BRAAAAAAAAAINS!!!!

I finally got Alex to go back to sleep this morning, and Lisa's still in bed, and I feel like doing some writing this morning, and I know there are some people who want to see pictures from yesterday, so all that is combining to mean that you get a post about my race yesterday.

First, you should know that I have always hated running. It's always seemed to me to be a ridiculous hobby. I know there are plenty of people out there who have very strong pro-running feelings, but this is how I've historically felt. Second, you should know that I've kind of got a thing for zombies. I can't really explain it very well, but I get a kick out of them for some reason, which is odd because I haven't really watched that many zombie movies in my life--I don't particularly appreciate the gore. Go figure.

So several months ago, Lisa found a facebook page for a group that was putting together a 5k race called "Night of the Running Dead". It was to benefit the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and it's the only zombie-themed 5k I've ever heard of. So I figured that if I was going to have a mild zombie obsession, I might as well let it guide me to do things that are actually good for me (for example, [shudder] exercise), so I signed up for the race.

This race has been mentioned before on the blog, but suffice it to say that after months of training (some weeks better than others), I ran my first 5k yesterday. I was definitely worried about how it was going to turn out, since I hadn't gone running since my slightly ill-fated training session one week before the race, and I hadn't run for my full 30 minutes since 4 or 5 days before that.

The premise of the Night of the Running Dead 5k is that you originally signed up as either a Survivor or a Zombie, and you were encouraged to dress your part. I of course signed up as a zombie and got myself all prepped up before we headed up to Salt Lake City.

I was very impressed with Alex--he didn't seem to have any problem with the fact that his dad now looked like a member of the living dead. We did try to let him see me at various stages of the make-up process so that he could tell it was gradual and that it was still me, but he also had no problem with all the other zombies that were roaming around the area, so it turns out that our son is just plain hardcore.

We had a little trouble finding the race venue, but eventually made it to This Is The Place Heritage Park up in SLC, and I checked in.

The race started out with all of the "Survivors" lining up and taking off. Most of them looked like normal runners, but you had a few who had decided to dress up a little.

The Survivors were given a 2-minute head-start, so once they took off we zombies lined up and prepared to run after the fresh brains that were bobbing around in the heads of the survivors.

The venue was part fantastic, and part horrible. This is the Place Heritage Park has several areas that are worked up to be like late 1800's western towns, and parts of the path were dirt roads, so it definitely made you feel like you were in the kind of midwestern small town that so many of the zombie movies take place in. The horrible part was that the first half of the course loop was predominantly uphill, and a pretty mean uphill to boot. And you had to run the course loop twice, which meant that you knew exactly what was coming the second time around.

Despite it all, I managed to finish (that's me coming toward the camera on the right in the picture above)! To be honest, I only ran about half of the time--I couldn't hack those inclines very well. Plus, we were high in the Salt Lake mountain area with thin air. But I got done and felt pretty good about myself for having finished.

All in all, I had a great time, and even managed to meet some other nice zombies while I was at it.

And here's Alex, completely oblivious to the fact that his little baby brains are about to get eaten. We've still got a ways to go on his Zombie Awareness Training.

Many of you may be wondering if I managed to eat any survivors. While biting people was strictly prohibited, there were multiple people that I passed along the track who had the white 'survivor' race t-shirt on, so I know I must have caught up with them. I'm comfortable with the knowledge that I would have totally eaten their brains had this all been real.

Afterward, we went to get dinner at Red Robin (me still dressed up), and it kind of gave me an idea for a future family tradition that I'd like to call "Zombie Dinner." We'll see if Lisa ever goes for it.

The biggest takeaway from all this, however, is that I'm now confident enough in my cardio level that, should the world ever really be overrun by zombies, I'm sure I would be able to outrun them. Or at least outrun enough other people that the zombies will have plenty to snack on before they ever get to me.