tentaculistic: INeedAName: I did one of these. it was a lot of fun. Basically a tough 5k with some interesting obstacles. Every participant gets a belt with 3 flags and as you're running, there are zombies all over the place, trying to snatch them off your belt.

I can see why people get carried away with it, mostly because people are stupid.

Yeah, the Baltimore MD Run For Your Lives (1st in that series) was set up like that - waist flags instead of balloons. The rules are really strong about not hurting the zombies since they're not, you know, actually zombies, they're dressed-up volunteers. Too bad Denver had so many jerks. Lighten up Denver!

And the zombies don't run, the people do. There are hordes or clots of zombies along the way, especially at choke points. It's also an obstacle course, so there are lots of choke points. And mud. Red mud.

The volunteer zombies

At the Run for Your Lives events, they have zombies that most definitely run.  Actually, you have chase zombies and shuffler zombies, depending on what you sign up to be, and they mix them up throughout the course.

The first Run for Your Lives event I did, I dressed up as Ash from Army of Darkness, with the cloak, gauntlet, etc. but no boomstick. : (  Can't say that I was too happy about the dark, fogged-filled shock box, as I was zapped pretty good on my forehead while crawling on my hands and knees. Anyway, I made it to the last zombie zone with one flag left, unfortunately for me if was filled with a horde of young, fast zombies bouncing a soccer ball around. I didn't stand a chance as I was in a very small group and they zeroed in on me. Anyway, here's video I shot with my Countour camera, complete with music and sound bites from Army of Darkness for those of you with nothing better to do.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH547BTL27o

The second Run for Your Lives event I did, I dressed as a zombie clown, and I was gonna chase people down relentlessly. They warn zombies and runners that they cannot be overly physical and aggressive, meaning no shoving, stiff-arming, etc. But you just knew you were gonna encounter some douchebags that took it too far. Those were easy to spot and the most fun to chase. I actually grabbed a guy's flag only to see that he had actually tied it to his belt. Really? People feel the need to cheat in a zombie fun race? Anyway, I made him un-tie the belt and hand it over. Not on my zombie watch baby!

All in all, they're fun races. I had a fun and will mostly likely do another.