I don't even know how I heard about the Run For Your Lives zombie 5K obstacle courses a couple of months ago.
All I knew was - there is an event where you have to run from zombies! That literally sounded like the coolest thing on earth to me. I checked out the website and was super intrigued, even though the $70+USD entry fee seemed outrageous to me. I was also apprehensive of the fact that there was no large Charity attachment to these runs, and only a link to the Red Cross at the bottom of the page, next to the sponsors. No mention of actual contribution amount or any charitable efforts. I feel like if you're gonna charge this much money for an entry fee, some of it should be for a good cause, right? 

But I had just started training with Personal Trainer Nick and the March 3rd 2012 Atlanta run was a perfect benchmark goal to work toward. It was before the busy convention season, when every weekend would mean traveling to another city for me, and truly, I adore zombies. 

So I signed up for the run, and after fees and taxes my transaction total was $92.95.

Insert "Rocky"-esque montage of me running, hiking in the mountains and weight lifting. LOL.

This morning my friends and I made the trek out to the Atlanta run. Ok, they call it the "Atlanta" event, but it was actually held in Union Point, GA, a tiny town 2 and a half HOURS drive from Atlanta!! Last night we had Thunderstorms (and a tornado) in GA and it rained through the night and for most of the day today. We got up at 5am, left ATL at 6:15 and finally made it to the event lot at 8:45 where we were greeted with smart-ass signs demanding $10 for parking. By the time we walked to the Registration area and signed in, our sneakers and legs were already covered in mud. It would be one of those messy days but we were ready to take on the MUD!!!
 

    

Upon walking into the main Safe Zone compound, we noticed immediately that there was no set up for runners to stretch (it was so muddy you couldn't stretch), no central water stations, and in fact the Staff made us throw out our drinks when we arrived! It was disappointing to see that this event is not focused on athleticism at all.

Also, Brian was awesome and came along to drive us to the event, and to take photos of us. He had to pay $35 just to get a wristband and be a Spectator. On a miserable rainy day, that was no fun for him.

So our team - TrainerNick, Tanner and I, filed into this tunnel with about 100 (?) runners and waited for them to open the gate to our Wave at 10am. As we shot out of the gate, it was cold and raining. The mud was ankle deep and slippery as heck, and the suction each step made so strong that it could pull off your shoe. Fitness wise, I loved the challenge and enjoyed the jog, having to balance myself, trying not to slide and working against the suction. Definitely a great work out.

Until the zombies tried to take your flags lol. 

See, each runner got 3 flags on a waist band, and the zombies tried to rip those off. They are not allowed to touch you, just rip the flags. If you lost all your flags, you didn't "survive" and wouldn't get a time award at the end. The rule is, runners can't touch the zombies, and zombies can't touch runners. Think - Haunted House scare rules.
First off, it is hard to evade a zombie in the mud. I originally imagined that the undead would come up BEHIND you at certain stations and make you run faster.. that seems to make sense when the advertisement is "Run From Undead". But this morning, at various points there would be 5 - 8 zombies blocking the path, and runners had to dart PAST them. In the slippery mud, that is frigging hard. I managed to lose the first flag at the first obstacle: Climbing several large bales of hay. 

After that I saved my energy by walking or lightly jogging between obstacles and sprinting past the zombies. Other bootcamp type obstacles included: water filled mud pond with logs that you hard to hurdle, large tires to climb/jump on, hurdles, mud pool up to your waist to wade through, climbing a net, climbing a wall then sliding down the other side etc. AND A LAKE TO SWIM THROUGH. I do not have any photos of the main portion of the course since Brian had to stay behind in the camp and was awaiting us at the Finish Line for photos. But let me say, these obstacles were legit, a lot of fun, and sometimes a bit scary. I cursed a lot when we came to the lake lol. They had a guide rope but the water was deep enough that you truly had to swim, and it was ICE cold and brown from mud. I think most everyone regretted getting into the lake instead of using the optional walking path, but I felt like I paid a lot of money for this experience so I wanted all of it. One nice thing about the lake was it did wash off a lot of the mud accumulation on my body and shoes lol.

