"Run for your lives" 5 klick zombie run: Baltimore

http://runforyourlives.com

When I read about "zombie runs" in the August 4th 2011 geekologie post

http://www.geekologie.com/2011/08/run-for-your-life-5k

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I knew, as the kind of hopelessly geeky zombie enthusiast who has a blog about zombies, I HAD to be part of this exciting new enterprise. When I visited the website they were not yet recruiting so I completely forgot about it until some time later when my little sister told me she was going to sign up to be a volunteer zombie. We agreed to carpool, and then it was just a matter of waiting until October.

The venue was actually a bit north of Baltimore so in order to make it there by 6:00 am when the volunteers were suppose to show up I had to leave the house at 4:00 am. When I arrived the place was pretty disorganized, and there was a lot of waiting around. Finally they got around to putting on everybody's makeup

Then the great sorting of zombies began. "Are you a stumbler or a chaser?" asked a woman with a clipboard.

"I don't even know what that means."

She explained that the chasers are there to pull flags off of the runners belts. If a runner doesn't make it all the way through the obstacle course with their flags they are "dead". Stumblers on the other hand are the slow zombies. They are there more for. . .

"Ambiance?" I asked

"Yeah, that thing you said."

Having never really approved of fast zombies, and also being a pretty lazy guy, I decided to be a stumbler. Having had all of the important details sorted out I wasn't going to wait around to be told where to go or what to do

(this is not the sort of volunteer job I plan to use as a professional reference)

I looked for the nearest pack of shuffling zombies and headed off to join them.

Me as a zombie

When there are no runners around the zombies gather in groups and chit chat

My favorite zombies were the ones with themes. There was the zombie with a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers

Of course you need some prom night zombies

By far my favorite was the ballerina zombie. She would advance upon runners with lurching stilted pirouettes.

Here is an excellent group picture of the first horde I joined

This picture doesn't adequate capture the beauty of this scenic vista, but to give you a sense of scale, the speck on the water near the middle of the frame is a kayaker.

This is at the top of a very tall very steep hill that the runners had to climb up. This hill is of sufficient altitude and slope to cause fatal sledding accidents.

These two came all the way from. . .

Well I forget, but it was a long way. They were part of the last herd of zombies I shuffled with, and very personable.

Have I mentioned how much I love the themed zombies?

Being a volunteer zombie is a lot of fun, but be sure to bring some trail mix like I did. It lasts all day and you will get hungry. Of course you can always just go home when you get board or hungry. It's not like you are doing this for a professional reference.