Warrior Dash-Midwest

Competitive athlete or not any one can do this, it is more about mental strength than physical ability, The participants are out to have fun and everybody is supportive and helpful along the way. The event was really organized and there was plenty of support staff in case of an emergency.
What makes it even better is that all your muddy old shoes get cleaned and donated. Then money made from the event goes to Saint Jude’s Hospital. I am defiantly looking forward to my next one, it was such a fun, positive experience!

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Well what happens when you’ve had positive first and second impressions, but the third time is a complete sh*tshow? You don’t take the law into your own hands… you take them to Unilocal. (Sorry. I’ve been watching a lot of Judge Mathis and People’s Court lately.)
These are highlights of the long and detailed feedback I emailed to Red Frog Events, the organizers of Warrior Dash.
*The biggest disappointment, first and foremost, is that St. Jude will miss out on funds raised next year because so many people had a bad experience this year. The less people had fun, the less likely they are to raise funds for St. Jude next year.
*The event was waaay understaffed. There seemed to be an appropriate amount of medical and water staff on the course, but of the two ID check tents I saw, only one was staffed, and only halfway at that. There was one Red Frog staff member and one volunteer working the merch tent, and it just felt like there was a general lack of people working the event.
*In the grand scheme of things, these are all total #firstworldproblems. The sun will come up tomorrow, and my legs will still work. It’s all about perspective. One of the reasons we choose the early times on Saturday is so that we can run the course before it gets too destroyed. However, it’s hard to believe that by the time we got to the worst bottlenecked obstacles that ALL those people waiting were actually supposed to be on the course at that time. There is NO enforcement on wave times, and since the racing for the day started 90 mins late, we waited upwards of 15 mins to complete half the obstacles.
«I ran the Dash, had a terrible experience, and provided feedback, and all I got was this lousy form email reply, and a coupon to register for a future Red Frog event for 50% off.»
Lucy, you’ve got some ’splaining to do.

The race on Saturday, June 14, 2014 was an absolute disaster.
This is my 5^th and LAST Warrior Dash race. Interestingly, Warrior Dash began in Channahon 5 years ago; I am quite surprised at how terrible things have become, especially since Red Frog Events (organizers) have had so much experience running this and other events.
1) The parking was not terrible, but I still don’t expect to pay $ 10.00 to park in a grassy field. Something just tells me that the organizers want to milk us of more money because not as many participants signed up as compared to previous years.
2) The packet pickup, however took an extremely long time — and I mean for us it was a 30 minute wait time. There was no one to guide us, or tell us where to go. Everyone just lined up; when we approached the counter, we were told to electronically sign the waiver and then receive our tshirt and fuzzy helmet.
3) Gear Check — although we did not utilize this, the lines appeared extremely long as well.
4) Running waves and Backups — were every half hour. However, anyone could just line up and there was no enthusiasm from the DJ/​speaker to get us ready as in previous years. Plus, the «waves» were so full of people that as we started running it was so packed that every obstacle course was backed up with people. Backups were 15 – 20 minutes each, single file line.
5) Volunteers — I did not see any volunteers or people working at any of the obstacle courses other than at the water stations, and at the «Goliath» water slide. Some people I saw get hurt on the obstacle courses, and there was no one aro

This year was a complete disaster and it was very unfortunate.
To start, the lines everywhere were ridiculous. 30+ min to get your packet, then you move to the next 30+ min line to check in your bag.
The start of the race had no build up, no fire, no enthusiasm. You quickly take off to then stop dead in your tracks. This was the theme the entire race. Hurry up and wait.
One of the new slogans for the Warrior Dash should be «Test your Patience».
So, every obstacle was backed up, the course layout was horrible, and it really took away from the entire experience. I can tell you that I am not looking to win this thing, and only to have fun, but to walk the majority of the course was absurd.
Then, once you finish you wait in more lines for beer and food. Seriously, it was like the vendors had never served beer to a crowd before. No sense of expediency, and really didn’t care.
I did call Red Frog and provided them lots of constructive criticism. Here are my final words.
I think that Red Frog has taken their eye off the ball and that ball is the consumer. They really didn’t do much to change the course or adapt to their growing interest. I am sure that they are making piles of money, yet all of their help is volunteer. So, what do you expect when people don’t show up. Hmm… maybe pay people.
They need to adjust everything about the event. Double the size and help in the check in tent, double the size and help in every aspect of the race. Build bigger obstacles so you can put more people through them.
So, Red Frog, thank you for the four years of the Warrior Dash but goodbye. Even if you provided me a free entry to the race I don’t feel that I would ever participate again as I don’t think that you will take the constructive criticism to heart.

What a mess this was today (and NOT in a good way). Getting into the lot took 30 – 40 minutes, then you have the gall to charge for parking… after I paid to be in the event AND raise money for charity? Plus there was no mention about having to pay for parking in any of the race information.
Then when we finally get to run the race after crazy-​long lines at race packet pickup and gear check, you didn’t let the racers out in waves, you just let everyone go at once which caused a HUGE backup of racers and made it a Warrior Walk rather than a Warrior DASH.
Beer tent was crazy-​took way too long, only had two guys pouring beers…
DISAPPOINTING, to say the least.