But I do want to talk about the unpleasant portion of the race, which was asshole zombies. See, instead of hiring a horde of zombies, Run For Your Lives simply allows anyone to register as a zombie, for an entry fee of $25, You heard me - even the zombies had to PAY to be part of the event. And anyone off the street could do it - they throw you in a barn, go over some rules quickly, give you 5 minutes (!) for makeup and send you out to chase runners. Of course, 90% of all the zombies were great sports and played their part well. Some were slower and creepy, and some were aggressive and sprinted after you. If you think about it, the zombies have time to rest between sprints and grabs while the runners are exhausted from dealing with the obstacles and conditions. I realized halfway through the run that it would be very very hard to keep even 1 flag, due to the sheer number of zombies (350) and length/difficulty of the course. I don't think ANYONE in our Wave made it to the Finish Line with a flag. What ruined the fun for me was the zombie in a dark suit in the grassy field who broke character to yell taunts at the runners (such as "I'm gonna get that tough one! That one's mine!"), and TACKLE people to the ground. He came after me and shoved me down into the brush, and while I'm still on the ground, this guy if kneeling OVER ME saying "Oh no big deal, I bit it a couple of times.", then before I could even stand up, he rips my flag off with a condescending "Thanks!"
His behavior was rude and uncalled for, and against the rules. This guy clearly was there just to bully people and he had a skirt of flags to prove it. People like this asshole take the fun out of the run and I didn't pay $93 plus $10 parking and drove over 2 hours to be tackled down and taunted. And I was not the only one. My team and I witnessed other runners getting tackled, pushed and run down. I think when the organization planned this run, they did not establish enough rules for runner-zombie interaction. Yes, in a real zombie apocalypse, the undead would sprint after you relentlessly (if you go by Dawn of the Dead or Zombieland), BUT the Living would also not just be running away, careful not to touch the zombies.... they would have an arsenal of WEAPONS to KILL the zombies with!!! That is where I think the organizers failed to take into account. If we can't defend ourselves against zombies in this game, they should not be able to full on run after us, especially when the obstacles already tire out the runners. I really would have loved to have seen zombie ambushes or sneak attacks, like hiding behind bushes, trees, camouflaged areas, instead of simply having zombies block your way.

Aside from that, I enjoyed the physical aspect of this course a lot. Brian caught some truly great shots of the final hill slide and mud pond before the Finish line. Here is my end of run:

Brian also got these awesome shots of TrainerNick, Tanner and these other guys coming down for the last part:

The mud turned me orange after the run:

To sum up this event, the best thing I got out of it is a genuine interest to do more obstacle course races and mud runs. The fitness aspect of these things is off the chain! I loved every minute of being outdoors, running and climbing and swimming and getting muddy all the while lol.

I also loved the idea of a zombie themed run. In the case of Run For Your Lives though, they failed at providing an event worth the ticket price. I ended up enjoying the obstacles and the run itself a lot more than dealing with the "zombies". They didn't scare me (and I am easily scared!!!) -  once I lost the flags there was no incentive to run from them, and they didn't bother to come after you anymore. The exhilaration of running from zombies only lasted for the first few minutes, then it became dealing with humans in bad special effects makeup acting like bullies.
The absolute WORST part about Run For Your Lives is the overpriced entry fees for runners, zombies AND watchers, and the fact that none of it is supporting a Charity. I spoke to one of the main organizers, Megan, after the race, and she swore they donate to the Red Cross. But she also admitted that the Red Cross didn't show up to the race. That to me translated into the Red Cross not being supported enough to warrant an excursion to this zombie race. Neither on the Run For Your Lives website nor at the race are any tangible information on the Red Cross or HOW it is supported. There is also no sense of rallying the participants to be charitable, no booths or advertisements to raise awareness or allow for donations. 

Run For Your Lives is a pure For Profit event organized by Reed Street Productions, who pocket the tremendous monetary intake without giving back to the community. The set up of the Safe Zone was sloppy, with no thought or care provided to the athletes. It's just an overpriced party disguised as an athletic event.

For most people, that is enough. But for me, I definitely didn't get $145 worth of zombie themed entertainment out of it. I am proud of myself and my team for having completed the obstacle course despite the miserable conditions, and I got a great work out. But I will not support Run For Your Lives or Reed Productions anymore. I will not participate in this race again. I would rather sign up for a charity driven race for $45 and donate $100 to another cause.

There are many charity races out there, for those who are interested. if you have to pay and you have to run, why not do it to help others and raise awareness? For example, coming up is the Turtle Trot at Tybee Island, a 5K Beach run Fundraiser benefiting the Sea Turtle Project. There is also the Dirty Girl Mud Run, which raises awareness for breast cancer and a portion of the sign up fee is donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. For Georgians, there is the Run Georgia website which lists all the races in the State and if they support a charity. I definitely will be signing up for more runs in the future. And I think there are a lot of better options for less money benefiting a greater cause than Run For Your Lives.

