Last weekend was The Zombie Dash in Grand Rapids, MI. It was definitely an experience. Mostly fun, a little annoying. But all in our entire entire group decided we would do it again in the future.
We got to Grand Rapids pretty early in the day because we were not quite sure where to go, all we knew was that on the map our hotel looked really close to where the race started. It was! It was right across the street. So that worked out perfectly.
After we checked in we hung out for a few then walked across to the park, it ended up being on the grounds of the Gerald Ford Museum so we took a minute to check out the grave site, figured out where check in would be. Found a metal sculpture of a football player and of course that means it had to be climbed on, humped and pretended to ride it like a bull. Unfortunately I just stood by and laughed because I shouldn’t be climbing statues being pregnant and all. Then we found the big button and took fun pictures with that. Finally we decided to do what we went over there for. To find out where registration, the bathrooms and the start and finish line were as well as check out some of the route. After that we went back to the hotel for some lunch and chilled until check in started for the race.
We went to check in as soon as it opened, so there were no lines yet, it took an entire 3 minutes for a group of 9 to get our shirts, numbers and life strips… Not bad! So we wandered to the hotel once again got tutu’ed (I think I made that word up) and numbered up, watched some Harry Potter and wandered back to the park closer to start. We hopped on an earlier wave just in case we needed extra time. I certainly did.
Once the race started I started out at a jog, once the cold air hit my lungs I was done for! I pushed on for a short distance then decided that it was hard to breathe and I should just walk it. I did not want to push myself and hurt myself or the baby. Not worth it, and even walking I knew that it would be fun either way.
So I am walking along (half of my group was really far ahead of me and some were even behind me) and I get to an area that is riddled with zombies. I decided I would do a slow jog and see if I could get through with life strips. I was surprised that I was able to! So I learned that I could dodge a zombie horde if I really wanted to. But then the whole I can’t breathe thing started again so back to walking for me. This lessened lung capacity because of my growing uterus is kind of annoying. Once I get to the bridge there was another horde, I decided I was just going to walk. Life strips are not more important than my personal comfort and safety. Once I am about half way through one of the zombies was a little too grabby. I got angry. There was a very clearly stated hands-off rule. Just said some words and kept going, he surprisingly did not get my life strips though. Then I heard someone yell “Watch Out!” I turned around and he was behind me and got all grabby again and got a strip, no biggie. But I don’t like strangers touching me and I signed up for an event that was supposed to be “flag” style. O well, I didn’t let it ruin my mood. The next part was a stroll through the woods then I came to Kill Hill. You had an option of an easier paved way up or a grassy, steeper shorted way. I chose the hard way. Holy cow was it steep. I stopped for about 15 seconds in the middle and looked to see if I could see any of my comrades and a nice little boy zombie came up and asked if I needed help. He was so cute and thoughtful.
After getting through the hill I was pretty pooped out for a minute, but I recovered quite quickly and went through this cardboard zombie “city” it was pretty neat actually. Then we looped back around to where the first zombie horde was encountered. Once again one of them decided to get rough, really rough actually. Yanking on my tutu and grabbing my arm. I turned around and hand him my life strip. I was over it. Unfortunately I got a little filthy mouthed and said to him as I handed him my life strip “Here, I am to “f***ing pregnant for your bulls***” Not good on my end but once again, strangers should touch me and there was a rule against it. The rest of the race went well, Pat found me and walked with me the rest of the way, I found another person who was walking and chit chatted with her. We decided that as long as we finish we were good. And I did. My time was an hour and 5 minutes, not bad for walking and talking and all. Unfortunately one person in our group was hurt by an overzealous zombie and had to see a medic. They thought her finger was broken but it is looking like it was just sprained. Either way it should have never happened, they should have been hands off. But she still said she had fun.
After the race they had snacks and beverages of course, a beer tent (I didn’t bother with that), live music and it was nice but COLD! And The Fetus was yelling at me to eat so we waiting for everyone to meet back up hung out for a few and then went and had a nice dinner and some delish cheesecake. We all went to our rooms after warmed up and got some sleep. We meet back up in the morning convoyed to a restaurant, had a yummy lunch and headed home.
All in all it was fun and i will do it again. The organizers, Michigan Adventure Racing did a great job with the race. I also don’t blame then for our zombie issues. Some people just don’t listen and how can you monitor everyone where there are 1,100 runners and almost 500 zombies? You can’t. But maybe those zombies will read this and feel ashamed of themselves.
Round to Ravishing 