.
- Which way?
- Well, we're going in circles right now, bro.
We're literally going in circles.
- I understand.
- ------- waves. - OK.
- We're ------. - Stop saying it.
Relax.
OK, come on.
Ready?
We're going good.
Nice and soft.
- So Nik and I-- we met through my ex-husband, actually.
- Oil and gas in Canada is a very small community.
Because the community is so small,
everyone kind of knows everybody, right?
- Nik and I really enjoy each other
because we're both strong-headed,
loud, boisterous, fun people.
- We're both adrenaline junkies.
- Yeah.
- So if we're not partying, we're
going on peaks, we're going out bungee jumping, climbing,
whatever can get that rush.
- We climax together in just--
- There you go.
- --different types of ways. - There you go.
We climax together. - We live on the edge.
- We're climax buddies.
- Doing great, buddy.
- We are doing good.
- Yeah, we are.
---- yeah, we are.
- We're competitive.
- Whoo!
OK, left, sorry.
- It's OK.
- While the Canadians, Kennedy and Nik,
finally paddle straight and get on course,
300 yards back--
- Oh, my God.
My foot is stuck. - Mikhail, Mikhail--
- Yeah? - --right over here, bro.
Come on. - Yeah, I see you.
- Come on.
- --two teams have yet to even launch.
- We're not in Brooklyn anymore.
This is not the Hudson River.
- Five or six years ago, I started
a rock climbing festival called Color The Crag.
Steffen was an attendee there.
From there, we just kind of clicked,
and we just kept climbing with each other.
The advantage that we have coming from New York City
is we are, by default, faster paced.
We can think faster. We can move faster.
- And listen, Steffen is our survival expert.
Me, I'm the marathon runner.
He's going to make sure we stay alive.
[laughter]
- It's a lot of pressure.
[laughter]
- We're a long way from the city.
- Yeah! - Yeah!
- Getting a lot of nutrition--
a lot of bugs going in my mouth.
- Emilio, just get in.
Just drop a line.
We've got to make up some time.
I got blood everywhere already.
We really need to pick up our pace
and hope that that swat doesn't show up again.
Because that swat just ate us up alive.
----
- Coming up--
- If we're going up and over that mountain, I want food.
- There it is. There it is.
Let's do it.
- A lot of teams have opted for the cache,
and I think that's what's going to slow them down.
- We've reached the end of the easy portion of the race.
- Careful.
- Shit.
- Whoa.
- Hop in. Let's go.
Let's do it.
- All right.
- We got to really start making up time.
- One hour into the first ruthless leg of this 40-day
competition, with nearly 40 miles to go, every
team has now hit the lake.
- Well, you know me.
I always start slow in my ultramarathons.
Then ------- start crushing people, start taking
people's souls in front of us.
We're the wise guys from Rhode Island.
We're from the city.
We don't know how to ------- run through that swamp shit.
Leave that shit for the ------- hillbillies.
- EH is coming from behind.
They're coming for you.
- [laughs]
- Paddle, bitch.
Whoo!
- While the gym rats from Rhode Island,
Heather and Emilio,
push to paddle out of last, nearly 2 miles up lake,
three teams are neck and neck, jockeying for an early lead.
- Look at the guys ahead of us right now.
- Yeah.
- I see two kayakers that are pretty small.
To the right, I see two guys that
got too much strength, right?
I think we're right in between, man.
- About to pass these dudes without really even trying.
- 500K, brother.
- Yep, easy.
We both are wildland firefighters.
We're an IA source, which means initial attack.
We jump out of airplanes to fight fires.
- You're not going to make a lot of money.
We're out there for the hard work, for the camaraderie.
We have a saying-- we get paid in sunsets out there.
But seeing the impact that you can have
on people's lives doing that type of work is-- it's
really rewarding.
No walking, baby.
Come on.
We're going to win this race because we
have a unique ability of working
together in tough situations.
- Try to catch up to the son and father duo over there.
- I'm sure we're stronger physically
than anyone else out here.
- Yeah, we'll see.
I mean, we're just blue-collared workers
that work hard, and we're going to work hard out here.
- So Bronsen, he is my son-in-law.
I met him about a year ago.
