Warrior Dash Cancels

A challenging 5K race is not returning to Rabun County.

Joey Waldmen with Blue Ridge Camp in Mountain City, where Warrior Dash has been held for the past three years, said he received a phone call from organizers with Red Frog events on Tuesday.

“We were blindsided,” said Waldmen. “Basically they’re converting to a 20K Ironman event which is an immense undertaking, so they’re using a huge facility somewhere down in Douglasville, I believe.”

Waldmen said that a 20K race is not feasible on the grounds of Camp Blue Ridge.

He said that his wife, Lori Waldmen, talked with the organizers about the impact their cancellation would not only have on the camp, but also Rabun County.

“She really held off on half a dozen groups equal in size, if not larger, because of the rapport we had with Warrior Dash and the contractual agreement we had,” said Waldmen. “So to hold us out for 3 months and surprise us this way is unfortunate because we could have recruited any one of those groups, not just for ourselves, but for the entire community.”

Waldmen said they are in the process of contacting other groups in an effort to have an event at Camp Blue Ridge which will bring people to the area; however, many groups already have their schedules set for 2013.