Thoughts while trying out Zombies, Run!

Hey guys, not your typical book post right now, but I wanted to share with you guys an app that I just downloaded.

So my one of my friends (if you see this, hi) has been bugging me to start running again, and I decided that it’s time to try getting rid of my aversion to running. After being forced to do cross country and having peers pressure me to take part in FitSpirit back in middle school, I kind of never ran again 😛 So despite quarantine probably be the worse occasion to really try running again, I decided it was worth a shot.

Christina recommended me to try Zombies, Run! after some internal debate I finally downloaded it. So here were my thoughts as I did my first run.

Initial Thoughts

The app was built really well and had a lot of missions and fun things. (The user interface was 👌👌) The only problem was that as a new comer, I was really intimidated by the mass array of features on the app. I tried not to think to much of it and instead focused on finding how to start my first mission 😛 .

Music

What I really liked immediately was the ability to have an external music controller. So I was able to listen to my Spotify playlist while also staying in tune with the podcast/mission.

My first run was 36 mins long, but had a few checkpoints in which the app would lower the music and run its script. It was quite engaging and interesting to listen to. I wasn’t too annoyed about it interrupting my music and if anything got me more energized whenever I returned back to my music.

Gamifying running

The hits of dopamine when you randomly pick up tools and items on your run? Really gets you running.

Zombies tailing behind you? Really gets you running.

It also helped that my playlist seemed to pick up all the right songs at all the right times.

Last sprint

WHAT THE HECK MAN. HAVING A RUNNER TURNED ZOMBIE CHASING AFTER ME? IS THAT YOUR IDEA OF GETTING ME TO SPRINT?

Not gonna lie, that was genius though. I think I’ll probably expect all my missions to end with my sprinting away from hoards of zombies.

Also, Spotify hits the mark again by playing Freaking Out by ARIZONA. Because for real though, that was exactly what I was doing – FREAKING OUT.

Last remarks

I really really liked it. More than I expected to. Usually when I just run to music, I kind of do the monotonous interval runs which gets a bit boring after 20 mins. But since Zombies, Run immerses you in a story, you’re committed to seeing the end of the missions. I loved the gamifying as well. Because the dopamine hits were real.