He was laying on my couch when I was coming
home to go on a hunting trip.
I'm done.
I sat there and stared over him,
to find out later he was really awake
the whole time-- didn't dare to open his eyes.
[laughter]
- There we go.
- I've grown up on a farming ranch.
Parents never gave me anything except for opportunities
to work.
And I've been very fortunate in being
able to live the cowboy dream.
- I wanted Bronsen out here because I've
seen that work ethic.
I see that drive.
- Yeah, if let my father-in-law down,
that wouldn't be a good thing.
He'd probably take his daughter back.
- [laughs] I wouldn't take her back, but you're not coming
over Thanksgiving dinner.
- Yeah, I know.
[laughter]
[dramatic music]
You can see it right now--
Bronsen and Ryan take a huge lead.
- Oh, shit, my hat, my hat.
- Hey. - Go back.
Shit. We gotta get--
- You sure, Ryan?
- We gotta get it. - Dude, no.
- I got to get my hat.
Come on.
- What are those guys doing?
They dropped a hat or something?
- Oh, yeah, it looks like. Keep going.
- I got it.
Dude, I don't want to get burned.
- Other way. - Yeah, dude.
- He lost his hat?
- Yep.
- Oh, it's littering.
- Get it.
Oh, my gosh.
You got to be kidding me.
- Dad.
- You're going to need that.
- Grab it.
- Throw it in here for now.
- Yeah, yeah.
Go, go.
All right, we got some catch up.
Sorry.
- So do we go for the cache, or do we just go, bro?
- We've got to be getting close.
- Hold onto your hats.
The top three have hit the first critical decision
point in the race.
Placed on an island nearly a mile off course
is one day's supply of rations for each team,
if they want to claim it.
It's a simple choice--
food in your belly or position in the race?
- There it is. There it is.
- Yep, let's do it.
- If we're up in the front, why wouldn't we
go get the other food?
If we're going to get eliminated,
then we'll start sacrificing rations.
Fuel is going to be the biggest thing for us out here.
Yeah, food.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Good. - You in there?
- Yep.
- All right, I'm pushing off. - Push off.
- OK, we see the end of the lake.
- Yeah, man, head right for that beach.
Let's do it.
- 500 meters behind us is the next boat.
- Got it.
Go for it.
Go nice and quick.
Part of our strategy is relying on our speed
to get out in front of other teams and collect food caches,
and the survival materials at the end
creates that survival camp.
That looks heavy.
- This is heavy.
- That's the cache.
- Let's go for it.
[dramatic music]
- You still just want to go for the cache?
- We should probably still go for the cache.
- OK.
- If we're going up and over that mountain, I want food.
- Yep, me too.
- We're going to get the cache, right?
- Yes, we are.
- All right.
- Get the cache and get the cash.
- That's right.
- The cache of food is on the same side that we started on.
- OK. - So yeah, we're staying close.
There's one team, like, clear on the other side, right?
- I think that team is not going to get the cache.
- There's food.
Do they not know there's food involved?
- I'm OK with going hungry.
I really am.
- I don't have as much stamina endurance as Nik does.
So we have to make up for lack of speed somewhere.
And that is skipping the food caches
and rely on our survival and hunting skills
at survival camp.
Do you think if I catch enough possums,
I'll come back stronger-- like, I'll come back more jacked if I
get enough protein into me?
- I don't know, man.
Maybe we should just eat one of the other teams.
Is that against the rules?
[chuckling]
[dramatic music]
- Oh, man, good rip right there.
- Oh, we're crushing it.
- Looks like boys are on the beach.
- Cache in hand, smokejumpers Ethan and Tyrie
are the first to reach zone 2.
The trek up to the alpine pass is an exhausting 12-mile
ascent, navigating a spider web
of intersecting game trails,
each as deceiving as the next.
Gaining over 4,000 feet of elevation,
it's crucial to choose the path wisely,
as any wrong turn could send them spiraling off course,
losing hours of precious time.
- One ring to rule them all.
What do you think of that, Bilbo?
Man, I hope they don't take all the stupid lines I say
and use them on TV.
- That's all right.
- We'll be 500K richer, bro.
- Yeah.
