Some of you may have seen the guest post I wrote on Zombie Command back in June, in which I introduced the idea of being able to run as a basic necessity when the zombie uprising starts. If you’ve seen ‘Zombieland’ and remember rule 1 (cardio) you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Ally carves his name into Ichabod the pumpkin

While, in fact, the ability to run isn’t limited to zombies (and likewise – zombie survival isn’t limited to being able to run), it’s certainly an important point. One can’t be complacent in thinking that all zombies are going to be slow and stupid. As I mentioned in the article for Zombie Command:

“While purists may argue the unlikelihood of a ’28 Days Later’ style infection in which the victims still have good motor control and coordination (aka, the Running Zombie), failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Who can forget Robert Carlyle’s Don running from the house 10 minutes into ’28 Weeks Later’ with dozens of infected sprinting behind him? The best escape plan can fail. Be prepared to up and run when you need to.”

While my article for Zombie Command was designed to convince people that already had elaborate ‘bug out’ plans to start running, you guys already know how to run. Instead, we’ll stick with 3 zombie survival basics.

Aim for the head: Whether you have a cricket bat or a shotgun, this is the general universal rule for stopping a zombie. Removing the head or destroying the brain will stop a zombie permanently, but taking a limb off could slow it down.

Have a plan: Being prepared is probably your best weapon. You might want to avoid largely populated areas, which for most people probably means travelling out of towns and cities. Know your destination, the route, and what you need to take. Have backup plans, which might include defending where you are in the eventuality that you’re unable to travel.

Stay alive: There’s a lot to take into consideration, and a lot of it can’t be planned for. Don’t assume anything and get as much information as you can. Be disciplined, don’t take risks, be prepared to run!

The best defence is...running away

Obviously, I can’t cover everything now, I’d be here all afternoon and I’m already late for archery :-) There’s a vast array of information out there if you’re interested. Yes, you could watch ‘Night of the Living Dead’ again, but for good solid advice I’d recommend Max Barry’s ‘Zombie Survival Guide’, which I first read in 2004, and the follow up ‘World War Z’.

To celebrate Halloween and this being my 99th post (and because I found I still had some lurking under my desk) I’m giving away a Running from Zombies sticker to the first 3 people to comment on this post. Happy Halloween, and remember: Don’t be an easy meal.

The first draft of the logo I've been using for the blog.

My feedback mostly comes from the WordPress stats page, which can tell me some things (my busiest day was when I was giving away free stuff, my quietest days are when I don’t post anything) but not a whole lot. So please leave a comment, or send mail to sarah@runningfromzombies.com. Thanks!

After last week’s interesting 5k expedition with Scribs, I challenged* him to run a mile every week until we move out of this house in July. Surprisingly he accepted and so we attempted our second outing earlier this week. It was obviously such a profound experience that he decided to give us this blog post yesterday. As I’m pretty swamped with work at the moment, I suggest you go and read that :-)

*Scribs has a ‘challenge’ section on his blog where readers are invited to challenge him to do things that will make his life better.

So here we have…Matt’s story.

Sai asked me to write something for her blog. She maintained the request even after I told her I’d write about the genealogy of badgers so she must be truly desperate to hear my thoughts, or just really busy on her dissertation. In the end I chucked the badgers and went with the theme of running instead.

I have so many reasons to run.

At the end of last year it struck me that I could lose weight, control my diabetes and help fix my depression by running. One solution for three of the biggest problems in my life seemed too elegant to resist. I’ve always had a romantic view of running as the best way to loseweight. Probably because of how it doesn’t require a partner or gym or any special equipment beyond shoes and, for me, music. It’s the simplest of exercises. Also of the various ways to help depression it’s clearly the best because as well as giving you a short term burst of endorphins it’s also helping to improve self-esteem, health and all that bollocks so there is a long-term fix there.

So with that in mind I got a Nike Plus for Christmas and suddenly I had a whole new reason to run that was even more important than the original reasons. Beating Sai! We set up a challenge to see who could run furthest in a month. Now she’s been doing this for longer and runs further than me but I was convinced that if I just ran more frequently I could beat her. In the first month I was ill for acouple of weeks which gave her a slight advantage and she mullered me. In the second month I prevailed! Now in a way I only won because Sai’s running was affected by a leg injury but the fact is that I pushed myself hard. I forced myself to go further distances and to goto the gym when I was knackered after a soul grinding day at work and even to sneakily run 6k (more than I’d done in a single go at that point) only a few hours before the end of the challenge to push myself ahead. Some might call that sneaky and treacherous opportunism but I call it thinking outside the box. In this case the box is morality. Now in our current competition Sai is so far ahead that I’m convinced she’s using some advanced military cybernetic exoskeleton(and they do exist) and my only real hope for catching up is if she injures herself or I get bitten by a radioactive spider.

But that doesn’t matter because recently I’ve caught sight of a new reason to run which trumps them all (even defeating Sai) and that’s the pure joy of running. I’ve only experienced it rarely because usually I’m too caught up in the pain in my legs, chest, brain and indeed everywhere with nerve endings to feel anything else. You may have picked up that I’m not a natural runner. Running comes as easily to me as piano playing does to a gerbil but a couple of times there have been moments when I get the pace exactly right and music is on agood beat and the distance melts away and there is an effortless purity to it all. I’m suddenly free of any stress, any worries, anything but the rhythm of the running and the movement of my muscles. It’s a beautiful feeling and I’m sure I’ll be able to capture it more often when my running becomes less laboured. That’s a reason to hold onto and that will be why eventually I’ll simply run because the running will have become part of who I am. I think that I’ll be a better person for it.

I’ve even got a plan like Sai’s plan about what length of run she’ll try to do each year although my anticipation of what I’ll be able to accomplish differs from Sai’s in a couple of small ways.