The Organ Trail Zombie Urban Adventure: Recap!

Holy hell, let’s start by saying that if you live in Colorado, you should all give the Organ Trail race a try next year! We had such a good time, and although it hurts (!) to walk today, I’m already looking forward to it next year. So, having said that….. prepare yourself for serious photo overload!!

We started Saturday morning bright and early by meeting up at Charlotte’s house. We needed a few hours to get our zombie makeup together and put our costumes on. None of us really knew what we were doing with the zombie makeup, but luckily, Brandy turned out to be a natural makeup artist!

Check out those fake scars! I decided that I was probably stabbed in the chest, but a slice across the face was needed too 🙂 Either way, Brandy rocked with putting on the fake lacerations. Those suckers sure hurt to pull off though! We topped off our hairstyles with a little hair dye, pulled on our tutus, and were ready to head over to the Tilted Kilt, the starting point for the race.

We were trying to be scary zombies, but clearly it wasn’t working for us! One of us always managed to be laughing or smiling or looking downright stupid. (For the record, I’m the idiot in the yellow tutu!) And I’m completely at a loss for why Lindsy is doing little gopher paws. Once again, my friends and I clearly are not great at this whole “‘scary zombie” routine. What can I say!

We got to the Tilted Kilt and I was amazed at how great people looked! We hung out for awhile, and waited while everyone gathered on the patio. Finally, we were read our directions and rules, and they told us to take off!

Using the fake hands to squeeze the “blood” into a large cup.

 In short, we had 12 locations listed that were spread all over Denver. We were allowed a “free” skip of one of the locations, and we had 3 hours to finish as many as possible. In hindsight, the best strategy would have been to sit down with our 2 team members at head quarters and map out all of the locations. We were told that it was possible to complete the race with as little as 3 miles of running, and that RTD and the MallRide were allowed forms of transportation. No taxis, bike cabs, cars, or bicycles were allowed.

Taking a photo of a steaming manhole–but we were totally dodging traffic!

On the backside of the Carioca Cafe

We took off running to our first location while our 2 members at HQ started to figure out the other clues’ locations. They were set up at the Tilted Kilt with their laptops, so cell phones (particularly smartphones) became a serious lifeline!

This clue was tough! We had to find this Scion that was driving around dowtown with the head on the top!

We realized pretty quickly that one of the clues was over by the old Olinger Mortuary building in the Highlands. At a quick glance, that seemed to be the furthest clue for us, so we got there early and completed the task. Again, we had another rookie mistake here–we were actually right next to another clue, but at the time, had planned to skip that clue, so we didn’t worry about it. In the end, we were wishing we had completed the task!

El Churrito

We spent all 3 hours running all over Denver, and because of our scattered organization, we were doing a lot of backtracking. Unfortunately, we also realized that we had been searching for the wrong location for our last clue. We thought the location was up north by City Park, when it was actually further south by I-25. Of course, this led to MORE running, but we kept our spirits up. It was all in good fun!

We had to take a picture of a “zombie baby!”

One of my fave challenges was at the Wazee Supper Club. Once we were inside the restaurant, they gave us a word problem that we only had 2 chances to answer correctly. If we got it correct, we passed that challenge. If you guess wrong both times, you failed that challenge and had to accept a 30 minute penalty on your time. Luckily, I enjoy word problems and problem solving, so we got it right on the first try. According to our mad scientist (the judge!), we were rock stars!

With the mad scientist judge at Wazee Supper Club

In the end, we were able to complete 10 of our 12 challenges. Unfortunately, we had taken the wrong type of pics for two of our challenges, and we didn’t know this till we reached the judging table at the end. In short, those 2 challenges didn’t count. We were a little disappointed about that, but felt better once we talked to our HQ girls. They said lots of people came back way early because they couldn’t run anymore or because the clues were too hard. When we realized this, we were very proud of ourselves for completing as many as we did!

What I learned for next year:

1. It’s really ok to wear your regular running shoes. They advised us that our good shoes might get ruined so we should wear older ones. I thrashed my last pair of old running shoes doing the Tough Mudder, and since they had said it would only be around 3 miles of running, I thought my minimalist Pace Gloves would be fine. In the end, we ran 9.5 miles and my shoes would have been fine. I have NEVER gone that far in those shoes and my calves are killing me today! Lesson learned!
2. Use public transportation, especially the MallRide. It runs up and down 16th street, and although you may have to wait a few minutes for the bus to come by, it’s definitely quicker than running.
3. Take 15 minutes at the beginning of the race to plot out your course. Sure, you’ll feel anxious because everyone else is running away and you’ll feel like you’re getting left behind, but trust me. Strategically, it is definitely the best option!
4. It’s definitely ok to run in a tutu! It did ride up a lot and that got a little bit old, but I never had to go Black Swan on the thing. Besides, I think I got asked out by at least 5 homeless men and 3 or 4 drunk guys, so clearly the tutu was working for me 🙂

 What did you do this weekend?

Did anyone race or do any other Halloween-themed events?