Warrior Dash
3.3 Miles
July 28/29th, 2012
Mt. Morris, MI
Event Information
Warrior Dash is a well known event, so I'll spare you the full intro. They bill themselves as the "World's Largest Running Series" and is put on by Red Frog. These events are usually around a 5K length, so figure around 3 to 3.3 miles in length.
The Warrior Dash is a timed event that rewards the runners with an ice cold beer post race. This year, the race has partnered with St. Jude's as their charity of choice (a good friend of mine used to work there and I will spare you my story of visiting the place--that's a whole other post).
This is the 2nd year of running the Warrior Dash in Michigan and most likely, one of their largest events. Last year the total was over 24,000 runners and 2012 raised the bar with a larger number of participants.
Location & Parking
The event was held at E.A. Cummings Center just outside of Mt. Morris, Michigan. This is the same event location as 2011 and a well known off-road facility. The event layout was slightly different than last year, but as the previous year, the park entrance was well marked and parking was ample. While parking was a bit more expensive this year at $20, there is no fee for spectators to join the party. Parking was a short walk to the festival site, even from the spot were we parked. I believe it was maybe a 5-10 minute walk, tops. Fortunately, there was no necessity for a shuttle. I'm marking this one down a notch because of the high parking costs.
As usual, the event had a lot of portable restrooms, gear tent, food tent, beer tent, race time pavillion with flat screen TV's streaming race times, clean-up area (with water) and a stage venue. Spectators do not have free run of this course, as you see with Tough Mudder, but spectators do get to see the 14 foot net climb, fire jump, and mud pit.
Red Frog Events does a great job lining up live bands, playing great music, and making the atmosphere fun. While I don't have the kind of time to lounge around the festival-like grounds all day, I can see how many participants and spectators do mull around here for quite a long time. It does feel like one giant party. I would point out that anyone wanting to buy food or drinks must go to the Ticket area and purchase tickets, which are non-refundable, but reduces the risk of volunteers stealing or losing money.
Rating: 4/5
Check-in & Bag Check
Check-in and the bag check were located mid festival area this year and amply staffed. Of all of the events I've attended, the Warrior Dash has it down the best. There are multiple lines with broken down alphabetically and I had zero wait in my line. At check-in, you receive your bib, pins, timing chip, t-shirt, and hat.
Bag check was right next to check-in and is divided based on your bib number. Again, I had zero wait time and it was very well organized and they do a great job of keeping the items secure.
Rating: 5/5
Schwag
The schwag is essentially the same as last year, consisting of a warrior hat and a t-shirt. I am happy to say Red Frog upgraded the old, crappy cotton tees to a nicer shirt overall. The design is updated, as you can see below as is the fabric choice. These shirts are softer and much more likely to result in participants wearing these shirts around (I'm wearing mine today, actually). I still really enjoy the hats, they are a lot of fun.
Just after the finish line, you receive your Warrior Dash medal. I consider the Warrior Dash medals to be the bar I measure all other race medals against. These are solid, heavier quality medals that my kids love to wear around the house. Good stuff. There were a couple of other items in the bag, but nothing to write home about. I did see strategically placed sample providers throughout the facility, which I'm fine with. I'd rather have someone handing out samples than just stuffing it into my bag adding unnecessary weight.
Rating: 4.5/5
Race Time!
The starting corral was located in a different area than last year. The area was roped off, as usual and the start times are at half hour intervals. I ended up in the 9:30 slot, which isn't exactly the competitive time to run, but the course is certainly less trashed in the earlier heats. I did want to add one note about this particular event. In prior training, I developed a case of acute achilles tendinitis, which really flared up just before this event. (I'll save that discussion for another post as well).
I didn't make it any better by running this race twice--the first time on Saturday and then again on Sunday with my wife and nephew. I wanted to give it a try alone to get my best possible time and then again for fun with the family. Day 1 consisted of normal running gear, while day 2 was determined by the 25th anniversary of one of the best fighting games of all time, Street Fighter! I went as Ken, while the nephew went as Balrog. (Costumes really are half the fun of this race.)
The starting line has a timer at the top and a wonder spot where they shoot flames once the race starts. The timer does a solid job of keeping everyone in sync for the start. Prior to this race, I decided to pick up a Garmin 410 GPS watch and oddly enough, the event timer was almost spot on with my watch. Nice to see! The event always has a hype man (or woman) working the mic at the start line, which is great. The person we had did a lot of interaction, asking questions and calling out a guy dressed as Bruno in his leiderhosen costume, too funny. Good times.
Just prior 9:30, our hype man started the countdown from 10 and at 1, the bullhorn was sounded, flames were shot about 20 feet in the air (I could feel the heat about 150 feet back and we were off! Although this was a decent sized wave, we all eventually filed past the start line, activating our chip timers and rounded the first bend. Now, it's important to point out that Michigan has suffered this summer with a horrific drought, so a good portion of the course was dry and dusty. On Saturday, there was a bit of water put down on the first corner and bend (combined with a small amount of rain prior), so the initial area wasn't too bad. However, Sunday was a complete dust fest once you came around the corner.
As last year, the race followed a dirt/gravel path, then cut over some brown grass and weaved around for about a solid mile. I always enjoy the part of the race, as the field starts out tight, but starts to space settle out by the first half mile, then again by the 3/4 mark, until you reach the first obstacle around Mile 1.
Learning from past mistakes and not wanting to take any chances this year, the first water/aid station was right at Mile 1, mere feet away from Obstacle 1--Barricade Breakdown. This is a series of walls runners must alternate going over and under. The under portions have barbwire on the tops to stop anyone from trying to climb over. There were about 8 of these, which weren't too bad and the location of our first photo shot.
