Josh Francis

Hundreds ran for their lives in the first annual Zombie Run at the Lincolnshire Showground on Sunday, October 14, to demonstrate their survival skills in a zombie apocalypse.

The event saw people of all ages taking a part in a 5k assault course, which involved avoiding volunteers dressed as zombies and overcoming various obstacles.

Pete Genders, of non-profit youth organisation Off The Bench, who organised the event, said: “The whole event was absolutely spectacular, we had a great turnout and everyone got into the spirit. We saw some fantastic costumes throughout the day and people had put so much effort into their race wear.

“The whole day was only made possible due to the fantastic bunch of volunteers Off The Bench has, the volunteers did us proud today, taking a whole weekend out to plan, arrange and manage another successful OTB event, we’re now really excited for the Zombie Run 2013, which will be hitting Lincoln in spring 2013.”

‘Zombie overlord’ Alan Mclane, who helped organise the event, added: “We had about three hundred runners and about 60 or 70 zombies. The zombies are volunteers and we threw a party for them last night, in which they had a chance to have a go on the assault course as part of a end of the world party we held.”

On average the race last for an hour with the first over the line finishing the course in 22 minutes.

Photos: Chris Curtiss, James Smart, Leanne Rodgers for OTB Media

This week marked the 120th anniversary of the death of Alfred Tennyson, poet from the Victorian era who was also a Lincoln local.

Lord Tennyson was born in 1809, and unlike many poets and artists of the time, he was appreciated in his own era.

He was the man behind the poem Charge of the Light brigade, and a statue can be found outside the east side of Lincoln Cathedral.

Grace Timmons, access officer at the Tennyson Research Centre, said: “He was loved by a huge spread of the population; he became massively popular over the course of his lifetime.

“He was popular with a wide spread of generations, from young children to Queen Victoria. His work was for everyone.”

The subjects of his work varied, and it was noted his wife was a source of inspiration.

Grace added: “In his early career he wrote about lonely depressed woman and on occasion his was known to have written about Arthurian legends. It was also thought his wife inspired some of his work.”

Tennyson died in 1892 of gout at the age of 83, and a sign was placed outside of his house to announce his death.

A number of objects related to his death and other aspects of his life are available for the public to view, including the handkerchief he coughed in just before he died.

However Grace mentioned that his family contributed to the hype over his death.

“We think his family may have added a few items along the way to hype up his death. Like a book of Shakespeare which he apparently had by his bedside with marked pages as he was meant to have been reading as he died.”

If you would like to learn more about Tennyson, you can visit the Tennyson Research Centre in the dome of the Lincoln Central Library.

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