Sprinter vs Distance Runner vs Triathlete vs Crossfitter vs MMA: who survives the Zombie Apocalypse the Longest?

pretzel man wrote:

Skepticales wrote:

Wow you idiots have never heard of the Diaz Brothers? Mma has a lot of diverse athletes. Some are cardio freaks some are sprinter like some are strong some are quick. They constantly fight and train with injuries so that alone would give them the biggest advantage because after a week of fleeing through wilderness most people would be injured.

Can't argue with that. Also wouldn't want to argue with Diaz brothers. BMF's

Exactly how is the ability to put an undead creature into a triangle choke an advantage? WALKERS DON'T NEED OXYGEN. Plus, one fingernail scratch from the Walker, and you have Nick and Nate Zombie.

A steepler has better sprinting AND endurance than 99.9% of MMArtists, and at least equal pain and injury tolerance. Sorry, not buying it.

Triathletes??? Please. They'd have no idea what to do when the battery finally ran out on their GPS watch and Power meters.

MMA? Nope, they're tough as nails but dumb as bricks. They'd try and get the walkers into submission holds to show how tough they are and just get bitten.

Crossfitter? Nope. I'd imagine the population is dwindling, and there would be very few people to tell that they do Crossfit to. Thus they'd cease to exist.

Sprinter? Without doping their bodies would go frail and they'd just fall over.

Distance runners would be the last survivors. Doing group runs together, ice baths in the river, warm heat compressions using the insides of the dead, using femur bones as rollers.

Moby Dick wrote:

Triathletes??? Please. They'd have no idea what to do when the battery finally ran out on their GPS watch and Power meters.

MMA? Nope, they're tough as nails but dumb as bricks. They'd try and get the walkers into submission holds to show how tough they are and just get bitten.

Crossfitter? Nope. I'd imagine the population is dwindling, and there would be very few people to tell that they do Crossfit to. Thus they'd cease to exist.

Sprinter? Without doping their bodies would go frail and they'd just fall over.

Distance runners would be the last survivors. Doing group runs together, ice baths in the river, warm heat compressions using the insides of the dead, using femur bones as rollers.

It is too bad that it took until the second page to get a serious reply to a question as important as the OPs.

Well done.

What is the record for a Zombie 100m... or a Zombie Marathon, for that matter?

Just thinkin' wrote:

What is the record for a Zombie 100m... or a Zombie Marathon, for that matter?

It would be slow. Zombies walk. (The creatures in WWZ break just about every zombie rule out there...). But, they never tire. You could run for hours...days...weeks... but eventually, they would catch you.

The same thing those Africans in Born to Run to do gazelles, Walkers will do to humans. Just a matter of time...

Distance runners will accuse anyone else that survives of being on PEDs and cheating.

Uhh... Ever heard of Jordan Hasay?

If these were the only to chose from, the distance runner would clearly survive the longest. But biathletes would rule the world in the end. Besides the obvious benefits of carrying a rifle, the poikilothermic zombies wouldn't stand a chance in the snow.

Lame reference wrote:

If these were the only to chose from, the distance runner would clearly survive the longest. But biathletes would rule the world in the end. Besides the obvious benefits of carrying a rifle, the poikilothermic zombies wouldn't stand a chance in the snow.

Plus, XC Skiers have the highest VO2 Max of pretty much all athletes.

Dang.

You win.

Assuming an unlimited supply of ammo. If only there was a sport that combined XCSkiing with ARCHERY...

Not sure why everyone is discounting the benefits of swimming.

Everyone knows that zombies don't swim. All that a triathlete would have to do is dip into the water and escape from the zombie horde.

Also-- the only place safe from zombie infestation would be the islands.

The waters aren't necessarily safe. A bloated zombie that stumbles into the ocean (most population centers are by the ocean?) should be able to float pretty well, and they will remain floating adrift until they wash up somewhere else.

