The dead inherited downtown Wichita Falls on Oct. 27, as the third annual Wichita Falls Zombie Crawl and 5K took place near the Farmer’s Market Square.
The event was sponsored by a number of local businesses, many with booths set up to sell or promote themselves, and the proceeds benefited the Downtown Proud organization, as well as the American Red Cross.
“All of the profits from our merchandise, like the Zombie Crawl T-shirts, go straight to the American Red Cross,” Media Coordinator Teri Stalee said. “As well as a portion of the 5K registration fee.”
Several students got involved with the planning and production of this event.
“I volunteered with Delta Simga Pi registering people for the 5K,” Senior Accounting major Dustin Casey said. “This is the second year I’ve volunteered for this event, and it’s probably the most fun I’ve had at a volunteer event. You always see something new, exciting and interesting.”
The Halloween event began at 4:30 p.m. and included a number of events that celebrated the holiday including a costume contest, free concert from four area bands, a rib-eating contest and a flash mob put on by Dance, Etc.
One of the main attractions that MSU students got involved in was the art contest, sponsored by the Wichita Falls Downtown Art Gallery.
Students and residents of Wichita Falls were encouraged to enter the contest by Oct. 15, with voting taking place on the Zombie Crawl’s official Facebook page until Oct. 26.
The theme of the contest was “creepy” to fit the Halloween holiday, but the event called for zombie-related material.
Computer Science majors Lauren Rios, a senior, and Zack Shanks, a sophomore, collaborated on the best-in-show winning piece “Technology Zombies.”
“Everybody could do whatever media they wanted, except for sculptures,” Rios said. “So Zack and I put together a digital media piece using Photoshop and other programs.”
“We came up with the idea of how people walk around like zombies when they’re on their phones,” Shanks added. “We took a bunch of pictures of our friends, put different skin tones on them and we cropped them all and put them in background pictures and made it look dark.”
Rios and Shanks both attended the event last year and said they were looking forward to attending and getting involved with this year’s event.
“I came out last year, and had a lot of fun,” Rios said. “I was so excited to take part in [the Zombie Crawl] this year. I’m here to support only, since I’m not a runner, but I made sure to wear my zombie killer shirt.”
Shanks, like many in attendance, took the time to dress up for the festivities – sporting zombie makeup and tattered, bloody clothes.
“It took me about an hour-and-a-half to get my costume ready,” he said. “A friend of mine did the face makeup for me, but I tore up some old clothes and splattered the fake blood on them for the rest of the costume.”
“The costumes are definitely the best part of coming out to this event,” Rios said. “It’s cool to see how creative and imaginative people get with dressing up.”
The Zombie Crawl itself kicked off at 6:15 p.m. Those in costume were lined up and allowed to walk down Eighth St. for a photo opportunity that made it look like Wichita Falls undead had taken over.
Once the sun went down, event coordinators began to get everyone gathered near the giant Wichita County Sheriff’s tank at the race start line for the night’s main attraction, the 5K run.
“The zombie crawl was free to the public, and it was a cool Halloween-themed family event that everyone could attend to hang out,” Stalee said. “The 5K is the main part of the evening, though, and it’s a fun run through downtown Wichita Falls with different obstacles. It’s sort of like a haunted house, too.”
The race course was set up to resemble a post-apocalyptic world. It started on Eighth St. and Ohio Ave.
The race then proceeded downtown, crossing through back alleys, empty parking lots and garages and an abandoned warehouse.
At checkpoints, event volunteers set up different obstacles, such as a smoke screen, and acted out short skits pertaining to the zombie apocalypse.
Runners chose to be survivors or zombies, with the survivors getting a 60-second head start. A zombie’s goal was to try to catch up to the survivors and attempt to take the orange flags they were given before the race to turn them into a zombie.
Several MSU students participated in the race as both survivors and zombies.
“I showed up to run from some zombies and get ready for doomsday,” senior Taylor McLemore said. “My goal was just to survive, not win anything.”
“I definitely came to get my running shoes on and be a zombie,” graduate student Alicia Griffin said. “I’m obsessed with zombies and I love doing the makeup. I was suffering from a cold, but I went out and tried to get as many survivors as I could. The best part was that I got to “kill” my mom, who ran as a survivor.”
According to Stalee, last year’s event had 371 running participants.
This year, pre-registration alone totaled at more than 500 participants, and many continued to register throughout the day until race time.
“We’re glad that everyone came out and supported [the Zombie Crawl & 5K],” Stalee said. “It’s a different event, but that’s what makes it awesome.”