Surviving the USC Zombie Run
By Emily Young MA ‘16
If you were not at the USC Zombie Run this past Friday, you missed out! Students raved:
- “It was better than a $75, 5K Zombie Run I did in Temecula,
CA freshman year.”—USC Student Avi Kaye
- “I think USC Zombie Run was better than Universal Horror
Nights.” –USC Student Nicolette Martin
- “The event had a great vibe.
All the participants were excited to be there. We played a huge game of Ninja before the
event started and started a spontaneous dance party.”—USC Student Sara Hughes
- “The best event I have ever been to on USC’s campus.” –USC Student
Kelly Claes
- “I’ll admit, I did get a little scared when a couple zombies popped out from behind a trash can.”—USC student Lorna Brandt
The Zombie Run apocalypse was sparked by the Alamitos Nuclear Plant exploding, leaking radiation turning people into cannibalistic zombies all over LA. The infection has spread onto USC’s campus and you must run for your life.
Participants were given a flag-football belt with three flags for the 5K course. Throughout the course, there were zombie zones where zombies attempted to infect runners by snatching flags from their belts. The objective was to complete the race before the zombies snatch your final flag.
3 Key Tips for Survival:
“Rule #1 of the zombie apocalypse: cardio. ” -Zombieland
Zombie Run was my first 5K. Our team nicknamed, “I don’t do long distance,” adopted the strategy of jogging/walking the safe zones and sprinting the zombie zones. You want to save your stamina for the zombie zones since you need to be fast to evade them. The USC Triathlon Zombies were QUICK!
#2 Use the Buddy System
Everyone knows that the person who wanders off alone always dies first in the scary movie. Maintain the buddy system at all times! When you are running through the zombie zones as a big group there are more targets so your chances for survival increase. Making team uniforms definitely helps!
#3 “Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge”-Dodgeball
When there’s a zombie in your path, channel your inner Dodgeball character. Fake-out, spin move, and trick all zombies in your path.
There’s no doubt that students enjoyed participating in the USC Zombie Run thanks to all the volunteers who helped run and organize the event. USC Zombie Run was organized by the USC Special Events Committee, USC Trojan Pride, and USC Triathlon, who convinced Pizza Studio, KIND Bar, and Paramount Pictures to sponsor the event and did their own zombie makeup.
Thanks for all your hard work, and a special thanks to Stanley Cheng for the photos!
~Emily
