Photo Credit: Mariah Braun, Production Manager, Undefeated: Journey To The Death Race Film

By Shane Clausing

Canadian death race

Documentary featuring Grande Prairie athletes & Canadian Death Race launches Thursday

Nov 12, 2020 | 2:14 PM

A documentary featuring four Grande Prairie athletes is debuting on YouTube Thursday evening.

The documentary is titled “Undefeated: Journey to the Death Race” and takes viewers through the journey and challenges that runners have to go through while preparing and participating in the famous Canadian Death Race, which takes place every year near Grande Cache.

The Canadian Death Race is a 125-kilometre foot race which takes runners through the Rocky Mountains. Runners have to conquer three different mountain summits, cross one major river and deal with a 17,000-foot elevation change. Runners also have to deal with various weather conditions and wild animals.

For some, the race takes close to 24-hours to complete.

“It is a long and grueling race, and through TELUS Storyhive, we were able to film a documentary and follow some Grande Prairie athletes as they competed and got ready,” said Rew Jones, owner of Checkered Owl Media and the director and producer of the film.

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The four athletes from Grande Prairie that are featured in the film are Jessica Winnemuller, Yasna Martinez, Phil Troyer, and Krista Mitchell. The four are members of Grande Prairie’s Triple Terrain Trail Trekkers running community.

Jones says it was important to find people with stories that viewers could relate with.

“We were looking for participants who had different backgrounds from one another, and who looked at The Death Race as a symbol of importance, not just something they ran one weekend,” explained Jones.

For some of the runners in the film, their stories ranged from battling health and mental health demons.

For others, it was overcoming fear or taking the opportunity to build a sense of community.

Jones tells EverythingGP that it’s stories like these that he loves to tell.

“There is something so beautiful about people connecting with people, and accepting others. I love seeing folks find their place in this world and find a community who is there for and cares about them.”

Once the storylines and preparation for the race was finished, the importance of the film shifted to how the actual race is ran by the athletes. Each year, hundreds of athletes flock to Grande Cache to participate in the Death Race. Jones says filming such a unique event like this was an adventure.

“We shot for about 26-hours straight and we had five little mini crews and we all had to coordinate who was where, because as the race was spread out, as the day goes on we had to be there to capture all of our key subjects and plus we wanted to capture what the race was like for everyone.”

“I was really proud of our team. Everyone really came together, it was a really challenging shoot and I was proud of everyone on the mountain putting in their own kind of marathon.”

For now, Jones says that the documentary will remain on YouTube and that it is not yet known if they will have an in-person screening for the film because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The documentary can be found here.