The first Warrior Dash was near Chicago in 2009. Red Frog, the parent company of Warrior Dash, then took the event nationwide with 11 events in 2010. Raise your hand if one of those was your first ever OCR 🙋. 

Through the ups and downs of OCR, ever-changing tastes from consumers, the boom and bust of 2012-2014, distance/format experiments, and more, Warrior Dash has never wavered. They put on a 3.1 mud run with 10-12 obstacles and a giant party afterward. The event can be done by anyone. Including people who haven’t lifted a weight or run a mile since junior high. You will not see complicated rigs or be “challenged on the toughest day of your life”. They even got rid of timing in 2014.

As they launch their 10th full season, being clear on who they are and what they provide has worked well for Warrior Dash. Back at the end of 2015, we wrote that Warrior Dash had “shrunk” to 23 events. However, that same article listed The (Merrell/Subaru) Down and Dirty and BattleFrog as big players in the industry.

As the next season begins, Warrior Dash is still putting on 23 solid events a year, while Down and Dirty and BattleFrog were both out of business less than 9 months after that article was written.

Along with new obstacles, Warrior Dash is making some additional changes in 2019. 3 months ago, they told us about adding a 1-mile course and 2 loop option for 2019. Today’s press release also announced a fairlife® Kids Zone. Which isn’t quite a full “kids course”, but looks to bring a kid-friendly element to an otherwise adult based atmosphere of “Best Beard” and “Stein Standoff” contests. Time will tell if this brings in more new consumers, and/or brings back some of the old ones who haven’t done a Warrior Dash in a few years.

Here are the new 2019 Warrior Dash Obstacles.

El Capitan: Conquer ladders, cargo nets, and a 3-story slide on the Dash’s TALLEST OBSTACLE EVER. A gift for Warriors to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.

Super Fly: Soar like a Warrior on a ZIP LINE OBSTACLE! Super Fly lets participants zip through the air like their favorite hero. What’s better than that?!

The Damn Dam: A warped wall with three different levels of difficulty.

The Warden’s Wall: A completely vertical net wall that participants climb up and over. Has three different heights levels of difficulty.

Splitsville:  Runners traverse balance beams suspended over water. Has varying levels of difficulty.