Last July 28, we participated in Outbreak BGC, a 5km zombie-themed night run in Bonifacio Global City. The event proved to be the Nightmare Mode of Outbreak Manila, the fun run held in Nuvali in April this year. While the first run had a rural setting of mostly dirt trails and fields with a backdrop of perfect sunny skies and shambling zombies hiding in the grass, this time we were being chased by zombie sprinters in dimly lit slippery roads, at night, in the the pouring rain. Fun!
We ran in the same wave as Shaun of the Dead, Wolverine and a Jedi Knight!
Being the great procrastinators that we are, Art and I were left scrambling for last-minute costumes the day of the run. Our criteria for “costumes” was simple: 1) should be related to the zombie genre (movies/games) ; 2) should not impair our ability to run; 3) could be put together with stuff lying around the house.
Teaser video from Outbreak Manila
As expected, we ended up with somewhat obscure characters. I opted for Zoey from the first-person shooter game Left4Dead (who just wears jeans and a red jacket over a white shirt) with a makeshift first aid kit and bottle of pain pills as props. This turned out to be a bad idea, as anyone who plays Left4Dead knows that Zoey is always the first survivor in the group to be targeted by zombies. Also, wet jeans are very hard to run in. I died pretty early on in the race (but was able to grab an extra life flag at one of the Mogu-Mogu cars), so technically, I survived. (HP regenerated!)
Art went as Andy, the gun store owner from the 2004 movie remake of Dawn of the Dead, who he pretty much looks and dresses like anyway. Since bringing weapons like toy guns was not allowed, he just carried a sign from one of the scenes in the movie. A zombie near the finish line attacked him, but he ended the run with 3 life flags intact in exchange for ripped pants and bloody elbows.
There were familiar obstacles including an area covered with garterized string with a whole wall of zombies waiting right outside and a maze. I really liked the section of the road that was closed off to resemble an urban apocalyptic scenario with drums on fire and jeeps and mini-buses scattered about on the road (with zombies hiding inside of course).
I really admire the zombies and runners who went all out for their costumes. The zombie make-up by Makeup Design Academy in collaboration with The List Salon was superb and very realistic! Lots of runners came in normal running gear, but it was cool to spot those who came in costume. There were lots of zombies dressed in uniforms of various professions (security guards, construction workers, chefs, doctors, nurses, etc.). For the runners, it was those dressed as superheroes, movie and game characters that stood out the most. Here’s my pick of top 10 best costumes for zombies and runners during the run.
NOTE: All watermarked photos here with the Outbreak BGC logo are taken from Outbreak Manila’s Facebook Page courtesy of © Zeus Martinez Photography.
ZOMBIES
Zombie Michael Jackson (King of Zombies Dan!)
Zombie Prisoner
Zombie Bride
Zombie with axe in chest
RUNNERS
Jedi
Mario and Luigi
Batman / Bane
Spartans
Ninjas
Since it was raining heavily during our wave, I only have the blurry camera pics and really, really dark and unusable video footage. As stated above, all photos here are taken from Outbreak Manila’s Facebook Page © Zeus Martinez Photography, the official event photographers. Kudos to the photography team for their great event coverage despite all the challenges – especially with the rain! Check out their full album of event photos and read about their cool experience shooting the zombies here.
Photo credits:
- Zeus Martinez: http://www.facebook.com/ZeusMartinezPhotography
- Teki Diaz: http://www.facebook.com/TekiDiaz
- Rain Pangindian: www.facebook.com/rainpangindian