Dawn of the Dead Dash

Unilocal 365 Challenge x 2 #249/​365
Dawn of the Dead Dash event, November 9, 2013 (Saturday)
Ever since I completed the Spartan Race, there have been other runs popping up in Hawaii, which I’ve been signing up for because it seemed like a lot of fun OR there were other people sharing about it with the assumption that they would be signing up too.
Well, I did the early bird sign up, figuring what’s a few 5k’s before next year’s Spartan Race in March 2014? I don’t know what I was thinking because after adding up the runs between August 2013 and March 2014… it is a total of TEN runs. Now, for the avid runners-it’s probably not a big thing to you. But, to me? It is because last year I only did a total of THREE. While the years before that was BARELY.
Anyhow, Dawn of the Dead Dash. Being that I am a Walking Dead fan and noticing that this was an urban run with no prior information of the course, I thought it was pretty daring and fun especially since the event was at night.
The week prior to the event, an email was sent to all participants on the race packet pick-​up location (Lulu’s in Waikiki).
Once we picked up our packets, we were given the instructions that all participants were to meet at the Kapiolani Park bandstand at 7:00 with a 7:15 briefing from the race coordinator.
That night, it was raining earlier. As I sat in my car, I didn’t see that much people but as 7:00pm drew near, alot more people started coming out. Some were dressed in regular running gear while others were dressed as zombies.
At 7:15, we were given glow collars and the instructions that if we were tagged, we had to give up our collars and become part of the zombie communty.
Prior to the event, we were encouraged to carry our smart phones because we had to log onto their website and enter a code. This gave us the clearance to run as well as the first checkpoint location, which showed on google maps.
Note: In-​between checkpoints, zombies were laying in wait for runners, which meant it didn’t matter if you were a slow runner or fast runner-​you basically had to strategize on how you were going to get from point A to point B.
It was hilarious because you could hear yelling and screaming. Thank goodness the Waikiki residents along Kapiolani Park were nice and just watched us run.
As we got through to the first checkpoint, there was another code that led us to the 2^nd location/​checkpoint.
There were three checkpoints around Kapiolani Park and Diamond Head. Our final checkpoint afterwards was Lulu’s.
If you cleared each checkpoint, you could post your success to twitter or facebook. If you died. you entered in the dead code, which says you are infected.
The third checkpoint was the most difficult and the funniest. I can’t remember the name of that little park up Diamond Head road but as you entered the gate, there were zombies waiting. However, to get to the code (in the middle of the park)-you had to get around them. While I was an individual runner. There were teams that basically looked at one another with the look of, «Who’s going to sacrifice themselves for us to get to the number and survive?»
It was an interesting night.
Oh, did I survive? No… I died at the zombie hands of a little girl because I was trying to run away from her zombie mom.
If this event comes to Hawaii next year, sign up because there are limited spots.
Suggestion for Dawn of the Dead Dash 2014 in Hawaii
1) If it’s urban… make it AROUND Waikiki NOT Kapiolani Park! Start talking with different businesses to let them know that there will be an event. Give the participants a stamp card that we must stamp at each destination points
2) Have more staff distributing the glow collars
3) Make sure that zombies confiscate the glow collars instead of allowing the runners to give it up at the next station
4) Put up a mini «finish» line because there were some that were confused if we had to return to Headquarters even after we died