Greensboro Zombie Run

Have you ever seen a large group of relatively sane-looking adults willingly run into a closed course filled with zombie-clad actors who are planning to stop at nothing to track you down and grab something off of you? I have. And it was AWESOME!

This weekend we had courtside seats to the biggest Halloween freakshow I've ever seen-- the first annual Greensboro, NC Zombie Run.

Participants signed up in advance to run a 2 mile course blocked off downtown. They were each given two pieces of CAUTION tape to tuck into their waist. Every 10 minutes 100 (or so) runners were released onto the course. They ran through 140 zombies dispersed throughout the course, dressed and acting the part, who tried to take their flags. Anyone with at least 1 flag by the end of the course got a prize.

One group as they were let loose (notice how fast and excited they are): 

Some people at the very end (notice how tired, scragly, and anxious they are): 

There were fun decorations around the streets of the course:

Zombies hanging out at the beginning of the route for the next group to come:

Zombies towards the end. We guess they were mostly all members of Greensboro Roller Derby teams. These women were intense! I guess they saved the most passionate and athletic zombies for the end because  the group thins out so participants have more personal attention, more onlookers were at the finish who wanted a show, and to make sure they could gang up on anyone who might still have a flag (which was only small children, really. I think the zombies were easier on them.)

A group waiting to be released: 

Ben's best zombie impression:

And Whit's zombie impression:

After the last group had been released we asked some zombies hanging around to take a picture. 

Me: "Will you guys take a picture with my baby? Does that make me a bad mother?"
Girl on the right: "No. THIS makes me a bad mother." (Because that's not a fake belly)

Things we heard as we walked the track:

Onlooker on the phone: "We're on the left-hand side. Just look for all the zombies."

Runner to a staffer after being told where to run (which happened to be near zombies): "That wasn't very helpful!"

Staffer: "It's not my job to keep you alive. It's my job to make sure you don't get hit by a car."

One zombie to another as a group of runners finished going past: "Wow. Being a zombie is HARD." 

I learned about the Greensboro Zombie Run from a Groupon offering half off admission and thought about signing up to run, but decided not to. This was so much fun to watch, though, that I would love to participate next year! Not as a runner, because I hate running. And because I would FREAK OUT if I saw a zombie coming near me. But what I do enjoy is dressing in costume and putting my all into playing a role. Oh yes, zombie-ville here I come! 

Our town is SO COOL!