Almost a week ago, I faced down a bloodthirsty horde of zombies and since I'm still able to write about it, I guess I survived.
First of all, I would like to qualify that it wasn't really a 'zombie run'. It was more of a 'zombie treasure hunt'. You didn't have to run through a course but you had to try to find certain tokens hidden in guarded zones (up to five different tokens can be found per team), which can then be redeemed for prizes at the end of the allocated time (45 minutes). My team found one of the five tokens with four out of five survivors at the end.
On hindsight, I made some critical mistakes and would have gone about it an entire different way if I had the opportunity again. I stood right at the front of the pack of runners and when the race started, I didn't really wait for anyone - I ran straight to zone 4 and 5 which was considered the most difficult, and ran around a few times looking for the tokens myself. After three or four rounds, I couldn't find anything and gave up to look in other zones.
The teams which did better stuck with the main group and worked together to rush the zombies to get the tokens, sacrificing those on the fringes to obtain them. Whereas I prioritised staying alive, other teams understood that the main point of the game was not to survive but to sacrifice as many people needed to get as many tokens as possible.
But here are some points which helped me stay alive:
1. Run smart. In this kind of event, actually speed and cardio is not as important as I originally thought. Just make yourself harder to catch than someone else. Avoid the 'chasers' which are allowed to run. If you're desperate, find some slightly more challenging terrain and the zombies will look for an easier target - there was one time a chaser made it a personal challenge to kill me and I slid halfway down a steep hill on purpose, where if the zombie followed, they risked falling down so he just looked for an easier target.
2. Stick with the group. Like I mentioned above, the teams which did well worked together with other teams, sticking to the biggest group, and charging the identified 'token areas' together, willing to sacrifice whoever the zombies managed to kill. The more people there are, the more chance you have of rushing through and getting the tokens because each zombie is only allowed to kill one person at a time.
3. Watch your back. I saw many people focus too much on the chasers, where they would flee in terror when these zombies ran after the group, then when the chaser turned away somewhere else after killing someone, they would group together feeling safe but the slow zombies, the 'stumblers' would come up slowly behind them and start killing without them even realising it.
4. Protect your life strap. This seems pretty self explanatory and I didn't use it but I saw others pull it off quite successfully. The life strap is on the survivor's back and zombies aren't allowed to use physical force to get it unless they can pull it off cleanly. So there were people pushing their backs up against a tree or lying down while zombies surrounded them, where some managed to escape when the zombies were distracted. The only way I applied this tip was to always place my back facing away from zombies when I went past them - there were times I went past the stumblers slowly but slid sideways, protecting my back and none of them could reach the straps cleanly.
5. Have a sharp eye. I found it terribly frustrating to not be able to find where any of the tokens were hidden. I went to every zone and ran around each a couple of times, running from zombies and looking very hard...and I only spotted one token. One measly token. In a real zombie apocalypse, I guess you would need to spot the supplies you need very early and strategise to get them quickly and effectively - if you can't even spot what you need, there's no point running around like a headless chicken.
Overall, I had quite a bit of fun although I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't do better. I really should have stuck with the main group rather than go about it as an individual.
Am I going to sign up again if it comes around? Probably not. If a real 5km Zombie Run is planned with obstacles like how it's done overseas, I will consider it. But I'm not signing up for another treasure hunt version, especially not for RM75.
On a side note, I got a Zombie Run shirt which was 'M' sized but the organisers didn't indicate that 'S' and 'M' were 'chic cut'. I almost tore the shirt when I first tried it on...I guess I'll be giving it to my wife.
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