Zombie Evacuation Race 2012: Infected or Survived?

The day was upon us. The Zombie Evacuation had begun. Our time was now.

Jenny & I traveled to one of our good friends in Hatfield, Herfordshire, to rendevouz with my co-evacuees. After a super quick change & a restroom break, we'd been driving for a number of hours, what did you expect!? We then made out way to Royston & a the venue of the Race.

It was ridiculously freezing, autumn is most definitely upon us. And as we stepped out of the car, it began to spit. Lovely. Regardless, we ran to the queue & got in line for our BIB numbers, tracking tags & most importantly of all, out high-viz, velcro 'life' tag, which ultimately determined whether we would cross the finish line as a 'survivor' or 'infected'.

After a team photo with Jenny as the token small person (& girl), taken by Spikey's lovely Mum, a very short warm-up, Milne, Spikey, Sam (his bro) & I threw our fleece's off & made a dart for the start line & off we went.

Thankfully the rain subsided once we'd got underway. It was a 5km run across fields with seriously muddy tracks, through heavily wooded areas with some physically challenging obstacles & sneaky funneling which gave the zombie's the chance to grab one of your precious life tags. There was a zombie village in the heart of the wood which we had to navigate & unfortunately was the scene of my demise & my inevitable infection. I, like many of my fellow runners, including Milne, got ambushed & had no way to fight zombie groping. I must add, we had been warned that any physical attack upon the zombie's disheveled, half-rotten, bloodied bodies that we might have been tempted to administer, would have resulted in us being shot on sight. So running was the only option.

By the time we had reached the finish line, we'd warmed up properly & couldn't believe we'd run the whole race already, & I reckon we would have gladly run a little more. Nevertheless we'd made it.. well Milne & myself were infected, but still. Sam & Spikey made it through as survivors, the cheeky devils. Spikey more so than anyone as he had been torn of all his lives before the rest of us, until he took on a zombie & tried to chief a life from his hand. Needless to say, the zombie relented, obviously impressed with his extreme ladish-ness & resourcefulness, & gave one to him. He stands by his claim that he didn't cheat. We all know the truth.

We had a great time, a real laugh doing it (which doesn't help with running & zombie dodging I can tell you!) & just maybe when the Zombie Evacuation comes back around next year, we may be running for our lives once again.

We made a quick exit after as the weather was not pretty & gorged on tea & Jen's homemade lemon drizzle cake & mince-pies. De-lish! Spikey's Ma then rustled up a fantastic warm lasagna dinner for us. Perfic! Once we'd all had a very welcome hot shower, & a slight dip in energy levels, we ventured out in the Baltic conditions to a local ale house for a few or 3 pints. Was a very enjoyable evening with some really good friends. Bring on more of these now I have my weekends back!

Picture is the t-shirt & medal I received for finishing the race. The wooly hat, which my lovely Jen made, was an extremely useful friend today & I think will become my greatest ally this winter.

For those who are intrigued, check out this link:
http://www.zombieevacuation.com/

On a completely separate, James Bond related note, there's talk of us seeing Skyfall tomorrow.. excited much!