As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been playing a lot of the Left 4 Dead games, not only because it's been the Halloween season, but because I'd never played them before. And when I say a lot, I mean that the combined time for both games (thanks Steam) adds up to 40 hours (11 on L4D & 29 on L4D2), although if you break it down:
- I've had the games for 19 days.
- 19 days = 456 hours
- 40 / 456 = 0.87
- I've only spent 8.7% of my time, of the last two and-a-half weeks playing L4D/2.
- Comparatively, I've spent:
- 24.5% of my time at work
- 31.3 % of my time asleep
So really, 8.7% isn't that much time.
Additionally, in the last two weeks, Conklederp and I have gone running twice, but hey, it's Portland and we're not keen on running in the rain. But we do run and we like running, which works its way into Left 4 Dead because there are, in existence, Zombie Runs of varying degrees. There's the Run Like Hell zombie run where people dress up as zombies and do either a 5K, 10K or half marathon. There's the Run for Your Lives zombie run where you have 4 flags (a la flag football) and have to dodge zombies and make it across the finish with at least one flag remaining.
This got me thinking the other day when we were out running in Mary S. Young State Park, which is conveniently 1/2 a mile down the road. I was thinking, that the adventure/obstacle course zombie runs are cool, but you can't fight back. It's all dodging and running away. That's where the paintball guns come in. Now I could go into the whole schpiel that I gave Conklederp as we were running, but I figure that it'll just be faster to list the highlights and rules here for the first ever:
- 5k course, preferably in a wooded area and non-residential.
- Maximum of 250 participants/survivors
- Each survivor will have:
- A paintball gun and 25 rounds of eco-friendly paintballs.
- No other paintballs will be authorized on the course.
- Some form of thick-ish layer clothing in case of stray paintballs. Not required although recommended
- A certified paintball mask.
- A flag football belt with 4 flags which represent life/hit points.
- All equipment is rented and provided by the race organizers. No personal paintball guns will be allowed for safety reasons/concerns.
- Equipment rental is part of the registration cost.
- Minimum of 50 zombies
- Zombies will be identified by the following:
- Red paintball masks
- Red shirts/sweaters/body armor.
- Zombies will be combination of traditional slow moving and modern fast moving zombies.
- Zombies can only be killed by a shot to the head
- A zombie "killed" will be out of commission for 60 seconds.
- A killed zombie will not be standing and may not be shot at.
- Zombies may not be attacked in any other way.
- Tackling, hitting, kicking, tripping or in any other way making intentional contact with a zombie will result in being ejected from the course.
- Zombies are considered "Judges" for the course. There will also be non-zombie Judges making sure people follow the rules.
- If you are seen violating any of the rules, you will be ejected from the course and not be allowed to finish the race.
- There will be two safe houses along the course. At a safe house there will be the following:
- First Aid Kits (real first aid supplies and extra flags. May only pick up two additional flags to a maximum of four).
- Extra 25 rounds of ammunition. You may carry up to 75 rounds.
- Extra rounds from the first safe house will be in commemorative containers that the survivors can take home after the race
- Water, gatorade/powerade/powerthirst.
- Safe houses are zombie free and there will be no zombies for at least 100 yards before/after the safe house.
So I really think this needs to happen. After typing this, I checked online and couldn't find this type of race being done anywhere. I did find some zombie runs being held at paintball parks, but nowhere did they say anything about paintball guns being used. So yes, someone make this happen, and please credit us.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Waivers For All
