The 4th annual Zombie Run, a 5km run by students from City of Dublin Further Education Colleges, took place on October 21st in Fairview Park in aid of the Peter McVerry Trust.
This year’s Zombie Run was a great success with a large amount of participants taking part on the day. The Zombie Run is an annual 5km run in Fairview Park held in aid of the Peter McVerry Trust, an NGO set up to help those in difficult situations such as the homeless, drug addicts and the social disadvantaged. The event was open to ETB students, with students from our own Marino College, ColaisteDhulaigh, Liberties College, amongst others.
The day was not exactly cold, but not exactly warm either, perfect for the runners, if a little chilling for the organisers and photographers. Marino College organisers, beauty students and photographers began to turn up around 9:00am to set up the beauty and registration tent and refreshment area.
Before the start of the race proper, a few words were given by Councillor Janice Boylan, on behalf of the Lord Mayor, followed by the Drama and Theatre students from Marino College and ColaisteDhulaigh performing Michael Jacksons Thriller.After all of the entertainment, a warm up routine was given by Fit Studios personal trainers for all the participants. The speeches given and the warm up over the race began.
Runners, donning their zombie garb and make-up, piled to the start line, the whistle blew and then they were off. The more athletic/competitive few sprinted from the line, while the vast majority decided to walk the 5km (with a few cheekier zombies decided to cut across the field, halving the distance). When the race was over the spot prizes were presented to the winners in various categories; Niall Foley of Colaiste Dhulaigh, who finished the race in an impressive 12 minutes 12 seconds, was the fastest male and was given a choice of a €20 Centre gift card or a bottle of Jameson Whiskey, he unsurprisingly chose the whiskey, Fastest Female, Audrey Chambers of Marino College Health Service Skills Class was given a bottle of white wine. Several other spot prizes were given out including “Hairiest Legs” and “Youngest Runners”, the latter winners being the three young children of Marino College staff member Lynn Armstrong, all of whom got very involved in all the day’s events from the warm up routine to the actual running.
After the spot prizes were given, everybody made their way over to Smyths Bar across the road, where some food was provided and FM104 gave out a limited number of vouchers for Liffey Valley.
It was a great day all around and sure to convince others to participate next year.
Laura ODwyer
marinocollegesu 