Today on the blog: Halloween Zombie Inspiration…or, this Charity 5K I didn’t run in last week!

This was the second year I participated in the Daejombie Charity Runpocalypse. If the name sounds funny, here is an explanation: Our city in Korea is Daejeon & in Korean there is no equilvalent for “Z.” So in Konglish, “Z” is usually replaced with “J” making Zombie-Jombie. Pretty cute, huh?

So the Daejeon Zombies, or Jombies, gathered for the Apocalypse. The event is a 5K raising money for a local animal shelter, Daejeon Paws. It’s loads of fun & attracts participants from all across the country. The idea is the runners are given a belt with flags, like in Flag Football. They run a planned course, like in any 5K, except in this course, they have to overcome zombie attacks. The zombies are given certain zones to hide & plan non-violent attacks to steal the runners’ flags. Runners who complete the course with any number of flags still attached to their belts are declared Survivors, the rest are Infected.

This event is so much fun! Everything from getting as disgusting and zombified as possible with my friends to trying to hail a cab home is hysterical. And the most fun part this year, was being in the second zone just above a small set of stairs. I was in a great position to intimidate runners (see picture below). Plus most of them still had all their “life tags.” So I was able to triple my number of collected tags from last year.

One of the great things about being a zombie (that’s a weird phrase), is that each zombie zone gets their own photographer. This year we were lucky enough to be teamed up with Phil of Phil W. Photography. Afterwards he did some fantastic editing & made us these cool Halloween style movie posters:

There are lots more on his site including individual portraits of each zombie. Check them out in time for Halloween if you’re looking for zombie inspiration. Just click on the Daejeon Zombie Run tab. The password is “Paws.”

After the race, the event continued with local bands & food from local restaurants. And the best part, Mr. FGK’s band, Jeen Freek, performed…as green faced zombies!

I am so proud the Mr. finding an outlet for all his creativity & musical talent. He is seriously skilled with stringed instruments. I’m always amazed and extremely jealous by his ability to learn a new instrument overnight. Why not me?! Since we’ve been living in Korea, he’s found lots of new creative inspiration. He’s writing new songs or guitar parts for songs almost weekly.

His band Jeen Freek is an Indie Rock group formed of our expat friends from America, South Africa, Canada & England. If you’re into Indie Rock or just curious, check out Jeen Freek’s first album, Dad Strength, released last Spring.