Max Brooks's zombies in World War Z somehow roamed in absolutely massive herds along the ocean floors, and would resurface even in the post-war years, but I think that's a little unrealistic. He kind of handwaves the whole "crushing water pressure" thing away. Any body remotely human should have a hard time staying together at those depths. But I think floating zombies are a serious threat.

On that note, islands are not necessarily safe. First off, most easily survivable islands (in terms of finding food, water, natural shelter, etc.) are large enough that they are already inhabited (by humans) and settled, and thus are likely to already contain zombies, or will contain zombies as soon as an infected outsider reaches the island.

Islands that are small enough to be either undiscovered or basically uninhabited tend to be hard to live off. If the island is somewhat barren maybe you could get a farming system going, live off rainwater, maybe even get up some reverse osmosis system and a solar power system, but you're sure as shit not swimming to that island with all that stuff - you're taking a boat.

Anyway, the need for swimming extremely long distances in open water somewhat faster than someone who is a trained swimmer but not a competitive swimmer (like a triathlete) is kind of negated by water vehicles. As long as you can find some boat owner's key, or even jumpstart it, you're golden.

I would say that same negation isn't applicable to runners (or triathletes on land) because there are so many tighter spaces and circumstances on land where running faster for a short-mid distance IS beneficial.

Right. I'm tired of this specialization crap - it's not as if specific runners can only do ONE VERY SPECIFIC THING and then just wither away when they even attempt to do another thing. I know the average decent distance runner is a much faster sprinter than the average human - if you can run even a 5 min mile, you're maintaining an average 12 mph pace for five minutes - most people who are of healthy weight can probably sprint a little faster than that speed (14, 15 mph?), and most people are not of healthy weight. Zombies just being able to sprint doesn't make them pro sprinters.

Take a look at a somewhat random sample of people off the street trying to keep up with a 4:46/mi pace (12.6 mph):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdHi9VNdQPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQEsdXMbi8

For the second video (ASICS NYCM Challenge) it seemed like even relatively in-shape people could maintain that pace for about 30 seconds. I'd reckon most distance runners can maintain that for at least 800m (over 2 minutes), many for 1600m (close to 5 minutes), and a great many competitive distance runners for much longer - over 2 hours for the fastest elite marathoners.

On the other hand, to the guy who said Usain Bolt (I think it was OP???) probably couldn't finish a mile, are you serious? Many of your average guys off the street can finish a mile, and you're proposing that the guy who spends his life on the track can't run a measly four laps in a row? I'm pretty sure Bolt has a 400m PR around 46 secs or something, so I don't think a 5 min mile would be out of the question for him.

Regardless of whether you are a sprinter or distance runner, if you are decent at either, you are likely faster at both distance ranges than a majority (perhaps a vast majority) of the human population.

The richest person would win among them. Especially one with access to a yacht to live out their days on the sea while the world turned ugly.

How about Floyd vs Conor?

teefurtree wrote:

On the other hand, to the guy who said Usain Bolt (I think it was OP???) probably couldn't finish a mile, are you serious? Many of your average guys off the street can finish a mile, and you're proposing that the guy who spends his life on the track can't run a measly four laps in a row? I'm pretty sure Bolt has a 400m PR around 46 secs or something, so I don't think a 5 min mile would be out of the question for him.

.

Nah, he was referencing the "Could Bolt/Phelps/etc run a 5 minute mile" thread. Took me a second to catch it, too... pretty sure that part was purely trolling.

The hottest girls would win because just like today, there are guys that will do ANYTHING to get up in them. If that means hacking your way through 500 zombies, so be it.

NO! Thats how you get the Zombie Bear from Annihilation!

Triathletes win.

Zombies don't need Oxygen to live and therefore aren't buoyant. This combined with being almost all heavy bones prevent them from being able to swim.

Ah, understood now. Funny enough, after over two more years of identifying LetsRun troll mentality that made perfect sense when I reread it.