Forget the Walking Dead. Rowan has the running dead!

Think it’s dead around here in the summer?

Not anymore!

On May 29 Rowan University will hold its second annual Zombie Run and it won’t be like your father’s marathon.

In fact, it won’t be a marathon at all, and your father won’t be in it. (Unless he’s a zombie. Or running from one. And works or studies at Rowan University.)

The 1.3-mile fun run, on the south side of Rowan’s main campus, kicks off summer activities and programs for Rowan University’s summer term. The program, in which the “entry fee” is one or more cans of food for the Food Bank of South Jersey, is expected to draw crowds of Rowan students, faculty and staff, some playing survivors of a zombie apocalypse, some playing the zombies who chase them.

More than 50 Rowan students, faculty and staff took part in last year’s inaugural Zombie Run and they, plus over 50 onlookers, collected more than 185 pounds of food.

“It’s a fun event for a really good cause,” said Rebecca Gollihur, assistant dean of Rowan’s College of Graduate & Continuing Education (CGCE), coordinator of  the summer term. “We’re a South Jersey institution and we’re serving a South Jersey institution – the Food Bank.”

Gollihur said the goal of the event is threefold – to donate to the food bank, to bring the community together, and to kick off Rowan’s summer term.

The Zombie Run starts and ends near the front of  Bunce Hall, on the University Green. Registration begins at 1 p.m. and the race will start at 2 p.m. as Rowan President Dr. Ali Houshmand welcomes attendees, “releases” the survivors and then, moments later, “releases” the zombies to chase them.

At registration runners will be divided into groups, zombies and survivors, with preference to run as a zombie given those who come in zombie makeup. Free zombie make-up, provided by Rowan’s Theatre department, will also be available.

Any member of the Rowan community – runner and non-runner alike – who donates a canned food item will be entered in a drawing to win a new iPad.

Gollihur said the Rowan Summer Office within CGCE which is sponsoring eight free events on campus this summer, offers more than 600 on-campus and online courses during the summer session. The Summer Office is located in the all-new Enterprise Center, 225 Rowan Boulevard, a $35 million, 53,000-square-foot building between the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel and the Barnes & Noble Collegiate Superstore.

For more information, please contact Gollihur at 856-256-5133 or visit the Summer Office website.