* From: Sean Gifford
* Event: CT Zombie Run
* Event Details
CT Zombie Rrun
Date: October 6, 2013
Race Website: www.ctzombierun.com
** Note – on the day of the event the weather was inclement and raining without pause throughout the day, while I do not know if this impacted the event, I can not see how it would not**
Venue: This event was held at the prominent Rentschler, which has become a regional epicenter for races ranging from the Electric Run, Run or Dye and FitAthalon – It is an easily accessible location with plenty of parking.
Location: Rentschler Field, 615 Silver Ln East Hartford, CT
Cost: Varies – Living Social was available
Spectator Quality: Excellent – spectators had access to 99% of the course and were encouraged to cheer participants on and provide support to all.
Race Course: This location does not offer a wide variety of terrain – but you do have track, gravel, grass, and some trails. I was most disappointed that the race appeared to be advertised as a 5k run with obstacles and zombies that would chase you. On the event website they went so far as to advertise this with the following:
“What kind of obstacles/ challenges can I expect? Wouldn’t you like to know?
May I skip an obstacle? If you are too much of a baby human and you choose to skip any challenge or obstacle simply wave your hand in surrender to the zombies. At that point all zombies will descend upon your lifeless body and devour your vital organs. All flags will be removed and you will be ineligible to win prizes or save the human race. You will then continue to finish the race in utter humiliation.”
We were greeted with a standard 5k course with LOTS of zombies that were pretty intent on eating your brains and 2 very LAME obstacles – 2 piles of hay to jump over and 2 snow fences on top of hay bales you had to crawl under. The zombies were fun, well dressed with make-up and costumes, played the part well and were respectful of the runners.
In full disclaimer there was rain throughout the day on the course which may have impacted the obstacles, that said, I would have expected to see other obstacles built and “closed due to weather” rather than see nothing on the course if they had been prepared in advance.
From a purely fun 5k run – the run portion was GREAT – other events at this location do not spread the event out and you have to double back during the run – that was not the case here. The run was enjoyable and I appreciated that some zombies really put effort into trying to chase you down – it would be hard to “just walk” this event!
Runner Support: OK – it was raining so this is difficult, but I believe there was only one water station during and there was water at the end.
Race Bling: FREAKING Awesome! – great medal – looked just like the web page – well worth it. The shirt was cool too – typical cotton, but a nice design, and the obligatory free beer – from a local brew company (Two Roads Brewing Co)!
Timing System and Results: GOOD – when times were published they had categories of survivors and infected which was a nice touch – system seemed accurate.
Staff, Volunteers and Directors: OK – The RD was responsive prior to the event with questions and providing a 30% team discount. At the event, it was clear that HE took pride in the event, having prepared, hand written, a “story” about the event and what lead to the zombie infestation – it was not cookie cutter it was really well written and quite enjoyable. He then led us to the start line and cheered us off. I did not see many other volunteers, etc, other than the zombies and folks driving them to/from the course on golf carts. Again, this was hard due to the weather.
Vendors: Very well done, local beer was free though you only got your post race beer and could not buy more. They had three local food carts, a mexican one, normal “grill” cart, and an amazing homemade cupcake cart – I bought two and they were awesome!
Final Thought: It appeared that this may have been a first event for this RD or perhaps things did not come together exactly how he predicted. The weather clearly impacted the event and I am sure through a wrench in the mix. From what I saw, most people there appeared to enjoy what the event offered but were disappointed with the lack of obstacles. What’s tough for me is that if this was billed as a race only it would have been an AWESOME event. The problem was that I went expecting obstacles and something on par with “Zombie Charge” and it was clearly lacking from an OCR standpoint. I would run this race again, but only plan on running and not OCRing…. This was family friendly and i would support it again.
I plan to contact the RD, provide my review and ask for his feedback/thoughts on the event.
* Race Details
* Rating
Average
