there's more to that, though. It's not that you yourself will die that is out of the question; you don't really believe those other guys will die, because you don't really know what death is. What you have in your mind before the race starts is that they will somehow be taken away, disappear, - compete with you no more. That's the most precious part of the book for me: when the deaths start, the boys start actually helping each other, against all common sense. They hadn't really known what they bought into, because of some things there is no knowing but first-hand; now they knew, and their humanity prevailed over their rationality.