* From: Charles Maurice
* Event Details
There was plenty of parking. Plenty of merchandise to buy. Good food, and plenty of beer. The only issues would be the water pressure to rinse off with and there was no tent to change in like there is in other events. A great race overall.
* Race Details
This was a very fun race. A nice course with manageable obstacles. The zombies were the best part. I lost all my flags within the first miles which made the race a little more fun. Once you loose your flags, you dont have to worry about running past the zombies. This was my first year for this race and I can’t wait for next year.
* Rating
Excellent
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* From: Shaina Brooks
* Event: Zombie Charge
* Date: 2015-06-06
* Event Details
I got to the event a little early because the RD was gracious enough to let us set up a tent, front and center in fact! It was easier to find the venue than I expected thanks to GPS actually being correct, though I did pass the site when I arrived, signage could have been better, especially for the turn onto the road. Parking was the normal $10, which may have been a surprise to many since it was not noted in the race day email. I came prepared because I read about the charge in the previous year’s reviews. I sort of get annoyed paying for on-site parking, why more $$ if the venue is already paid for and there’s no shuttling? That may be just me.
Registration was relatively smooth, though the signs did not correspond with what the volunteers were doing so I stood in the Zombie line, which was labeled A-B for a while then was pointed down the rows until I found someone with my packet. I arrived with my printed waiver, it appears they had plenty on site too.
There were not very many vendors, but I’m not sure this was the demographic for much more. There was the Zombie merchandise tent which was also selling snacks and some kind of supplements. There was also a catering company which I did not try since it appeared everyone was walking around with fantastic looking meat products (that pulled pork sandwich looked amazing!), but I’m not a big meat eater at races so I skipped it. There was also beer- no freebies, but I had a couple yuenglings before they ran out because the only other option was Bud Light. A DJ was there playing decent music, I was very glad to hear older music, much less pop and Top 40 music! Thank you!
The race swag was great. A nice tri-blend t-shirt (Red- YAY!), and a buff, along with your medal at the end. I’m not a big swag person (unless it’s pint glasses, that’s how I love to show off my races!) so this was plenty for me.
* Race Details
The race itself was about what I expected with a little more terrain challenge than I expected. The start apparently had a shoot-out with zombies, but since I always start in the back, I missed that that even happened and just thought it was a gun start. Someone told be about what actually went on later in the day. Cool idea! Each runner started with 3 flags at the beginning of the race, and could purchase more for $1 a piece. The idea is that the zombies pull the flags and if you end up with all of your flags at the end of the race, you were a “survivor.” Right away we were running from zombies, your sprinting and dodging skills were certainly tested at this race, leaving your heart racing and adrenaline pumping. There were not a ton of obstacles at this race, but they did include some tall ladder walls, a 6 ft and 8+ ft wall, some muddy crawls, some muddy pits to jump over or dip through, a very thin rope climb (you could win back a flag at this which I thought was great even thoug
h I couldn’t get up the thin rope), A-frames, a great rope to cargonet up a steep hill, and even a soapy non-butt crushing water slide at the end. One obstacle that I thought was so awesome, but ended up I was doing it wrong was a traverse wall. There was rock-climbing holds on one side and foot long 2X4s on the other. The structure was about 2 ft off the ground and it seemed to me and others before and after that this was a cool wall to climb up and over. I thought it was such an innovative idea, until my second lap when my fellow Spahtens got a good chuckle at a couple of us going over the wall again and informing us we were supposed to go across the wall, not over. Oops, well, I guess we live life on the edge! I think instructions here would definitely have been good, especially for newbies. Zombies, of course were the biggest obstacle. Most lost their flags very quickly into the race, which really kind of took away from the thrill of it all right away. I started with 8 flags (I
purchased more just for the charitable part buying more flags), and by 1 mile in ALL were gone. Zombies were pretty ruthless, I’m not sure if that was great or kind of a pain since we did want to continuing running from zombies through the whole race. The poor zombies in the second half of the race looked so bored! If you were able to keep any flags after that point you probably survived because all of the zombies seemed to assume everyone was already dead.
