Alumni This Alum’s Business Is About Overcoming Obstacles—Literally Stories You May Like One Marathon Sound Taxing? Try Seven—Worldwide—in a Week She’s Got Game: Sarah Spain ’02 Is a Star of Sports Journalism U.S. Squash CEO Has Worked to Broaden the Sport’s Appeal Joe De Sena ’90 founded Spartan, whose signature endurance races have drawn millions of competitors worldwide By Melissa Newcomb Most people enjoy coasting downhill on a bicycle much more than they savor the uphill climb that got them there. But not Joe De Sena ’90—who discovered a love for endurance sports while pedaling his BMX bike up the steep slopes near Ithaca Falls as a kid. Today, De Sena runs a company whose extreme-sports events have attracted more than 10 million participants worldwide over the past decade and a half. De Sena is the founder and CEO of Spartan, a global fitness brand known for high-intensity races that combine challenging obstacles with trail running. The events, which are held in some four dozen countries, come in five formats—ranging from Sprints (5Ks with 20 obstacles) all the way up to grueling Ultras (50Ks with 60 obstacles). “It’s a hard business owning Spartan, because I’m asking people to do really hard things; if I sold lollipops, it'd be so much easier,” jokes De Sena, who majored in textiles and apparel in Human Ecology. “But humans are animals, and we thrive when there’s sunlight and we’re sweating. We don’t feel as good, psychologically and physically, when we sit all day.” Spartan puts that notion to the test—and then some. Its events have competitors doing tough tasks like scaling walls, climbing a rope 16 feet in the air, toting heavy buckets, crawling under barbed wire, and swimming beneath a floating barrier. “Who doesn’t love a dip in freezing, muddy, murky water?” the Spartan website asks, describing the latter type of obstacle. “The Dunk Wall takes seconds for some and tens of minutes for others. Happy swimming.” Humans are animals, and we thrive when there’s sunlight and we’re sweating. We don’t feel as good, psychologically and physically, when we sit all day. De Sena’s desire to challenge his body—and motivate others to do the same—came after graduation, when he was working at a Wall Street trading desk and began seeking out athletic events that helped clear his mind on the weekends. “I kept dreaming about how I could make this a business,” recalls De Sena, who’s also an avid supporter of Big Red wrestling. “How do I get to do this every day and help make people healthy, the way I feel?” After moving his family to an organic farm in Vermont, De Sena hosted early versions of a Spartan event—colorfully dubbed the "Death Race”—on the property, eventually drawing hundreds of competitors. Overcoming the Obstacles A Sampling of Spartan Challenges He launched Spartan in 2010, with the mission of helping participants see that if they could tackle one of its races, they could take on life’s other challenges. Stories You May Like One Marathon Sound Taxing? Try Seven—Worldwide—in a Week She’s Got Game: Sarah Spain ’02 Is a Star of Sports Journalism As Men’s Journal observed in a 2017 story on De Sena and Spartan: “It’s one of the originals in what is now an exploding category of extreme adventure-endurance races that attract athletes of any skill level—the only requirement is guts.” The events have grown to attract more than a million participants each year. And in 2020, De Sena acquired Spartan’s main competitor, Tough Mudder—whose races tend to be more team oriented, with challengingly sloppy terrain and somewhat less arduous obstacles. It’s one of the originals in what is now an exploding category of extreme adventure-endurance races that attract athletes of any skill level—the only requirement is guts. Men’s Journal “People become completely addicted to doing the races, except that it's good for you,” De Sena says, going on to note: “There are thousands of people with Spartan logo tattoos." And yes: for its most avid devotees, Spartan still hosts versions of the Death Race. Held in Vermont twice a year—at the height of summer and in the depths of winter—they last a grueling 70+ hours. “Designed to present you with the unexpected and the completely insane,” says its description, “it pushes your mental and physical limits like nothing else on Earth.” At the 2024 Spartan World Championship in Croatia. Spartan’s success has springboarded De Sena to other opportunities, including hosting the CNBC reality TV show “No Retreat: Business Bootcamp” for a season in 2022. He also travels the world giving motivational talks on overcoming obstacles and achieving success. De Sena’s own entrepreneurial journey began at age 12, when he started a pool-cleaning company in Queens, NY, where he lived before moving to Ithaca following his parents’ divorce. (By the time he graduated from Cornell, that business had evolved into a construction company, which he sold before heading to Wall Street.) People become completely addicted to doing the races, except that it's good for you. In recent years, he has had a new goal: getting a Spartan-like event into the Olympics. After meeting with organizers and recruiting some high-profile advocates, he says, he helped introduce an obstacles portion to the modern pentathlon event at the L.A. Summer Games in 2028. “Anything is possible,” says De Sena. “You just have to be stupid enough to try.” (All photos provided.) Published December 1, 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Students Hotelie Aims to Bring Brown Butter to a Dairy Case Near You Alumni A Cacti Expert’s Vast L.A. Garden Is a Drought-Tolerant Wonder Alumni Cheer for These Cornellian Athletes at the Paris Olympics