Well, friends, I never want to do this race. But WAR3 should take that as a compliment. There are tasks during this race that I don't think I'm capable of doing, or at least not under the time constraints of a race atmosphere with an audience watching, among what is basically a convention of the fittest human beings in the entire UAE (seriously. No beer bellies or occasional runners at this event, yikes).
The race started off with a strong rainstorm, which was not planned by the organizers, of course (they had warned that one of the obstacles would be the intense heat, but instead it was wet and cool). The runners headed off into the desert to get in some running distance and did some obstacles that I couldn't see - climbing over some road barriers and running on balance beams, if I heard correctly. Then they came back into the park proper and headed down into the maintenance tunnels behind the wave pool (!!!). They swam through that long, dark tunnel (exhibit A of The Tasks I Don't Think I'm Capable of Doing), climbed up a ladder, and then jumped into the pool to swim across it and climb out on the other side.
Then they did all kinds of things in the rafting river - "running" (=trying to stay upright) against the current, leaping onto a path of rafts strung out across a pool, some monkey bars - and then headed back out into the desert for a sand crawl and a 10kg sandbag carry. Finally, they wound back toward the park for the final obstacles: a tire jump, a climb through a rope maze, a confrontation with the Al Ain rugby team (really), and a difficult ascent of a tall wall with no assistance from a rope. (But maybe with some assistance from people who had already finished the race.)
Here is a video of Jeremy braving that last bit of the race.
As a spectator, this race seemed to me to be much harder and more intense than something like the Warrior Dash. Looking on the fb page for the event, though, I saw people begging the organizers to make it even more difficult. They change the race for each incarnation so we'll see what they come up with next.
Or rather, Jeremy will see what they come up with next. Because I'll just be watching, quite happily.