PTI

I am completely slammed at work today this week month, but I would be remiss if I did not bring this to your attention immediately:

(image source) (person who sent me this photo)

Carry on.

Race Report: Run For Your Lives 5K

(source)

Back in the spring, I wrote about a health and fitness iPhone app called "Zombies, Run!"  The app is essentially an audiobook about the zombie apocalypse broken into chapters ("missions") that you complete by going for a run.  Periodically during your run, you'll be alerted to the fact that zombie hordes are approaching, and you'll need to speed up (as measured by your iPhone's GPS) to evade them.

Well, a few weeks ago, I ran the live-action equivalent of this app at the Run For Your Lives 5K in Darlington, Maryland.

(all good-looking photos courtesy of my co-running co-worker, unless otherwise marked (erm, sorry Capstone...); all crappy iPhone photos and videos by me)

My coworker and I before the race.  Anonymized for her, well, anonymity.

Run For Your Lives is a simple 5k.  With obstacles.  And mud.  And freezing cold neck-deep water.

Oh, and zombies.

There were about fifteen "zombie zones" that were chock full of aggressive* undead who all wanted a piece of you.

* Caveat:  The zombies seemed to take pity on you if you fell or slowed down to catch your breath; I sort of hoped they would show no mercy and all swarm on fallen runners (until I actually fell, at which time I was all like, hey thanks for not eating my brains you guys).  Also, the zombies stayed within the vague confines of their zones, so if you needed a break you could stop just before or past the zombies and they would not come for you.  And I needed many breaks, because I was sprinting through those guys at 110% exertion.  That said, the zombies got a lot more vicious towards the end of the course so as to leave fewer people "alive" at the finish line.

(Cut because I posted a ton of photos and don't want to crash your web browsers.  You want to see them, though, so click through.  Also I'll tell you whether I "lived" or "undied.")  (Okay, fine, I'll tell you now, I lived.)