- You know, I can't imagine doing a race like this
with somebody else, man.
Me and Tyrie-- we've been through a lot
of tough situations together.
- Regardless of what goes on in this race
and how much money is on the line, our friendship, I think,
is bigger than the money.
But there is a serious aspect to us being here.
Our competitive edge-- we aren't going to hold back.
We're going to give it everything we have.
On top of that, I just ------- hate losing.
- Yeah.
- Look at the map to see if we see where this is.
- Yeah, I got my compass right here.
- I think we're right there in this area.
- Oh, shoot. Oh.
- We're not in that flat no more.
Yeah, it's going to get real tight.
- I think-- - Just right here?
- --maybe at that.
- So maybe right here we can get to--
- We're right behind you, boys.
- What's up, boys?
- Doing well. - ------- nice, dude.
- Well, shit. - Don't like that.
- We kind of snuck up on them, too, a little bit.
- Yeah, we did.
Did you see his face?
- Yeah.
- No ------- way.
Let's get them.
- Yoo-hoo!
- Oh, yeah, we're feeling pretty stoked up.
I think we're just going to keep making
that gap bigger and bigger.
- Halfway through the day 1 race clock,
a leg-burning uphill duel to the alpine pass is on.
- Hungry dogs.
- Oh, yeah.
- Between river guides Oliver and Corry--
- Oh, they're right up there.
- All right, yeah, let's get them.
- Yep.
- --and the smoke jumpers, Ethan and Tyrie, with first
place and first pick of survival tools on the line.
- We'll catch up.
- Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
- A mile and a half behind the leaders,
father and son-in-law duo Ryan and Bronsen are holding third.
- Just going to keep pushing up this sucker.
It's a steep one, man.
- Three miles behind them--
- Oh, there's a path.
- Where did this come from?
- --mountaineering exes Paulina and Creighton
are neck-and-neck in the forest labyrinth,
with ultrarunners Coree and Jeff--
- It opens up over here, I think.
- --each fighting to decipher the baffling,
interweaving game trails.
In sixth place, oil workers Kennedy and Nik's decision
to skip the food cache vaulted them
just ahead of decorated endurance
athletes Ashley and Randy.
- Get us in the icy water.
- Right, left, right, left, right, left.
[shrieking]
I have been racing for nearly two decades--
everything from 5K, to a 100 miles, an Ironman Triathlon.
- My very first marathon was when I was 19 years old.
I earned my pro card for triathlon in 2015.
- I have five kids and they are my whole world.
- I have four kids, and they are
just my biggest cheerleaders.
- Both of us, we've been underestimated
our entire lives.
Just because we want our hair to look cute, doesn't mean
we're not fierce competitors.
It doesn't mean we're not out to win.
All right, we're flat.
Let's get fast, baby.
All out, all out.
And I freaking mean that.
- All right.
- Let's go, Kennedy.
- Yeah, I'm coming.
The girls behind me are triathletes,
and I know they're fast.
They're tiny, but they're fast, and I
can hear them coming up on me.
- Let's go, let's go.
- All right, coming through.
Thanks, girl.
Way to go.
- Darn it.
- 5 miles back, still on the lake--
- Oh, yeah, we said we'd make up time.
That swat got us, but we're coming back, baby.
We're coming back.
- --it's an East Coast showdown to stay out of last
place, as Emilio and Heather have paddled
themselves into a dead heat with Brooklyn
climbers Steffen and Mikhail.
- I guess they're doing no cache over there.
We want that food, guaranteed food tonight.
- Looks like they're headed to the cache.
They're going, so let's give it.
And that's a 2 km paddle, so good luck to them.
- While the back teams fight to stay one
step ahead of elimination--
- We're close, man.
- Yeah, we are.
- --Wyoming-based Oliver and Corry
have correctly decoded the trails
to earn a view from the top.
- Oh, my God, dude.
- Dude.
- Look at where we came from.
This is so cool.
- Oh, man, I love New Zealand.
- [laughs] Oh, yeah.
- This is better than I thought.
- Yeah, that's the mental boost right there.
- Yeah.
- Feeling good.
We're excited to be here first for this bit.
- There you are.
- Cool metal box here.
