Over the weekend, I embarked on my first-ever Warrior Dash. I’m by no means a veteran of the obstacle/mud course scene, but from what I understand the perception of the Warrior Dash is that it’s the novice or entry-level obstacle course of the supposed big three franchises, between it, the Spartan Race and Tough Mudder.
I haven’t had the ambition to run in Tough Mudder yet, but I have now done two Spartan Races, and if I had to make a comparison, Warrior Dash was definitely, noticeably easier than the Spartan Race. That does not mean I did not enjoy it, or regret doing it by any stretch of the imagination, but when the day was over, it was kind of a no-brainer that Warrior was not as difficult as Spartan. I’m not even sore anywhere, a day after doing it.
This doesn’t meant the Warrior Dash was a walk in the park either though; any sort of obstacle run where you have to constantly change speeds and physical and mental gears from going from run to strength to run to endure is always taxing, regardless. And if there was one thing the Warrior Dash did that genuinely humbled me, is that like the Spartan Races before this one, it exploits weakness. In this particular case, the Warrior Dash had a water obstacle that required a little bit of swimming; and swimming has always been something that I have never been particularly good at. Combine swimming with having run about a mile through a massive uphill wooded trail, and I was left in a gasping heap midway through the swim, and the bitterly, somehow still frigid lake water sapped my stamina really quick. Thankfully, the obstacles were spread out at a rate at this point, where I could catch my breath and regain some degree of progressive rhythm.
Regardless, I’m glad to have done the Warrior Dash, and to add that to the rogue’s list of conquered obstacle runs. My finisher medals are starting to pile up, but they’re looking pretty sweet near all ten of my replica wrestling championship belts.
