And so it began… My first ever warrior dash. I thought it would be cool to bring my iphone along on the run for some live action photos of the Phoenix Warrior Dash course it self…
Warrior Dash Starting Line Last Heat of the Day
Yes, my crazy little brother shaved his head… but just the middle of it. Yes… I am having second thoughts… Not really a fan of run, especially in the desert of Arizona with a bunch of dust and dirt kicking up in my face. 
But the race begins. And I mean a lot of dirt… About a half a mile into the run we hit our first obstacle.
Warrior Dash Walls
The first obstacle were some over under walls. They added barbed wire for a little flare and to discourage people from just jumping over the under parts… And nice kilt.Next up were the desert hills. 
Up and down mounds of dirt, about 10 to 15 foot drops and inclines. Yes, they pretty much looked like more dirt.
Warrior Dash Tire Course
Curious who took a marker so they could write on the junk metal.
If you look closely these contestants are not really doing the old high knee tire relay that you would do in gym. They are merely walking on top of the tires. I wonder how many people bit the dust trying to run through these tires. The tires lead up to the Junk Yard… Which meant scrap metal cars. Kind fun actually running on top of a car.
After the car dump there was to be a river run… but not to many rivers actually flow in Phoenix AZ, so no wet and wild water run. There was an uninteresting repel point. Although I did see a man slide down the boards on his butt. OUCH. Then the hay bails was next. By this point in the day they were pretty soft. Next time I will have to just leap off the top to the soft patch below, should save me at least 2 seconds.
Cargo Net Climb
Cargo nets are always so tricky. You look at one and say what’s the big deal, it ‘s just a soft ladder to climb up. Well soft ladders require you to balance, and when there are a few other swing that net with you, not so easy.
It really gets tricky at the top of the cargo net. Balance, small beam, and kicking over… with all the other warriors throwing off your groove, not so easy. And be careful, you could end up digging your nails into that top board, only to find some splintery visitors under your finger tips. Yes, splinters under the finger nails, NOT COOL.
Well I won’t bore you to much more. 3.5 miles is a long run. They threw in a horizontal cargo net later, and a bungee spider web. The flame jump wasn’t all that jump through flames would seem. It’s hot! Which is not fun when you are hot and sweaty after 3 miles of running. The final strech is the MUD PIT, with barbed wire again for flare and to keep your face in the mud. This mud was not so soft and squishy. Try mud with rocks and sticks in it. Yes, it will cut your knees up if you are wearing shorts and crawling through it. So best to actually swim it if you can.
- Not nearly as fun as it appears here.
Yes… I Survived the Warrior Dash!… But my iPhone almost didn’t.
I had a zip lock for my iPhone to go through the mud pit, but it didn’t quit hold. When I pulled it out to check on it, the screen was reading an error could not find. I immediately powered it off. Then I pulled it out and wiped it down. I tried to turn it back on in a couple of hours… No luck. So I tried the rice in a bag trick. Still no luck. Then someone said to do a rice in bag in freezer then in full sun. Amazingly it worked. Although now my iPhone’s top button does not work so I can’t power it down… don’t tell the flight stewardess. It also makes it annoying when I want to take a screen shot. But hey, we are not all meant to be warriors.
This is your Phoenix bug guy signing off. If you need Phoenix Bug Control, don’t call me this weekend. I still need to recover.
SteveOnTheBike
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