- That'll have instructions.
- Ah, there we go.
- "You've reached the end of the easy portion of the race.
Your team must now cross a snow and ice-covered alpine pass
to continue on the course."
- Rising 6,500 feet above sea level, teams must
navigate a daunting alpine pass and traverse
the jagged ridgeline.
Here, one wrong step could end their race.
Then it's a rappel and glissade
down the slick icefield
to begin the long descent to the finish crate
and survival kit, which still lies
a punishing 19 miles away.
- Can you see those guys down there?
- Yeah, they're moving across the lower snowfield.
- Wait, where are they?
- Right there.
- Now I see them.
We know we're faster than them.
- Oh, yeah.
Clip, clip.
- ---- this footing.
- Careful.
- We kind of found this shared interest in rock climbing,
so a lot of our initial friendship and bonding
was over trying to find these really obscure climbing areas.
Jesus.
- There are certain people you meet in your life
that make you come alive.
And I think Corry is definitely that person for me.
- I tend to be a little more big picture.
I think Oliver has an anchoring and kind of a detail-drivenness
that I sometimes lack.
- Slow down, dude.
Slow down.
Not worth getting hurt.
- Heading down Jones.
We got Ethan and Tyrie right behind us.
- But feeling strong, and downhill
is where we tend to move well.
- Oh, we're moving.
- With three hours left on the daily race clock,
in the maze of game trails are adventure athletes
Paulina and Creighton and ultrarunners Coree and Jeff.
- We are on foot and just slowly expanding the lead
or potentially picking teams off.
- Looking really good.
I mean, look at this.
Look at that.
- Whoo!
- Look at that.
- Heck, yeah.
- Me and Coree have been friends six or seven years now.
I was training for an ultra, needed a coach,
so I used him as a coach.
And we just became really good friends after that.
We are odd couple.
- People are afraid of what they don't know, like,
straight white dude with a family and openly
gay Black dude, and yet you're both out here in the woods.
- We've been able to form this bond
and grow our friendship together.
Whoo!
- As a sponsored professional athlete,
I literally could have picked anybody
to be my partner for this thing, and I chose Jeff.
I want to know that they have my back
if something goes wrong.
I want to know that I can trust them.
And I want it to be something that
is going to be a memorable experience with a friend.
Whoo!
- That's what we came for.
That right there-- that's what we came for.
- And we're going to be going up that.
- And $500,000, but whatever.
- Do you know what?
We're right here next to the river.
We stay on this the whole way.
That's where we're at.
- Yeah. We're on this side?
- We're on this side.
I believe we go right.
Correct.
I'm pretty confident.
- Creighton is definitely the leader.
He enjoys leading.
And I wouldn't say I enjoy following,
but I'm a people-pleaser.
I am still questioning this trail a little bit.
I keep looking an eye out for a big bend in the river
because, based on our map, we should be closer to the water.
- We got voices up here.
I just don't know that we don't need to be closer to the water.
- Did you hear that?
- I hear it.
- Oh, shit.
- Well, shit.
This ain't promising.
- Hey, what are you guys doing?
- Well, hello.
- Huh? - Good luck, guys.
- Good luck.
Y'all are super fast.
- Yeah.
- Ah.
I don't know.
I'm-- I feel like I'm right.
- If you cross another team in the woods, one of y'all is
going in the wrong direction.
- I don't know.
I'm not going to second guess myself yet.
- I feel like something's wrong.
[dramatic music]
- I'm not going to second guess myself yet.
- Nope, absolutely not.
- After crossing paths headed opposite directions
in the forest ascent--
- So we just ran into another team
coming back down the track.
I don't know where they went or what they did,
but apparently we're better navigators.
- --the potential half-million-dollar question
for adventure athletes Paulina and Creighton
and ultramarathoning pals Coree and Jeff--
Who is going the right way?
- So right now, we're probably in third place,
and we're back to the river.
- Oh, yeah.
- Wait.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- What?
- The river is flowing a different direction
than I thought it would be.
We've been following it upriver.
Now this river is going downriver.
I have a very strong feeling that if we keep
following this trail, this--
ugh.
- Did you do that on purpose?
- Yeah.
