Yes, you read that blog title correctly. On Saturday, I ran from zombies.
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| Zombie footprints… |
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| Beautiful cotton, which has nothing to do with zombies. |
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| A beautiful painted cow on the Wayland campus, which also has nothing to do with zombies. |
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| A post apocalyptic breakfast prepared by my awesome husband. |
Ok, so you are probably thinking ‘what the heck’ is with these zombies you speak of. Well, there truly is an app for everything. Zombies, Run is a running game app that I downloaded for my iphone. Why? Let me give me a brief background on my childhood.
I grew up with a father who acted in and ran haunted houses in St Louis. At the age of 5, I was sitting in the first entry room of the haunted house “Nightmares” where my father instructed me to sit very still until the group was all in the room. And then to either move very slowly, or jump at them. At 5 years old, I worked in the haunted house. I even got to act in scenes deeper in the haunted house, where my dad’s friends would carry me off over thier shoulders (while I was screaming, of course), freaking out those haunted house guests. I loved it! So you can imagine, that when I was 16, I definitely had a part time job on the weekends, acting in haunted houses. It was soooo much fun! My fav memory of working in the haunted house was working in a strobe light maze room. I freaked out one girl so bad that I chased her clear through the rest of the haunted house, into the parking lot. I got cheered on by those waiting to get into the haunted house! It was such a blast. So, all that to say, I love Halloween and anything spooky. It’s in my blood 😉
Zombies, Run is a game you play as you are actually running. Your music plays on your playlists like you are listening to your ipod. But in between songs, a story unfolds, and the story revolves around the runner (me) aka Runner 5. The storyline happens as if the characters are talking to you as you are running. So fun! Not only does the story unfold between songs, but you also intermittently get chased by zombies. The app has GPS in it, and at any given moment it will alert you that you are being pursued: “Zombies encountered. 20 meters!” And you hear beeps. If the beeps get faster, that means that the zombies are closing in on you! You have to actually run faster to avoid them. If you slow down (gps tracks your pace), then the zombies may attack you. It’s a fun way to do interval training!
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| 4 missions completed! |
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| My little town, safe from the zombies…for now. |
As you run, you collect supplies. If you do not evade the zombies when they are chasing you, you will drop some of your supplies so you can get away from them. After your run is complete, you drag and drop the supplies you collected on to different buildings to upgrade them (ie: the hospital, the armoury, the housing, food storage etc.) As you level and upgrade your buildings, more story is unlocked.
Maybe Halloween and zombies aren’t your thing, but this, my friends, is right up my alley and I had so much fun playing a game while running!
Things I learned on this run:
- Running from zombies is alot of fun, and makes for a very entertaining 2 1/2 hours.
- My pace was slower than it has been. That stupid scorching sun could have something to do with it. I stayed way hydrated during this run, but when I run in the late morning in that sun, I just get hotter faster. I am so thankful my 1/2 marathon is at night!
- Post apocalyptic breakfasts are awesome.
- My first 1/2 marathon is in 19 days!!!!
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