The Blood & Guts Run ®, a Halloween-themed zombie run at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville October 26 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., is shaping up to be one of the largest and most entertaining runs in the region.
Max Bawarski is founder of the 5K run and obstacle course. Besides being a Prince William County resident and Fairfax physical education teacher, Bawarski is founder of Terrorville, the Halloween theme park held at Pev’s Paintball in Aldie every autumn.
Terrorville features an elaborate set-up including haunted woods, laser tag and a zombie rumble, which got his friends to question why Bawarski did not branch out to host a zombie run.
“Last summer I was building Terrorville, and a buddy from college said, ‘these runs are really popular, and you should have people run around all the things that you build.’”
Bawarski said this got him thinking; if he could combine his love for running with his Terrorville obstacles, he could create a really fun run.
“Running was kind of my whole life from seventh grade to my junior year of college. I was even numbe-one in the country at one point,” Bawarski said.
He decided to go for it, and last year he launched his very first Blood & Guts Run, designing and incorporating similar obstacles to those at Terrorville and including zombies that would chase runners.
But most of all, he designed the course he would want to run, saying that between television at the gym or entertainment on our iPods and smart phones, runners now prefer to be entertained.
“The modern day athlete wants to be stimulated the whole time. Sometimes people look at running as not a lot of fun,” he said.
So, he designed a highly stimulating run no one could call boring.
This year, Bawarski expects the Blood & Guts Run to be even bigger than last year. He has expanded it to hold the start times of each run every half hour, and he has modified the obstacles from last year.
“Last year, zombies would hit the runners with foam objects like in American Gladiators. It was a cool concept, but I wasn’t exactly happy with it. All the zombies this year will be spraying the runners with blood-filled water guns,” he said.
He suggests that runners wear white so they can see the blood on their shirts. However, he is also encouraging running-friendly costumes for the Halloween spirit.
Other ways in which he’s incorporating Halloween is with the obstacles, which include fake hearts, spaghetti and pumpkin guts.
However, he is also including obstacles to test the runners’ strength and endurance.
“We have traditional obstacles too like climbing walls and hay bales, and we want to include some really unique and fun obstacles.”
He also considers the zombies an obstacle because “you have to dodge them.”
Bawarski promises the entire event will be entertaining from start to finish with zombies, live music, obstacles, costume contests, mud contests and, of course, running. He invites everyone to run, saying it’s “family friendly” and people can go at their own pace.
However, he also wanted a run that would be satisfying to runners.
“It’s a good mixture of. We have roughly 15 obstacles, every quarter of a mile. You’re going to have an obstacle, and you’ll have zombies throughout the course,” he said.
Some might get sticker-shock at the price, but Bawarski explains that there are costs to holding such a huge event from renting the space, police presence, insurance and parking attendance.
Plus, he wants to give back to the community, so he is donating a portion of the proceeds to cancer research, Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun county public schools and to the U.S. Military. And, teachers, military veterans and police can use a code to save on registration costs while spots are still open.
Bawarski encourages runners, joggers and walkers to sign up for the unique Halloween run experience.
“It’s a run that most people have never experienced in; and you're just stimulated the whole time, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
To register for the run at the Blood & Guts Run website.
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