- When you get divorced, you don't
expect to come back together and spend 40
days in the outdoors racing.
But I couldn't imagine doing this race with anybody else
because our relationship was so built around adventure.
I think we need to start heading backwards, so--
- It's scary to do a race like this.
It's scary to do it with your ex-wife.
But I believe that, overall, Paulina and I
are going to come out being friends
on the other side of this.
- Ugh.
This sucks because we were doing so well.
Such a bad mistake.
- While the exes pull a U-turn and double back, scrambling
to regain fourth place--
- Don't give them away.
Going this way.
- --breaching the alpine pass--
- Shit.
- --in-laws Ryan and Bronsen try to close the gap
on the two leading teams.
- See if we can pass these Jackson boys.
- But the clock's ticking, and time to pass is running out.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Hey, there they go.
- Boys, boys, boys.
- Boys, boys.
- Not bad at all, man.
- Ethan and Tyrie are strong competitors.
I'm sure we'll have a bit of a rivalry coming
into the next stages of the race.
- And I think that's great for us because it keeps us moving
and keeps us from getting too complacent.
- All right, buddy, we got minutes.
- Yeah.
[horn sounds]
- As the clock expires on day 1,
all teams must stop forward progress
and make camp within 50 yards of their location.
- Oh, yeah, look at this.
- Stay up here and maybe tuck in.
- Perfect.
- Look at that.
- Oh.
Oh, we've even got these guys that fell from a tree.
And I have it in my book, and I think we can eat them.
- What is it?
- They look like poopies, but they're not.
And we can eat what's in them.
You can roast them.
- OK.
- Oh, these look maybe like poopies.
Yeah, they're poopies.
- [laughs] - Yeah, OK.
- Day 1, dude. - ---- yeah.
We're here, dude.
- Despite the exhaustion from the day's hard push,
this is no break.
Each team must now steel themselves
against frigid nights, open wilderness,
and gnawing hunger.
- All right, we've heard these taste like peanut butter.
Locals have eaten them for a long time.
- We got the rations, and it's day 1.
We don't need to eat these, but we're
going to have to eat these.
- I think we're trying to not go through our food too quick.
- I'm all about it, dude.
- Let's try it out, dude.
- Not like peanut butter.
- Mm-mm.
- But not bad.
- Want to look for more?
- I'm going to cut this limb off.
- Why?
- Because I haven't gotten to use this saw yet.
- Yeah, but you're just going to be killing a tree that
doesn't need to be killed.
This wood won't be useful.
Just my opinion.
If we don't need to destroy it, don't destroy it.
- At the end of a brutal first day
with miles to go to the end crate and survival camp--
- Is that rice?
- Yeah.
- --seven teams secured the all-important
first food cache--
- Rice and lentils--
that's for dinner.
- --two are going hungry.
- Sorry. - Bro.
- I really can't imagine what's going on at the other camps.
I know they're probably enjoying their rations.
- We don't got food, but we got fire.
- I am emotionally exhausted.
That was brutal.
We are officially 1/20 of the way done with this hell.
- Oh, my God, that sucked.
- This sucked.
We got very-- like, literally, 180 degrees turned around.
- It was like all of--
I just didn't expect--
I don't know what I expected.
I just did not expect what they threw at us today.
- We'll see you in the morning. - Yep.
Bye.
- Still to come--
- Want to go catch these guys?
- Yeah.
- Hey, there's that team.
- Challenge 2-- the chasm.
- Feel like we might be able to kick it into gear
and take the lead.
[ominous music]
* *
- Race day 2, in the morning--
Showing some frost.
- Good morning.
- It's morning.
- It's the morning time.
We're both about to pee our pants.
But-- - Oh, my gosh.
- --it was too cold to go last night.
- It would be nice to eat something because climbing
a mountain when you haven't eaten
and you're at a calorie deficit is super challenging.
- Welcome to day 2.
It's a doozy.
While the stragglers still must tackle the alpine pass--
- I think we've got enough time today to finish this thing out.
I know we have a goal of getting to the chasm
fairly early this morning, giving us
plenty of time to move through the whitewater.
- --the race to the finish is on for the top teams.
And positioning matters.
