I'm an OCR (Obstacle Course Race) fiend. It started with my journey back to health and wellness a handful of years ago with running and standard road races (5K and 10K type, example). As an Army veteran, I realized I wasn't doing enough for my whole body. So, I started a different approach to my training and signed up for my first OCR (Warrior Dash) for motivation. It was love at first mud. Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder, Spartan ~ I have a lot under my belt now, with more to come. I'm signed up for three more in 2013 alone and already have four on the books for 2014, with more to come.
Last weekend my team and I tackled "Run For Your Lives." This is a 5K zombie infested obstacle course. Most OCR's are timed (except for the 12+ mile Tough Mudder). This isn't, you're provided with a belt and three flags (think flag football). The concept? Make it through the course with at least one flag and earn a "Survivor" medal. Finish the course without any flags and you earn a "Infested" medal. Easy enough, right? My team and I had heard some stories of "chaser" zombies, but had no clue of what we were about to face.
The race itself was set up in New Hampshire at a location called "Haunted Acres, Area 52." The setting could not have been more perfect. Random buildings in the woods, set up for the haunted course during Halloween season, "fake" trees (seriously, one tree make noise and started to fall over on us, it scared the crap out of all of us). Abandoned cars with "corpses in them, a hearse, creeping trials through the woods so thick the sun vanished, even though it was a bright, 80 degree day.
Off we tore, up the path and into the woods. It wasn't long before one of my teammates, Ryan, had a snarling and disgusting zombie right on his heels...and not one of us heard the sneaky bastard come up on us. My wife happened to look back to say something and shrieked, an ear piecing shriek ~ which brought out the "snarl" in the "snarling zombie." The zombies are all volunteers, however they are professionally made up by RFYL:
One of Ryan's flags firmly in hand less than two minutes into the race, we finally put some distance between ourselves and this one random, rouge zombie. We would soon learn he (it) was the easier of the bunch. We would encounter packs of zombies and dodge, juke, and simply outsprint them. Some of the obstacles we encountered included berlin walls, a mud crawl under wire, a tube crawl, crawling through a smoke house filled with electric charged cords (you could barely see the hand in front of your face with all the smoke, much less the cords...and those zaps hurt like hell).
Just when you think you're in the clear, you encounter a horde of zombies and the chase in on again. The end was the most challenging. Heading towards the final obstacle, we avoided about 25 zombies (literally) to climb up three tires strung together, onto a platform. From there you plunge into a "blood bath" - freezing cold, blood red water. Climbing out, you take stock. The end was about 50 yards away. The final obstacle is this:
Standing between you and ^^ are about 30 zombies. That ^^ is electric. The whole damn thing. I found out the hard way to get low, quickly. By the end our flag count was pretty low. My wife and Brittney were out. Rob had two and Ryan and I had one. Zombies leave folks without flags alone and descend on ones with flags like hungry animals looking for meat. So the plan was for us to run at them in a wedge, Rob and I in the middle, and split at the very end. Off we went, full tilt. The last obstacle is in full view for spectators and there must be 200-300 people watching at all times, someone usually calling "here come flags" when a potential survivor comes through. Two zombies tried to corner me into a try, I spun out of the grasp of one ~ ducked and managed to run two into each other and then ran, full speed, into the electric fence while trying to get down. As I was trying to get under the fence I felt about three sets of hands grabbing at me, trying to get my last flag. No shot, I earned that effin' flag.
Rolling into the finisher area, I found my friend Rob covered in blood...but sporting one flag (lost one). Ryan had his flag taken. So out of our team, only Rob and I finished as "Survivors." And it was damn hard!
Later, we were all sitting in the beer tent. We had showered, changed. Drank. A lot. They called the last heat of the day. My friend Rob had a brilliant idea to gather another belt, some flags, change and run it again and try to get Ryan his Survivor medal (and earn ourselves Infected medals in the process). So with about 11 PBR's on board (the only beer they were selling), the three of us changed quickly, gathered belts and flags and charged off. Wouldn't you know it? We succeeded in our plan.
This is a great event. If you get a chance to run it, I highly recommend it. The obstacles themselves aren't too bad, but they are made up for with the zombies. Over all I give it an "A."
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