Race #9 Overall
Told you I wasn’t going to miss June. So I signed up for the Zombie Run in New Orleans mainly just to see what it was all about. It seems that themed runs are becoming more and more popular now and the top four currently are probably the color run, a nighttime glow lights run, an obstacle mud run and a zombie run. Cross one off the list.
Start Line
The Zombie Run was actually better than what I imagined and I can see making it into a real game of time and saving yourself. For start, you’re given three balloons that you air up and strap around your waist. These balloons represent your organs. And the goal is to try to finish with at least one of your organs but preferably all three since in typical zombie movies it generally only takes one smalls scratch or bite for you to become one of the infected. But in the Zombie Run, they intact a three strikes policy. Lucky you.
The event isn’t exactly coordinated very well or without confusion. Finding the place to pick up your packet early was almost a game of asking people where you needed to go and they keep pointing in other directions. The race bib did not come with any chip time. Later on I realized that the race itself wasn’t timed at all. It was strictly a fun run. 4000 runners, sent in various waves of about 250 people every 5-10 minutes into a 5K obstacle course of zombies. You could time yourself if you wanted but what’s the fun in that. I even heard one guy yell at a zombie because they were giving chase and the man didn’t want the zombie to hurt his race time. Sure, you could try to run all the way through it and set your own personal record but if you’re there with friends, it’s way more fun to stick together. Sometimes it’s just fun to watch the other people dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge around the zombies. So I stopped caring about any run times probably after the first true gauntlet of zombies.
Zombie Run Special Effects
The run also got moved several times unofficially and then sort of officially from about 9:30 to 7AM, I guess because of people complaining about Louisiana heat. But the humidity at 7AM was much worse and I think I would have rather taken my chances at 9. Even better, it could have been an evening run. Even better better, it could have been in October to coincide with Halloween. But this is why I don’t plan things and leave it to other idiots to do the planning. 🙂 And in actuality, the first wave of runners didn’t leave until about 7:10.
There supposedly were 400 zombies in the course and they were spread out accordingly. It seemed thin at the beginning, but it didn’t take long before we found small packs of zombies. One young girl gave chase to everybody she saw. She was scary. There was also another little girl dressed up nearly exactly like the little girl at the beginning of the Walking Dead series, holding the teddy bear. That was awesome. A few turns later, we started passing through zombie gauntlets, where there would be small packs of zombies right behind each other and they would make people perform Matrix moves to try to dodge their grabs. In the first mile or so, zombies were grabbing at you left and right because everybody had all of their balloons. Towards the end, zombies became more picky and lazy and would only give chase to people with organs left to give.
The after party, the Survivors Party, looked alright, but once again not really organized. Three or four waves of runners finished before us yet nobody was really doing anything. Nobody was sitting on the grass to listen to the band. There were food trucks but most people weren’t really eating because like me, I can’t eat when I’m hot and tired. Although I did have a banana. But I’m not eating jambalaya, tacos, chicken, stuff like that. Also, the beer truck even wasn’t that crowded but someone made the comment that it was expensive anyway, and I think some racers down here are used to getting at least one or two small plastic cups of beer for free after a race. So basically, festivities seemed very lackluster. But then again, I think this was the first zombie race of its kind here in south Louisiana, and hopefully it won’t be the last. Like I said, plan it in October and maybe run it through one of the cemeteries; now that would be scary.
Oh, I nearly forgot about me. You probably want to know how I managed; did I ‘survive’.
Field Zombies
I ran pretty well for the first half of the race. It took a good kilometer before a zombie popped my first balloon. Then one of my friends mistakenly pulled off my second but I was able to put it back on before it got popped shortly after. I had a plan for keeping the third one and was doing fairly well up to about the 2/3 mark where I got way too far ahead of my friends because I kept running around zombies and running forward mainly to protect my balloon. After passing by what appeared to be a final group of zombies in a field gauntlet, I slowed down way too soon to catch my breath and wait for friends. While slowing down, an unseen zombie sitting in a wheelchair behind a dumpster got up and ran me down and pulled off my balloon. Before I could turn around, he was already walking back to his wheelchair with my balloon. And the funny part is that he was laughing about it because I had slowed down and he just picked me out to come swipe my balloon. So I threw my hands up in the air and gagged about being defeated. I was beaten by the gimp zombie. About that time, my friends came around and when they heard the story (because they weren’t close enough to witness it themselves) they laughed at me. I was eaten by a gimp zombie. And sure enough after that, most zombies would sort of look at me when I passed by but never gave chase. They were looking for brain balloons. In our group, one guy managed to finish with one balloon remaining. So that might tell you how difficult the race really can be. By the time we got to the finish, we didn’t see many balloons, although I remember seeing one guy before the final gauntlet with all three. I wonder if he was able to finish with all three. That would have been impressive.
So now it’s on to July. I’m booking the Glow Run here locally which is a nighttime glow run. Sounds fun. Then its off to Dallas in August for the Hottest Half. You know you want to join me in Texas, right?
Race: Zombie Run
Date: June 23, 2013, 7AM
Place: City Park, New Orleans
Time: ~0:42:00, untimed
500K Across the USA 