Inside the end crate are beneficial survival tools
for the first four to arrive--
first come, first served.
But to get there, they'll face a downhill sprint through
a narrow chasm, navigating its 50-foot rock walls that form
a narrow choke point in the river
gorge less than a foot wide.
Then it's an 11-mile river gauntlet,
portaging pack rafts and shooting
class III and IV whitewater.
- Not that bad.
- You got to go here and climb up.
- We should probably shouldn't even get the food.
- Well, we can pig out if we do.
We're not going to be the only ones going for it, either.
- Along the way, there's one more optional detour
to a food cache with a day's worth of rations,
if they're willing to veer an hour off course to claim it.
- That camp site looks good.
- Oh, T minus 1 minute.
- OK.
Soggy shoes.
- The best part of the day.
[horn sounds]
- Rock and roll.
- Whoo!
- Let's go.
- Whoo!
- Whoo-hoo!
- Oh, they right behind us?
- I heard someone.
- OK.
- I can see them.
We are catching up.
- Cool.
- All right, so we can go up a little bit, but--
- This is all going down. See here?
This is-- yeah, this is all down.
So that's going up.
- You feel ready to keep rolling?
- Yeah.
- All right, let's go forward.
- Ah, that's the part that sucks--
when you stop.
[groaning]
Holy shit-- to get this old body going again.
- Like, once a month he's out getting 100-mile race.
I mean, the guy's nuts.
He is 56.
I think he's starting to get a little tired.
- Heather?
Heather?
What the ---- are you doing?
- You feel all right? - Yeah, I feel good.
But I mean, you didn't even look back and check.
I mean, you were ------- at least ------- 100 meters away.
- Well, I stopped and waited. - ----
- I literally--
- You want me to get ahead of you?
I'll ------- get way ahead of you.
- So what I did was I actually just stopped and said--
all right, here it comes.
I just stopped and said--
- Listen, I'm just letting you know,
at least check back for me.
I won't leave you behind like that.
- So you know what I just did was I just stopped--
- I don't know what you did, but you
just didn't check for me. But I was 100 meters--
I was out of your sight.
We are, like, an odd couple, but we
have a very special, special type of connection.
My mom was a single mom, raised me on her own.
Heather is doing the same thing
for her kid and her family.
So just that bond comes to a point
where those little banters--
like, that just doesn't really matter
because, at the end of the day, she's the one I can count on.
Those Brooklyn boys didn't get the cache,
and they're going to be zapped for energy.
We're all replenished.
We're good to go.
And are they ------- running like us right now?
Are they ------- moving this fast?
- While Emilio and Heather try to fight their way out
of last, at the front--
- 12:06--
- It might be right there, dude.
- That'll add close to an hour.
- Yeah.
- --with first place and the crate rewards on the line,
it's decision time for Ethan and Tyrie and Oliver and Corry.
Take the one-hour detour to guaranteed calories,
or shoot straight for the chasm,
shaving precious time off their route.
- Might be worth it, I guess.
- I think just the more food we can
build up and save, the best.
- Yeah.
- I kind of want to go for it.
Yeah, are we still on that idea?
- Yeah.
We could just stick to our original strategy
and just get the caches.
- Yeah.
- Our hope is that if we can cache food early
that we can also survive in the survival camps
well enough to save food into the later stages of the race.
- As long as there's just us and them and no other team
catches up, I think we could get it from them, for sure.
- Just a half mile back--
- Our packs are pretty dang full.
I think we're just going to go straight to survival camp
and catch some fish, eat some protein.
- Yeah, we're skipping the cache.
- If we can catch up to that second team would be good.
We're hoping one of the teams would go up there for sure
and that we could get back into second place, at least.
Wondering what's in that finish line crate, for sure.
We'd love to have first dibs.
Hopeful that they're veering off to the right.
We're going straight, get to the chasm.
- Look who seems to be also going for the cache.
- Yeah.
- There's those boys right there.
- You want to go catch these guys?
- Yeah.
- Let's go.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Getting close, see?
- Come on, now.
- Got eyes on it.
- Way to set a ------- pace up that hill, brother.
- My man.
- Whoo-hoo!
- We'd like to be first to the challenge to the chasm.
