Dan Kaali: Pushing it to the limit for PoP

Meet Dan, a Death Race competitor who endured (and won) an intense 3-day competition and chose PoP to receive his charitable donation.

Dan Kaali has technically faced death three times in his life. Over 10 years ago, he started running marathons and then ultra marathons, a challenge that would typically satisfy most people. Dan, however, sought to push himself further; he broke into the extreme race community 3 years ago when he signed up for his first Death Race in Vermont, one of the most mentally challenging experiences of his life.

For those of you who have never heard of a Death Race, imagine a competition — a race — with no guidelines, no rules and little direction. The only guarantee is that the race directors will actively try to make you quit until the end is called, at some unknown time. Death races can last 50+ hours before the race is officially over. Typically around 10% of competitors (of a few hundred) finish the race.

A year after his first Vermont race, Kaali took second place at the Death Race Mexico (having evaded an angry bull), fueling his desire to push his limits to see how much further he could endure. In 2015, he returned to Vermont, where he took first place in the Death Race.

This Vermont race included a number of physically and emotionally draining tasks, including hiking barefoot through mountain forests for 24 hours; completing miles of rolls, bear crawls and sprints while memorizing complex puzzles; and carrying packs filled with stones weighing 120 lbs through neck-deep mud bogs and up and down mountain trails overnight amidst a torrential downpour.

Upon winning the 2015 Summer Death Race in Vermont (after being ceremoniously buried alive) Kaali and the other top 5 finishers were given the opportunity to donate their winnings to a charity; he chose PoP!

Dan learned about PoP from our Founder, having graduated from the same high school as Adam in Connecticut. His curiosity and support of PoP came from his gratitude to education, and Kaali went into his third Death Race hoping to win the title in order to donate funds towards building a school. In his words:

“Education is the basis of a community’s positive development. And I am forever grateful to everyone from who I’ve learned.”

Kaali plans to continue supporting PoP and competing in extreme sports. Though some of us here on the PoP team are runners (our CEO Michael ran the 2015 NYC Marathon for PoP!), few of us could imagine competing in a race as intense as a Death Race. But still, there’s a skill and determination in Death Races that we liken to the dedication and passion we feel for education & global change, and we’re proud to have a found a kindred spirit in a PoP campaigner like Dan.

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