Another year, another zombie run in Tampa!

Everything started off fine this year.  Happy faces all around.

But then some of the runners started acting a little strange.  No offense, but people just weren’t looking all that healthy.  Myself included.  That’s what I get for wearing a dress to a run. How are you going to outrun zombies in a dress?  And so I became a zombie. So sad.

I’ve been lucky enough to run in the 5K Zombie run for years, but this was my first time as a zombie. OMG Fun.  Since my partner in crime was not allowed to run due to surgery a couple days before we switched from runners to zombies kind of last minute.  I mean, plus there were those bites.

Turns out being a zombie is AWESOME. Much more fun than it looks on The Walking Dead.  I didn’t even get an arrow to the head or anything.  Want to take it easy? Just stand dead center and moan about it.  Want to get rid of an excess of energy?  Well there are all those tasty looking humans to try to catch. Being a zombie can actually be MORE work than being a runner when a long wave of humans goes by!

Being on the zombie team was every bit as much adult recess as being a runner.  Maybe even more because you are hanging out with strangers trying to strategize about taking down the next horde of humans. Not to mention the extremely scientific discussions regarding why there aren’t more retired age zombies in the movies and why there really should be. Amongst other philosophical discussions while awaiting the next victims.

I got to say, we were pretty good at being the running dead.

Want to try the zombie life?  Take a look and see where you can catch The 5K Zombie Run next! You’ll have to be in Florida though, because these runs are put on by a local Tampa company.

So like 4 months ago I wrote a couple of posts about The 5K Zombie Run and out The 5K Color Blast.  They were both scheduled to happen November 14th at Lake Park. And then this:

A sinkhole opened right near the entrance and the races (along with other events I don’t actually care about but other people do) had to be postponed until an evaluation could be done.  Said evaluation made it clear that the park had to be closed, indefinitely.  Hopefully they will be able to get the sinkhole fixed and re-open the park again soon.

But now, good news!  Both The 5K Zombie Run and The 5KColor Blast have been relocated and rescheduled for March 19th at Northwest Equestrian Park.  It’s just north of Citrus Park Mall, putting it very near where I work but I’ve never heard of it before.  I love finding new places!

Anyways, the timing is perfect for me.  I haven’t run consistently since the Spartan Race which was all the way back LAST February.  Sad, I know. Too many excuses to list, so I won’t.  But I am now over a string of random illnesses including a stupid stomach flu thing I think I am just over as of today, and positively jonesing to go for a run. Weird, I know.  The point is it’s been so long since I’ve done anything remotely like a workout that I decided to start all over with the Couch 2 5K plan again. I’m hoping to be able to skip ahead in it a bit. But seriously, I did a pretty mellow yoga routine the other day and stopped before it was done because I was tired.

But now, I have a goal!  I have zombies to avoid and colors to run through.  So March is perfect.

It seems they still have tickets available for the run, and not only for the Tampa run, both runs are also going to be held in Largo on February 27th!  Check out the races web sites for all of the details as far as times, registering, and bling.

The 5K Zombie Run Tampa

The 5K Color Blast Tampa

The 5K Zombie Run St/ Pete/Clearwater (Largo)

The 5K Color Blast St/ Pete/Clearwater (Largo)

If you didn’t sign up before, you should totally sign up now.  These runs are fun, casual, and fun. Plus it’s always cool to support locals.  You don’t have to be able to run a 5K to run one of these, you just need to run when you see zombies. Especially if you see them in The 5K Color Blast.  Just saying.  You never know.

You should also follow them on Facebook, because not only can you get up to date info on all of their runs, they post funny stuff when they aren’t sad about sink holes and maybe wondering why they don’t live in California.  (Because every other natural disaster). Here’s the link to The 5K Color Blast’s Facebook and The 5K Zombie Run’s Facebook.

Welcome.

I have to say, I expected this show to be funny but I didn’t expect it to have as many laughs as it did.  Some of the laughs where OMG that’s funny, some of the laughs where OMG I can’t believe they just did that.  Definitely not a show for the whole family!  So ya, I loved it.

I was also pretty impressed that they did all of the necessary scenes – the bad, bad, evil trees scene (they lowered everyone’s karma in the room by making us laugh so much at this), the chainsaw scene, all the good stuff.

My favorite part?  The fact that they embraced campy in every way possible.  If you are in Tampa and free this Saturday or Sunday night you should absolutely go see it – You can get your tickets on Straz Center’s website.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  Evil Dead the Musical is playing in more places than Tampa (I know, what? why?) – you can follow Evil Dead The Tour  on Twitter to see if they are coming to your town.  If you go come back and tell me what you thought!

I received two tickets to Evil Dead the Musical in exchange for writing a review. As always, my opinions are all mine.

Ya.  That’s really a thing.  From Straz Center’s site:

“College kids in an abandoned cabin in the woods for the weekend. What could go wrong? Well, first they accidentally unleash an evil force that turns them into demons. The rest is Evil Dead the Musical, a splatter-fest of camp, gore and one-liners so bad they’ll kill you before the Candarian demons do. This sing-along cult hit is a bloody good time, and for die hard fans, there are always seats available in the Splatter Zone if you get your tickets early. You’ll laugh your guts out.”

What can go wrong indeed?

Who doesn’t want to laugh their guts out? No one I know! Well. No one that I know that I like anyways, and who else counts?

Exactly.

I don’t think I can tell it better than this guy:

Want to come out and get your Evil Dead on?

It’s playing Thurs. at 8 p.m. and Fri. & Sat. at 7:30 p.m. You can pick up tickets here.

Are you a fan of zombies in general or Evil Dead in particular? Do you agree that adding ‘the musical’ to just about anything is kind of awesome?

Last weekend I went to an award ceremony for the Zombie Film Festival, and the week before I went to their second premier night to watch a bunch of short films, all about zombies (as you may guess).  What fun!

What is a Zombie Film Festival?  Participants get 30 days to create a film and all films have to contain certain elements.  I know these had to have a particular quote, a zombie joke, a plunger, and a few other items.  It was really fun to watch for the requirements in all of the different films.

After the award ceremony the second Friday there was a really fun punk band, The Funeral Dazies.  All of the members were zombies, and body parts did occasionally fly to and from the stage, but I’m sure they were basically nice people.   Here’s the band, a stray body part, and the awards announcer. They look nice, right??

So how did I know to go see all of this awesomeness when you didn’t even know it existed?  I have an in!  I know a really great group of people who happen to have just started a film company, Atone Films.  Their film, In Vain, won an award!

Here’s the link to the short film, check it out! Then go over to Atone Film’s new Facebook page and let them know if you like it!

The lead in the film happens to be the guy I’ve been seeing for many a year, do I know how to find the good guys or what?

Are you a fan of zombie films?  Do you think 100s of slow, shambling zombies are scarier or just one or two fast, parkour type zombies are scarier?  I guess it depends on how fast you can run…