A day of the living dead will be celebrated in Cochrane once again with the return of Zombie Survivor held at the Cochrane and District Agricultural Society.
On July 26, running from flesh-hungry creatures of your nightmares will be a reality – sort of.
At Zombie Survivor participants are invited to run a 5-km race through “zombie infested lands.” Each runner has three flags representing their lives and the zombies attempt to take those away from them throughout the course.
“You can sign up as a runner if you want to do all the obstacles or if you’re not really into running, you can sign up to be a zombie,” said Kyle Fitzgerald, one of the event’s co-founders and project manager.
He said they have 15 makeup artists that transform 500 people into zombies.
Fitzgerald said his business partner Adil Hooda originally wanted to do some sort of mud run and came up with the zombie theme – a unique take on the running event.
“We decided to go back because I thought we could do a lot more with that area than we did in the first year,” said Fitzgerald of the Ag Society location.
Fitzgerald said there are a lot of changes to the event this year, with 75 per cent of the obstacles being brand new and the creation of an easy and hard mode for this year’s race.
He said this year they also have themed “zombie zones” where the zombies are dressed up according to what zone they are in, such as beach party and prison.
“We thought there was a lot we could do with all the hills and even the barns they have up there, we thought we could incorporate it into that kind of space,” said Fitzgerald of choosing the Ag Society location. “It really just had a good feel to it.”
Last year’s event drew 500 zombies, 2,300 runners and 1,000 spectators – making the total turnout around 4,000 people.
They expect around the same turnout this year, or slightly bigger.
Last year, Fitzgerald said they donated a portion of their earnings to Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta, something they are doing again this year. In addition to the donation, they have invited some of the kids and staff members to participate in the event and they will be doing a 50/50 draw with all proceeds going to Kids Cancer Care.
The event will have running waves starting throughout the day from 7 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m. Spectators are invited to attend and watch the action from the grandstand.
Fitzgerald said there would be a beer gardens, music and food trucks at the run and some prizes for spectators, racers and zombies alike.
