Zombies are coming to Hun-tington Friday for Halloween. Goodwill Industries of KYO-WVA Area, Inc., will host The Running Dead 5k. This is an untimed zombie fun run 5k at Ritter Park. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.

Runners participating in the 5K will travel through vari-ous zones full of flesh-eating zombies.

If a participant registers as a human, his or her ultimate goal is to cross the finish line with at least one life remaining on his or her life belt. If a partici-pant registers as a zombie, he or she will be placed in one of 10 zombie zones where he or she can crawl, slither or stagger (no running) after humans in an at-tempt too take away their lives. Those who are participating as zombies should come zombi-fied, which means they should come in costume and makeup. Human runners are encouraged to come in costume also.

“We’re looking forward to the most unique 5k event in the area and think it’s something we can grow into an even larger event next year,” said Beth Hendricks, a representative of Goodwill Industries. “Zombies are the in thing right now, and Goodwill is known for its Halloween items in-store. So we felt like a zombie run on Halloween night was a perfect fit for our organization.”

A Drop Dead Beauty Con-test awards ceremony with best costume categories will follow the run. Categories in-clude best zombie couple, best zombie team theme, creepiest/ scariest, best-dressed zombie, most creative zombie and more. Zombies tend to be a bit scary, so organizers advise parents to consider registering children younger than 13.

Registration prior to the race will cost $30 and will cost $35 for registration on the day of the race.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the youth and food pan-try programs at Goodwill.

Alex James can be contacted at [email protected].