We can see it, and we're off.
I just want to kick them while they're down.
- Holy shit, the running.
- Oh, yeah, buddy.
They're going to be like, How did they do that?
We were with them.
We just gotta keep moving--
chasm of doom.
Whoo-hoo!
- That chasm's got to be right there, dude.
- Yeah, I'm sure it is.
- Yeah, it's right there.
- Hey, there's that team, bud.
- Let's boogie.
- Think it's Oliver and Corry.
- We've got to pick up the pace.
They're right behind us.
- Yeah, those guys are to our left.
- Oh, shit--
- The Utah boys.
Let's move.
- Oh, look to our right.
- Nevada boys.
- Yep, that is.
We got to boogie.
- Hey, look at the father, son.
They didn't grab the cache.
- Holy shit.
- Look at that.
- It's the chasm.
- It's right there.
We should get there first.
- Yeah.
- Whoo, it's getting steep.
This is Lord of the Rings, man.
This is Mordor.
This is like the evil part of the realm.
- Four hours into the second day of race 1--
- You got it, Paulina.
This is my super bad-ass ex-wife, Paulina Peña.
- --mountaineering exes Paulina
and Creighton have reconciled
their navigational differences and climbed
back into fourth place--
- Windy.
It's good, though.
Chasing $500,000.
- --as buddies Corey and Jeff and marathon moms Ashley
and Randy nip at their heels.
- Rounding out the middle pack, Canadian
roughnecks Kennedy and Nik--
- Let's go, Kennedy.
We're right there.
- --with a firm grip on seventh place.
- Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about.
- While up at the front--
- See those yellow bags?
- Yep.
- Where are we at?
- Right here.
- Beautiful.
- Good luck.
- Challenge 2-- the chasm.
- The chasm is a test of strength, skill, and guts.
It's a 50-foot free climb up a cargo net to a white-knuckle
Tyrolean traverse.
Then a leap of faith awaits--
40 harrowing feet to the water below.
- Let's go.
- You good?
Unreal.
- Yeah, Corry, come on.
You got it, dude.
Right now, this stretch and then the river
is playing to our strengths.
So I think we'll hopefully be able to open up a little bit
of a gap there between us.
All right.
- You got it, big dog! Let's go!
Nice job, bud.
Way to crush it.
- I'm ready to go swimming. - Whoo!
- All right, dropping.
- Whoo!
Wow.
- Me and Ryan are pretty strong upper-body-wise and feel like
we might be able to kick it into gear and possibly
take the lead, but we'll see.
Ride it.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Let's do it.
- Use your legs.
Nice job, bro.
Attaboy.
- Whoo!
- Nice jump, brother.
Whoo!
- We've got the hunter team right here about to traverse
or jump into the water.
We've got to make good time through this, catch up to them,
see what the rest of the course holds.
- You good?
- This is so cool.
- Wow.
Look at this.
She's narrow.
- To clear the chasm and reach the final zone of race 1,
teams must pass through a gap just 11 inches wide.
[grunting]
- Oh, just.
I love being skinny.
Whoo.
- I feel bad for the big boys squeezing through there.
- Back at the alpine pass, after skipping the first food
cache to stay out of last, Steffen and Mikhail
are starting to feel the burn.
- I haven't eaten in two days.
I haven't slept in two days.
But I got a race.
I got a race to go run.
My family is from Haiti.
It's one of the poorest countries in the world.
I know my parents.
They didn't have food all the time.
My parents-- all they did was work.
They really worked hard to make sure that we didn't have
that experience that they had.
They didn't really have the option
of chasing their passion.
And I think, for us, part of this race
is us chasing, literally, our passion.
- As the Brooklyn climbers struggle
to avoid elimination--
- Let's go. - Let's get it.
- --just 400 vertical feet behind--
- Whoa.
- --Emilio and Heather are closing in.
- Oh, I see bodies.
Heather, we see bodies.
You see over there on the ridge?
- That's nice.
Oh, that's exciting.
I'm stoked.
We got to go get them.
Ha-ha!
[dramatic music]
- Nearly halfway through race day 2 at the alpine pass--
- This is more our elements of ropes and rock.
