Zombies, Run!

Back in October I decided I was going to try running.  I can't remember when exactly I went completely insane, but I imagine it went something like this: "well, I have a treadmill.  Might as well start using it.  Okay, how does this thing work... ah, okay.  Hmm... this is okay.  Walk, walk, walk! Got my tunes and my water and I'm staring at a wall.  Staring at a wall and walking in place.  Walking in place.  Walking in place.  Wow.  This is boring.  I need this mile to be over.  Now.  I better speed it up.  Whew, I'm kinda jogging now!  This isn't so bad.  The faster I go, the sooner it's over.  Let's set the speed at 9...."

You can see where this is going.  So I started running but then I realized that the miles were going by a little TOO quickly and I needed to run MORE miles in order to get any sort of benefit out of it.  Enter my friend Amy, who shares my hatred- er, minor dislike- of the treadmill and my love of killing zombies.  She recommended the app Zombies, Run! by Six to Start with Naomi Alderman.

Now, before I start I feel the need to share my feelings on zombies.  I HATE THEM.  HATE.  They are literally my worst nightmare and, at risk of sounding weird, I have zombie nightmares like once a week.  I hate zombie movies (I mean, I love them because the zombies usually die- again- but I sit there in a complete panic the entire time), so I really wasn't sure if this app was going to make me crap my pants on a run or what. 

The story unfolds and you discover that you are a survivor of the zombie apocalypse.  You wind up at Able Township (how you get there is a good story) where Sam, the adorable comms guy, tell you what your daily mission is over a headset (your earphones).  You pick up supplies along the way (don't worry, no bending involved, it's all electronic) and then when your run is finished you get to disperse the supplies around town and watch it grow.  You can run outside and have it track your distance or run inside and have it be a timed run.  You can disable zombie chases if it's too scary.  In between each transmission they play music from your iPod.  But it's the voices that will keep you coming back.  You get to know the characters and you look forward to hearing from them again.  They have back stories, and hopes for the future, and best of all- they're FUNNY!  Before you know it, your run is over and you can't wait for tomorrow to run again.

There are 23 repeatable missions that follow the storyline, as well as a bunch of supply runs (that can be done at any time during the story line) and a radio mode that plays your own music interspersed with funny commentary.  There's also a 5k trainer app that has 8 weeks of training. 

All in all, this app made me a runner.  I HATED running, but by the end of my 23rd mission, I was hooked.  I had made running into a habit without even knowing it.  Every once in a while I get asked "how can you run on the treadmill?  Doesn't it get boring?"  THIS is how I did it.  When you're being chased by zombies, you don't mess around.  You run.