Zombie Run

Sure, you can run, but will you look this fashionable in the apocalypse?
You've heard of 5ks, 10ks, marathons and half-marathons, and maybe you've even heard of Obstacle Races and Spartan Runs and the Tough Mudder challenges. But have you heard of Zombie Runs?

It was only a matter of time, as zombies became a cultural icon outside of just films, books, and videogames, that people started to take thier zombie love onto the streets, and as running challenges began to become more and more profitable and popular, that someone would combine the too.

Zombie Runs are a relatively new phenomenon that I've seen popping up in major cities over the next few years (our home city of Calgary is home to one such Zombie Run called 'Zombie Survivor' kicking off at the end of July 2014) and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Basically combining a normal 5k or 10k race with elements of tag, game-playing, and obstacles, Zombie Runs see participants run a race filled with actors and volunteers playing the part of slow and fast zombies, whose goal is generally to tag a runner or steal a flag or object off of their belt. Similar to the Zombie weeks that have been held at a lot of major universities lately, hundreds to thousands of zombie lovers really get into the action with full costumes, prosthetics, make-up, and (occasionally) decent acting skills.

For those who can't make it to a zombie run or don't feel quite as social, zombie running apps are gaining popularity to as part of the gamification movement; you put these games on your cell as you run and they track your location and implicate you in some kind of story of scenario that you have to run to complete. Running can be hard sometimes, and things like this can give you that nice little extra push to eek out a few more minutes from your aching legs.


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