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On June 23rd, 2012 I ran for my life. I made it about 1.5 miles and then I joined the ranks of the undead. Of course I emerged as their leader in the end, but it still hurt not to survive. My (then 3 yr old) son cheered me on and told me “Good Job!” when I finished the race.My husband drove us and my mom was there to help with my son and see the action.
My Gentleman knew there would be people dressed as zombies trying to “get” his mommy but he wasn’t scared. I spent the better part of the week before explaining how the race worked with flags, and running and make up and all that pretend stuff. By the time we got to the race he was looking for the zombies and telling me that I would run fast and they wouldn’t get me.
The 5k Run For Your Lives! Obstacle race was held in various cities around the US and is still traveling. I participated in the one near Indianapolis, IN. It was in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of a hunter training ground! That’s right…we were being hunted on a hunting farm!
It was about a 45 minute drive which was exactly long enough for me to get nervous about the race. A friend of mine and his friend were meeting me there to run with me. We also ran into another friend of mine and her husband and his friend. We had a group of 6. Safety in numbers and you always have at least one person to throw at the undead so they don’t get you right? We did say we would try not to sacrifice each other though, which we didn’t have to so we never will know now.
There was a band, a place to shower after the race, a small area with food and drinks and a lot of people wandering around. We mingled a bit, saw some zombies, saw part of another wave of runners at the halfway point. Then it was time to go to the start line. I kissed my son and he told me good luck.
We started the race inside of a tunnel with smoke and a closed gate at the starting end. THEN they told us our group was lucky enough to have fresh new zombies for our race. Oh boy were we excited! Zombies who had not yet tasted flesh and being newly dead were not tired! Since my group were the first six people at the gate we couldn’t back out and run away. I know because I tried but people were so eager to see if they could run past zombies! Crazyness! We were trapped and the zombies were hungry.
When we were let loose we started jogging into the woods to meet our fate and about 2 minutes later we found it. The first “sprint” of zombies to get through. There were not very many and for that we were grateful but the next set was longer. By the time we hit our first water stand we were exhausted and thought we were half way. That was our first mile marker and we were a little disheartened to learn that we had 2 more miles and many more zombies to go.
Sprinting through the undead and trying to dodge grabby hands was a bit of an adrenaline rush and a HUGE pain the ass! I kept hearing the soundtrack to Final Fantasy (the movie) in my head when I had to run though them so that was awesome.
The obstacles were interesting and fun and fit the “survival run” theme of the race. Well maybe not the one that we had to crawl on tiny rocks on our hands in knees. I actually hate that one and will until the scars on my knees FINALLY heal which hasn’t happened yet! The other obstacles were ok though.
I am sure the tiny rock crawling fit the survival theme too but that doesn’t mean I can’t be bitter about it. And yes I KNOW the zombie sprints were part of it but since I didn’t train for it I can sort of complain about it. I just can’t expect it to carry any weight whatsoever. Sigh…
Right around the half way point (just before 1.5 miles) we came out of the woods and into the open again. we made it past a sprint of zombies and took a small breather to say hi to my son. He was a little upset that he couldn’t come to me but he DID tell me “GO Mommy GO!” and waved to me.
At about the 1.5-1.8 mile marker I succumbed to the undead horde and lost my last flag. That didn’t stop me from finishing the race or completing all the obstacles. I even psyched out a few zombies to save those left alive in my group. After all I hadn’t “turned” yet so it wasn’t like I was betraying my fellow zombies. Right?
I do wish the race had more obstacles but I did enjoy the ones they had (yes even the crawling on rocks one I complained about a lot earlier). Even the monkey bar one that I fell from…into that pit of blood? *shudder. In my defense it was the second to last obstacle…near the end of the race…after I was dead awhile…and it was really hard..ish..
Overall it was a great day and a fun race. My son had a blast too and after the race he told me and the group of people I ran with that we did a good job finishing the race. Even though I died I enjoyed myself and will definitely go back next year. But this time I would be the undead leader!! Then I would get cured and try to survive again. I have begun my training already. I will survive next time! Well a little longer than this time anyway…oh yes!! That’s right! I will!
Until next year!