 

Katsucon was out of this world! I had an amazing time and can not thank Christine and Grig enough for inviting me out for the event this year. I don't even know where to begin! The Gaylod Hotel was gorgeous and so nice to the attendees, the World Cosplay Summit was hosting the US Preliminaries during Katsucon, photograpghers from around the county (and other countries) flocked to the convention to take video and still images, and Katsucon wouldn't be complete without the thousands of amazing cosplayers who brought such beautiful costumes to wear.

I started out Friday by getting into my Litchi Faye Ling cosplay from BlazBlue! Thank you Laurel for this shot:

click to see larger photo

After hanging out at my Merchants booth for a while and greeting the attendees at Opening Ceremonies, I changed into my Christie costume from Dead or Alive, for a group meet with 3 other DoA girls. Photos coming soon! That night I hosted my popular Sociology of Cosplay panel and was happy to see a packed standing room only room full of cosplayers eager to share their stories. We ran out of the 1 hour slot super fast. I will need more minutes next time. Wherever I go, I advocate "Anyone can cosplay", no matter their gender, race, age, height, weight, bodytype etc. It is so important for cosplayers to be positive toward each other, and understanding of each others' situations. It warms my heart whenever I meet like-minded people and at during the Sociology panel I was happy to meet all of you.

Saturday was THE big day for me. I agreed to take on the craftsmanship and performance judging duties for the Katsucon Masquerade, as well as host the World Cosplay Summit afterward. It was also the day I was debuting the new costume I had been working on like mad. I got up at 7:30am to iron Carmilla and lay out all of my costume pieces, and by 10:30am I was suited up and ready to hit the con. 

My new cosplay is another Granado Espada Wizard design, that has been on my list for a while now. It involves a corset, heavy mermaid skirt, a hoop skirt and full petticoat underneath, 7 inch heels because in order to get to Silhouette of the dress right, I had to be much taller than I am, and a hat that covered my left eye lol. Walking, or more like hobbling, in that costume was fun. 

 Photos by Joseph Lin, Anna Fisher and Judy Stephens - click to see larger images

 I started having a sore throat on Thursday morning and by Saturday I was struck with a full blown cold. Thankfully TrainerNick and Paloma from Security took great care of me all day, making sure I took medicine and ate regularly. I managed to sneak in some Wizard photos with the talented people above and Slave To Anime, then it was time to craftsmanship judge the Masquerade contestants. That took 3 hours, I walked around a bit and then settled in for the Masquerade itself. It was fantastic this year and we enjoyed the skits especially. Congrats to the giant Zelda group for winning Best in Show! My favorite skit was the Ranma group, as I grew up with the manga and anime and they did such an amazing job with the writing and execution of the performance, not to mention super clean well made costumes. I was so happy to see a perfect Ranma skit on stage.

With no break after the Masquerade, I marched into the Green Room of the World Cosplay Summit Prelims, to go over last minute technical stage related things. So many amazing costumes were fluttering around backstage! I wished the groups good luck and got ready for my cue to go on stage.

Hosting the WCS was a huge honor and great experience - thank you again to Laura and Ed for letting me be a part of the event. I had the best seat in the house! Watching the performances up close made me appreciate all the hard work the cosplayers put into them even more. Before I knew it, all 22 teams did their skits and the judges went to deliberate. As I had a lot of friends competing, I was just as nervous as they were, anticipating the winners. I was overjoyed to hear Katie and Diana announced as Team USA - these laides will represent our country well in Japan. Keep up with them on Facebook over here! 
After the coongratulations it was past midnight and I had been in costume for 13 hours. There was nothing left to do but to change and fall in to bed.

Sunday morning came early for me - I had a videoshoot appointment with Ackson at 9am with my Carmilla - Vampire Hunter D costume. I started getting read at 7:30am and managed to get out the door in full costume by 10am!! Ackson recorded some of me getting ready in the room, and footage on the floor of Katsucon. The video he produced is unreal, I am so shocked at the artistry and soul this man puts into his videos. The level of sophistication is incredible, yet he always maintains a sense of humor as well. 

Please enjoy Ackson's 2nd Katsucon video, there are some amazing costumes featured in here! Crunchyroll also posted an article about Ackson's videos here.

I also did some photos with various photographers on the floor, including Elysiam.org. Last 2 images are by Gary Thompson and I-Hate-The-World. Thank you!


Click to see larger images

I'll leave you with a couple of fun shots of Carmilla and Ponies! Left image is by Fenyx Designs!

