If Joe Hoyt of Edgecomb hadn't broken his leg playing basketball at CLC YMCA in Damariscotta in late September, he thinks he probably would have run in the Y's Zombie Run on Oct. 10.

Instead, he was standing next to the course in his cast Saturday, volunteering his help at one of the event's features: a new addition this year, several hanging strips with a florescent orange coating that caught on runners' clothes, as planned.

The orange comes off, Hoyt said.

On the other side of the field, Bristol's Heidi Kelsey and her golden doodle Molly were waiting for three of Kelsey's children to run by. Daughter Emily Kelsey chose to run as a zombie; her brothers Lucas and Brandon chose to run as humans.

The human entrants wore flags at their sides for the zombies to try to take. All flags taken meant the human entrant was considered “dead” but could continue the race. The humans were supposed to get a one-minute head start, but several observers, many laughing, noted the zombies were released at just over half a minute after the humans were.

Joe Clark, the Y's senior programs director, said it was hard to make out the timer.

The morning of the race brought sun and a persistent breeze that later blew several sheets of event paperwork around the grounds near the starting line.

Lissette Griffin of Damariscotta went around picking them up, and developed a system of stepping on a sheet to keep it from blowing away as she stooped to grab it.

Griffin was not a volunteer, but figured she would help gather the papers while waiting for her daughter Tita, 9, to take part in the kids' fun run portion of the event.

Inside the Y earlier, Paul Leeman IV, 7, was out of the wind and in a chair, getting zombie features painted onto his face by event volunteer and Y employee Amanda Gray.

Leeman, of Round Pond, knew he wanted to run as a zombie. “He's been talking about it for weeks,” his father Paul Leeman III said.

Among Saturday's adults running as humans were two New York (N.Y.) Public Library employees, Emily Nelson of Pasadena, California and her co-worker in human resources, Corinne Case of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Case is a pleasure runner; Nelson, whose family has a home in Pemaquid, does not run. She decided she would run in the event as another way to enjoy the local Pumpkinfest celebration.

The Zombie Run is not an official Pumpkinfest event; however, Clark serves on the Pumpkinfest Committee and times the run to coincide with Pumpkinfest.

Nelson had planned to tuck in her flags to keep them out of the zombie runners' reach. But she heard that was against the rules.

Anyone showing up Saturday would have had a hard time missing a pair of large neon green signs on the back of Pande Stevens' Dodge Dakota vehicle. One read: “GO SUSAN (You're) THE BEST!”

The other said “YOUR FANS” and had Stevens' initials and the names he added of other friends of runner Susan Hilton of Newcastle.

“I adore him,” Hilton said when asked about the support the Damariscotta man showed in making and displaying the signs. “It’s nice to have fans.”

Hilton went on to complete the race, albeit flagless. “I was dead in the first two minutes.”

In results that Clark provided, Matthew Young finished first among “zombie” runners and J.C. Bartholemew won among the “human” entrants. Awards in the kids’ fun run that followed were decided by costumes. Amelia Starbird took third, Emmaline Flewelling, second; and Aidan Jacobs, first place.

The 5k run had more than 80 participants; the one-mile kids’ fun run, more than 30, Clark said. The event benefited youth scholarships at the Y, Clark said.