But we have a team that's right on our heels.
- [shouts] Yeah, baby!
- After dropping to last place while claiming
the first food cache--
- Let's go, Heather.
Ha-ha!
- --Rhode Islanders Emilio and Heather have converted
the rations to fuel, closing the gap and setting
their sights on knocking Steffen
and Mikhail out of the race.
- Yeah.
Whoo-hoo!
- Look at you-- oh, my God.
Emilio, did you see this?
- Heather, I'm feeling this.
- I've never seen anything like this ever.
- What do you think your son would say if he saw you now?
- He's going to be like, that's my mom on top of New Zealand.
He's just going to be so stoked.
So for me to be able to give him that is cool.
I had my son, Sean, relatively young.
I was a wild child.
I still got a little wild child in me.
I like to have fun.
I would always take the adventurous route.
I ended up pregnant when I was 22.
I had him at 23.
His father and I split when Sean was six years old.
That is when I started to get more into the fitness world.
My whole life changed from there on out.
And I hope, one day, this teaches
him to go, go, go and get himself
to the top of the mountain.
I got to stop here.
[dramatic music]
- After 36 hours on the course in the toughest
race ever imagined--
- I think see the other team coming down.
- All right.
Go, go, go, go, go.
- --the drive to avoid being the first
team sent home is kicking in.
- The race is on.
The race starts now!
Race starts now, baby!
Let's go!
- Across 40 miles of pain, teams
are pushing themselves to the limit,
and it's only just begun.
Up at the front--
- Ready?
- Yes, sir.
- See you down there, brother.
Holy crap.
- [groans]
- Catching heck, bro.
- Yeah, cross right here, buddy.
Let's go.
- With three teams clearing the chasm minutes apart,
the battle for first place is on.
- All right.
- Bronsen and Ryan snuck up in the night.
They skipped that second cache, and they ended up catching us,
as well as Ethan and Tyrie.
So we know they're close behind,
but we think we can have a good transition here.
- Ryan and Bronsen--
they crushed the canoe paddle.
That was super impressive right out the gate.
Oh, shit, they're right there.
- Man, we were worried about you big boys
going through the gap.
- Yeah, buddy.
- There they are.
- Yeah.
- Now, 11 exhausting miles of paddling, portage,
and breakneck rapids stand between them
and the vital rewards waiting in the end crate.
- Let's go.
- It's a matter of who wants it more.
- It's no small thing to go home with a quarter
million each.
That's a big deal.
- We're going to leave everything
we have out on the table.
- Ready to get out of the gates?
- Yeah, bro.
I know we've got a little lead, but I know they're back there,
and they're going to be charging hard.
- Go, go, go.
- If I fail at this, it would be hard to show my face,
especially in the hunting community.
And my daughter Brynlee said, if you're
going to take my husband away for this long,
you guys better win.
- Go, go, go, go.
- This is a game.
It's $500,000.
Putting the money aside, I still want to be first.
I'll do whatever it takes to get there.
Let's get him.
- I see something.
- Oh, yeah.
Whoo! - Whoo-hoo.
- Hold on.
- Come on.
- I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!
- Deadlocked in class III whitewater,
first place can disappear with just one wrong move.
- Everyone's good?
- Back right.
- Yeah, good read.
- Big sweeper, big sweeper.
Gonna hit it.
Ah!
- This season on "Race to Survive"--
- This is a pass or fail evolution.
- Holy frick!
- [shouts]
- You either make it or you don't.
- Came here to suffer, and here we are.
- I am definitely suffering.
- Our bodies are eating themselves.
- It's been 10 days since I've had a proper meal.
- Cheers.
- Whoo-hoo!
- It's not a race to survive.
It's just being able to survive the race.
- Want me to leave right now?
- Do it.
I ------- dare you.
- Wow. - Let's go.
- Whoa!
- Every aspect of this--
mental, physical, emotional-- it's all-encompassing.
- I cannot keep pushing like this.
- This is the last thing you and I ever do together.
- You start fighting in ways you
didn't know you could fight.
- This is more than a story about people racing for money.
There's people here that are learning who they actually are.
- A rule was broken.
We're going to have to disqualify you.
[dramatic music]