Ran and walked the Zombie 5k last Saturday. To summarize, you are wearing 3 flags on a belt and you run through “kill fields” where zombies try to steal your flags and do obstacles (crawling under things, going through a building with live electric wires hanging down, wading through water/mud). If you get to the end with at least one flag, you “survived”. If not, you’re a Zombie! It seemed like a good thing to do just before I turned 35 to say, I’m hip, I’m young, I’m in good shape and if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’m at least partially ready.

I was able to check a few things off my life list:
1. Shower in muddy water with 30 other mostly clothed people. The guy shampooing his hair in the muddy stream of water will forever mystify me.
2. Change clothes in a tent with 30-40 women I don’t know.
3. Use a port o’ potty in the dark.
4. Get electrocuted (I did not realize the very last obstacle was electrified, so, as I crawled on the ground under a fence, I felt something and thought, “was that barbed wire against my back?”. It happened again and I realized “nope, that’s what electricity feels like”)
5. Complete the majority of Zombie 5k with my plastic-bag covered wallet in hand (I just could not be comfortable leaving my credit cards, drivers license and cash at the gear check).

6. Make peace with the fact that I’m like that.


I also learned a few things:
1. If you’re running in mud and you want to pull your foot out without losing your shoe in the mud, turn your foot from side to side to loosen it/release the suction before pulling it out.
2. As a child, I climbed trees. I did not practice running up steep muddy hills where there is nothing to use for traction. If you plan to survive the Apocalypse, this is a skill you should work on. Also, cleets and gloves are not a bad idea.
3. I thought that I was going to be really competitive, but it turns out that when faced with the choice of giving up a flag and thus maybe not “surviving” the race, or certain bodily harm, I opted for “death”. Thus, I lost all my flags by the end of the second mile and finished the race having left no blood on the course.
4. I wore all red to try to hide my red flags. This strategy did not work. I think it attracted the zombies….just a little tip for the apocalypse from me to you.

5. Trying to meet up with friends in a place with no cell phone reception is no picnic. Thus, when I saw them (they were screaming my name), there are a lot of pictures of me running towards them looking like I’ve just won a gold medal. Also, they were nice enough to take my wallet prior to this.

After a mud-shower and fresh clothes, we got a bite to eat. Turning into a zombie made me hungry…for BRAINS!!!

Tags: Run for your Lives, zombie, zombies