Overall, lots of fun. Again, I was very surprised how much the terrain was used to kick our butts. After two laps, I was definitely feeling a bit tired, if the course hadn’t closed down so early I might have gone out for more!
* Rating
Above Average
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* From: Stephen
* Event: Zombie Charge
* Date: 2015-06-06
* Event Details
Parking was onsite, a short walk from the start line, some of the nicest portapotties i have seen, schwag was a medal buff and t shirt. they had plenty of other shirts, energy shot drinks, beer venders and food. I did not have any food, i spent all my time running
* Race Details
So this race is all about the zombies, keep that in mind. the venue is perfect for the race, you have rock piles, and sand (or dirt) mountains, all making for a difficult route, but so much fun, part of the venue looked like it was right out a zombie movie. The obstacles were nothing out of the norm, solid walls, slatted walls, a frame roped walls. and one very confusing wall, it looked like a traverse wall, and that is what i thought, but people treated it as an over wall with grips. as an over wall it would be fine, but the course seemed to go as if it were a traverse wall, however the support beams get in the way as a traverse wall.The big thing here is the zombies, they give you the biggest challenge, you go from a run (or jog) to sprint to keep your flags, which can tire you out pretty quick.Also they had 2 places on course where you could get another flag, one was in a fanced in area with zombies that gave them out, the women were nice and played their zombie character well, an
d another at a rope climb. But, they Rd placed zombies right after, that easily took the newly earned flag away. they had some low crawls and such. The zombies were really great, they had a santa one, and a clown one next to each other, the clown was hilarious, hiding behind a twig. Basically this is a fun race, with no timing, and great for zombie lovers!
* Rating
Average
This is one of those reviews written 6 month after, per request, so this will not be incredibly in depth, just the lingering feelings.
The concept of this race is really cool. I was truly looking forward to a real life The Walking Dead experience! The venue was easy to get to (although I did get lost trying to get out of the quarry). They had plenty of parking, great food, and really awesome swag. They’re t-shirts were one of my favorite, even if it was a men’s shirt that I’ll likely never wear due to it looking ridiculously big on me. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, PLEASE OFFER XS finisher’s tees or Women’s cuts if you actually want your petite female runners to promote your race. That is the point of finishers’ tees!
Down to the race. You get a belt with 3 velcroed flags that the zombies will try to steal. When all 3 are gone, you are “dead”. There are supposed to be 3 different speeds of zombies, walkers, movers, and aggressive runners. Some are loners, some are in hordes. Zombies can chase you up to 50′ from an obstacle for safety reasons. Now that you know the basics, here’s basically how it went down: the course was JAM PACKED with zombies, almost none in hordes, most of the high school track runners, and maybe 5% of them didn’t move much. I went into this race with the hope of staying alive. I amazingly managed to say so up to almost mile 3, thanks to the overwhelming help of my already “dead” friends. But it was awful. The zombies were too much and many were insanely aggressive. I had my last flag stolen from a high school track kid who sprinted after me for almost 1/4 mile before I just gave up. Yes, I had to give up. It was actually kind of awful feeling, even though I was so blessed to be finally left alone. In fact, I ran this race two more times that day, and I immediately let zombies steal my flags just so I could go out and enjoy the course. The zombies actually ruined the race, at least the amount and aggression of them. It wasn’t fun. All that aside, the course was a ton of fun. The terrain was reasonably difficult and enjoyable. The diversity of obstacles were good and fun. Lots of mud. The only bad obstacles was the odd traverse wall as people were climbing over and all sorts of odd things.
When it came down to the nitty gritty, I’d run this race again with the intent to give away flags immediately, as I enjoyed the course immensely. However, with Samurai being this same day in 2016, it was an easy choice which race I’d choose, and unfortunately not this one. I hope that in the future, there’ll be less zombies and a better diversity of zombies.
Thanks for the reviews guys!