CAMPUS: Run for one’s life
By David Gomez Jr.
Editor-in-chief
Published Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022
Nearly 200 students, families and community athletes ran amok on campus during TAMIU’s Recreational Sports’ first-ever 3k Zombie Run.
“I think it’s really enjoyable,” sophomore and psychology major Christina Lorena Castillon said about the Saturday, Oct. 15, evening event. “I think it’s a little bit of a goofy event, but it’s fun.”
Derly Rojo, right, attempts to outrun a zombie from stripping her flag at the first-ever Zombie Run at TAMIU on Oct. 15.
They thought that, at maximum, they would host about 100 competitors, but instead reached nearly 200. As expected, there weren’t enough free T-shirts to go around.
An unidentified girl runs toward the finish line to escape the zombies of TAMIU’s Zombie Run on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
“We originally had this expectation that we didn’t think it’d be that popular, so we made a bunch of marketing videos for it, which—shout out to Marco [Villareal]—because he did such a fantastic job with this and all of us coordinating it,” Castillon said.
The social media advertisement by Villareal, an outdoor adventure guide, worked too well. Some hope the event becomes a new TAMIU Rec Sports Halloween season tradition.
“Hopefully it will stay this way for the upcoming years,” political science major Maximiliano Prado said.
TAMIU student Daniella Delgado, right, runs away from a zombie at the last stage of the zombie attacks during TAMIU’s Zombie Run on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
The Zombie Run adds a twist to the traditional 3k marathon. Runners wore a flag football belt with two flags around their waist as “zombie” runners chased them. If a non-zombie runner loses both flags, they no longer qualify for placement. Anyone who makes it to the finish line with at least one flag “survives” and may qualify as a winner.
Unidentified runners compete in the Zombie Run on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022, at TAMIU.
For one of the zombies, it wasn’t the first time they volunteered to growl and chase runners.
“I’ve been a zombie before, as I’ve been part of one at one of our local high schools, and doing this was a very fun—a nostalgic kind of experience,” Castillon said. “It’s a lot of fun being able to participate and being able to do everybody’s makeup and see how everyone has so much fun with the event.
“Not only the zombies, but seeing how the runners react when we scare them and how they run past us is a really fun interaction.”
An unidentified runner from the Zombie Run event throws a thumbs-up before crossing the finish line.
Unidentified runners try to keep ahead of the zombies during the TAMIU Zombie Run on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
