Warrior Dash – the entry level, “easy” OCR recently held one of the few 12 – 15 mile Iron Warrior Dash events that will be hosted this year – and while they won’t be bringing them ot New England yet – we were able to get a review of the course from Steve Power, who attended one recently.
It sounds like a pretty awesome event … over to Steve
Hey all you NE Spahtens!
I’m Steve Power from Georgia & ran the 2nd Iron Warrior Dash last Saturday.
I’ve done about 10 Spartan races with a couple of beasts in those 10 & I definitely rank the Iron Warrior with those. In fact, I’m not far from saying it was my favorite.
It’s runner & obstacle friendly. Part of our 15 mile course is the actual Warrior Dash course at the beginning. You have a lot of obstacles in that first 3-4 miles but after that the obstacles are spread out nicely. It gives you time to recover from the run & obstacles.
A lot of this has to do with the type of obstacles too. The majority of them were unique, meaning things I’ve never seen before plus they made you slow down & think. That helped to keep my legs strong. Of course they were tired at the end but was still running strong considering it was almost 15 miles & the elevation. They take advantage of terrain & elevation! All the obstacles are doable. “Peggy Sue” was the only one that I didn’t complete. Being that it is a difficult obstacle it was also strategically placed near the end. They also had a very long creek run. I enjoy these because they allow you to build up a little stamina again.
Water & Gatorade stations were plenty throughout the course. I ran with 3 gel paks & only used 2. Hydration on the course was no problem. This depends on how you hydrate & fuel before race day too. The only issue I had with the course was the mud pit at the end. It’s horribly long & backed up. If you are running for time, which I was, go around! I should have. Lost 5-10 minutes easily in that pit. It’s the very last obstacle & to lose that kind of time because people didn’t know how to get thru it or didn’t care about their time was a let down. Hopefully they will have a separate one for the serious competitors in the future events. Outside of that everything else was perfect!
Hopefully this helps & gives a little insight in what to expect. Good luck to all & you will feel great of the accomplishment of this race! Maybe I will see some of you at the one in your area!
Steve Power
Power Thru
I'm really hoping this comes to New England. We most likely have some of the highest demand and competition up here!