Run For Your Life

The Texas Tech chapter of Engineers Without Borders plans to host the first zombie 5k run on campus at 10 p.m. Saturday at the recreation field.

Sagar Joshi, the external vice president for Engineers Without Borders, said the event is called The Z Day.

He said the run serves as a charitable fundraiser for building a water purification system for a village in Panama.

“The basic layout of the 5k run is that you will have humans and you will have zombies,” Joshi said, smiling. “Humans will be the actual runners that will do the 5k course, and our zombies will actually be volunteers that will be trained.”

Joshi said The Z Day event is the closest zombie run to Halloween in the Lubbock area, and the first on Tech’s campus. He said he expects participation from Tech students and West Texas residents alike.

According to its website, Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit humanitarian organization with the goal of developing communities worldwide to improve their quality of life.

Nicholas Pratka, a senior civil engineering student from Houston, said the villagers of Solong currently have to boil their water to make it drinkable.

“We’re providing them a water filtration unit so that they’ll be able to have clean drinking water,” said Pratka, the design project leader.

According to the website, Solong is a community of 380 people that lacks clean water and electricity. The website reported the project’s goal provides clean water and a sanitation system for its people.

Joshi said students and Lubbock residents can sign up for the zombie run before the race or on their website. It is $10 to run, $15 for a T-shirt and $20 to both run and receive a T-shirt.

On the Web: www.thezday.com

About Jenabeth Gunter