Finisher's medal without racing

178.4
2.5 hours of hunting runners
2 miles of walking

This morning I woke up at 3:45, ate my toast, poured coffee into my travel mug, and was on the road at 4:20 AM.  It was still dark and cold when I parked alone in the field next a prison in Hinton, Oklahoma.  Why would a mild mannered librarian behave so oddly?  Zombies! 

Yes, that's right, I joined the zombie horde terrorizing runners at the Dirty 30 Zombie Edition obstacle course race.  I hunted with a pack of 4 other "fast" zombies, stealing life flags from every runner we could.  I made grown men scream like little girls, and put fear into many who passed my way. 

Being a Zombie isn't easy.  First, we needed to report in at 6 so the makeup artists could infect us and complete our transformations.  At one point we had to evacuate the make up tent because one of the rented water trucks caught on fire about 30 yards away.  The cold temperatures made it difficult to transform us as it dramatically affected the drying time on the latex make up and the fake blood.

Once we were all ready, we went outside and filmed a short video of our ambling horde for the race to use in future promos.  Then we split up and walked out to our kill zones along the course.  It was quite a hike, and I was surprised by how difficult the terrain was in comparison so previous Dirty 30s.  After about 25 minutes walking/hiking our group was put in place and we started planning our tactics.

Chasing runners may just be harder than actually running the race.  So much sprinting, dodging and turning, it was downright exhausting.  I took lots of blocking blows on my wrists, arms and other various body parts.  At one point my prey went in an unexpected direction and neither of us could stop in time, resulting in her shoulder connecting with my throat rather hard.  And the whole time I was hunting I was growling, moaning and making all other threatening manner of zombie noises, resulting in a very sore throat! I also found that prolonged Zombie shuffling (when moving back to my ambush spot or lulling the runners into complacency) is hard on the lower back.  But I collected a huge pile of flags, potential bruising, and a great time.

By the time I was done and made it back to the Zombie tent, I decided I had enough adventure for one Saturday (and not enough food, sleep or warmth) so I decided not to run the race I had just worked.  All Zombies received the same shirt and finisher's medal as the runners.  After 2.5 hours of chasing the runners, I earned.