Overall an amazing amazing convention, despite being sick the entire time I got to do everything I set out to, and my friends took such wonderful care of me that it made me appreciate them that much more. Can not wait until Katsucon 2013!

Here is my finalized Katsucon schedule. As you can see, it is jam packed.

I am super excited to a part of Katsucon this year - had to miss it in 2011 which makes this trip that much sweeter. Hope to meet many new friends and catch up with all my dear buddies who I haven't seen in so long. I'm hard at work on my new costume, it will be interesting to wear it for 12+ hours on Saturday since my schedule won't permit much of a break.

In other news, The iPad based pop-culture magazine "Champion!" is celebrating the release of a brand new issue today. I had the honor of posing for the cover in my self-made Scarlet Witch costume from Marvel's "Avengers" series.

 

Photography was done by radio legend Howard Stern, the location was a beautiful townhouse in Manhattan. You can download the issue for $0.99 from the App store - it is an interactive magazine designed for the iPad with a ton of great interviews, reviews, galleries & more! The style of the photoshoot was an Editorial look at the world of cosplay featuring well-known characters from the sci-fi and comic book realms. There were 6 cosplayers including me and my smexy girlfriends Klytemnestra and Mostflogged. We had 7 hours in this unique opulent townhouse and produced photos in 4 separate locations within.

You can see a video of the behind-the-scenes happenings and photos from the shoot here!

An interview with Champion! producers about the shoot and magazine is here.

Thank you to everyone at Champion!, Howard, Judy Stephens of Mavel and my fellow cosplayers for the great experience!

EDIT: I finally updated all of my convention appearances up to September 2012. Check out where I'll be traveling to this year!

I have survived the great convention tour of January 2012! 4 event guest appearances in 4 States (and 2 countries) in a row - a whirlwind month that meant being on the road more than being home. I am happy to have survived the traveling without falling ill, weather issues or otherwise travel related problems *knocks on wood*. The conventions themselves were a lot of fun, I met a ton of new people and got to reconnect with far away friends as well, and the thing I took away from the tour was INSPIRATION. There is so much talent and passion out there in the world, and to be surrounded by creative, positive and fascinating people really gives me renewed inspiration to pursue all of my dreams and goals.

I am filled with creative energy and can't wait to throw down!   

There is a lot coming up for me and I am determined to savor each experience and opportunity. Next up for me is Naka-Kon in Kansas City, where I have never been before! I am excited to meet the local cosplayers and attendees and share my experience and knowledge. I will be doing 2 panels during the weekend and judge the costume contest on Saturday. You will also be able to see my full line of cosplay products, prints and other merchandise at my Guest table outside of the vendor hall.

At the moment I am hard at work on store products and a new costume for my guest appearance at Katsucon, one of my favorite conventions in the world. Seemingly all of my friends are coming, and I can't wait to hug them and catch up. The convention is extremely well-run, held at a beautiful resort, and the cosplayers will rule the show. I have the honor of judging the competitive craftsmanship-driven Masquerade on Saturday, and immediately afterward host the highly anticipated World Cosplay Summit USA Preliminaries. The winning team will travel to Japan this summer to compete in the WCS on television, and represent USA! I also will be doing my popular "Sociology of Cosplay" panel at 9pm on Friday. On Sunday I have a big video project planned, which I may or may not announce beforehand. And as usual, my company YayaHan LLC will have an exhibitor booth inside the hall where you can shop my full line of cosplay products, merchandise and more.

I'm off to work now, but check out my updated costume gallery! Lots of new photos today! I added a new Marvel costume gallery - of Domino from X-Force! Love this character. Check out the great photos Marvel photographer Judy Stephens took!

 I also did a fantastic Gotham Siren's photoshoot with LJinto in New York City, where I posed as Catwoman with the sexy and talented Mostflogged as Poison Ivy, and climbed all over various gates and railings lol. Definitely take a look at this moody night photographs.

It's finally that time! Your chance to bid on a FULLY AUTOGRAPHED Cosplay For a Cause calendar, with signatures from all 18 cosplayers and the 3 professional comic book artists who donated their time to create this 2012 calendar.

 100% of the funds raised will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross.

We have been promoting this calendar since July last year and are close to selling out! It was a huge undertaking to get all of the cosplayers in it, who live around the world, to sign this one calendar and it is a highly collectible, one of a kind, piece!

Please take a look at the EBay auction, and spread the word!! We want to raise as much as possible for the Tsunami victims of Japan, they still need a lot of help and the News has for the most part moved onto other matters.