I think many racers underestimate how much these walls can take out of you and I saw quite a few people walk for a bit after this one, it's deceptively easy but if you don't approach it properly it will cause you to gas hard.
It was a short run, just under a quarter of a mile to the Capsized Catamaran. This is a water obstacle located in the middle of the pond (2011 had this pond, but we only got into the edge of it last year).
The Catamaran is an interlocking, floating dock that you climb over, then jump into the water, then climb over and jump back in, then swim to shore. I'd like to point out that this was a nice change for the course and the water was really deep once you got out to the middle. There was a rope on both sides to stabilize the Catamaran and I used this rope to tread water. Of all the obstacles, this had the 2nd longest wait time to complete, as the back-up grew quite large. It required solid upper body strength or assistance to be pulled out. I didn't find it too bad once I found a place to grip and I did help some of my fellow participants out of the water.
After a quick jump off the end, I was swimming to shore and soaking wet--life is good.
We had another short run, maybe a tenth or so until we hit the Chaotic Crossover. This is a rope net strung across some beams and I quickly walked the center beam, making little time of this one.
There was a short run to a downhill that was quite steep and slippery and here's my plug for something that saved my tail here--trail shoes. For this race, I sported a pair of
Solomon Speedcross 3's. Those that had old, worn out running shoes made this part go super slow. Those of us that are wily veterans understand the value of a good shoe. I made quick work of this 25 foot decline and laughed the entire way. I don't think most of the others slipping knew what was going on or how I could pull that off.
Another short run through the woods brought us to a new challenge, Hard Rain. This challenge and the next 4 were relatively close together. Hard Rain consisted of a dug out pit of water that you had to wade through to a lattice made of wood, with water coming down on your head. Once at the top, you climbed down a ladder and on to another run. Of the changes, this was a nice, new take on climbing and in the summer heat, it was appreciated, even if the water did look like a mud puddle.
I don't think we even did a tenth before coming up to another new challenge, the Mud Mound. In our event, it was really a couple of giant sand hills you had to go up and down. Nothing too crazy, but a nice change up. I did see some of those without my beloved trail shoes struggling. Oh, so sorry.
Another obscenely short run brought us to one of my favorites, Road Rage. Much like the Street Fighter Bonus stage, this one was just about the half way point of the race. You can get the gist of this by the picture below. Hadouken! Also, just at the end was another photo op. Good stuff!
One of the returning obstacles from last year was the Great Warrior Wall. This is about 9 foot tall wall, with multiple ropes hanging down. On the face of the wall are 2x4's, which allow for gripping and climbing. I saw more than a few women get discouraged before even trying this and going around it. In all honesty, that's the best policy of you're afraid of heights. However, if you can put one hand in front of the other you can absolutely do this one. My wife made short work of it and on the opposite side are steps made of out 2x4's. Overall, not too hard, but still a fun climb.
From here, it was a nice little run to Mortimer's Crossing, with an additional photo op spot built it. So, Mortimer's Crossing is basically a rope bridge built over a small gully. There were 5 different bridges and the trick to crossing was to stretch the rope handrails out, which tightened up the bottom, making for a quick crossing. Overall, this was not an earth shattering addition to the race, but it was still a fun change up.
At this point, we entered into a longer run through the woods and eventually past a pond. Overall, a solid run and this did include the two areas from last year that included a huge mud pit and a muddy climb. I did see a few people lose shoes and I can tell you the difference 24 hours makes is huge. I don't think we got any serious mud from the run until we hit this part, which is understandable given the drought.
Oh, is that a banana, or are you just happy to see me? No, just a banana.
Somewhere along the way, we hit a newer challenge, Storming Normandy. This one was fairly easy, just some wires you had to crawl under, but it was a bit tougher for many given the previous distance covered and the ground was a bit gross and rocky. A sweet recipe for some knee scrapes.
After the mud hill, it was a bit of a hall still until we made it to the trenches. The Trenches were almost spot on at the 3 mile marker and were, in fact, the lamest obstacle on the course. Basically, 5 trenches dug into the ground with some boards on top to try to make you duck. Almost not worth mentioning.
Just past the trees you see above was the world famous Cargo Climb! This is one of the event's signature obstacles and offers a lot of opportunities for pics for spectators. By this point, you can hear some pumping music and hear the crowd. I believe they were playing some Rihanna when I came up to the net. This particular obstacle isn't too bad if you take your time. There is a real risk of falling and if you did take a tumble off of this one, it would be bad. We all made short work of it, however.
Just a few steps away is the Warrior Roast and the chance to singe a few leg hairs while jumping over burning logs not once, but at least 2 times. Good fun and it was a quick run to the Muddy Mayhem--a long mud pit with barbwire above your head. It was then a 50 yard sprint through mud and the finish! Warrior Dash 2012 was complete!
I quickly collected my medal and moved on to grab my well deserved rinse!
Rating: 4/5
Final Thoughts
If you've ran a Warrior Dash, odds are this event wasn't much different than the one you ran before. The obstacles did get better from 2011, which was well appreciated. As a matter of fact, I'd say almost everything improved this year, with the exception of the water clean-up area. My only complaint here was the lack of water pressure compared to 2011. I stayed in the water forever and still had a ton of mud on me. No matter, I brought towels and used those to clean up at the car and get into some clean clothes.
Overall, Warrior Dash 2012 was a great success and I had a lot of fun. However, my tendinitis did flare up and get very angry as a result of the race. I wouldn't call this race as tough as a Spartan Race, but I still had a blast. This race is doable for just about anyone. I'd consider this a "gateway" race (like a gateway drug) for those of us that get hooked on OCR.
