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By BARTON PERKINS | Staff Writer

PELHAM – Zombies, vampires and werewolves raced across the trails of Oak Mountain State Park at the third annual Halloween Havoc Half Marathon.

“I’ve been running now for probably about 10 years, and we decided that we wanted to put on our own races about three years ago,” said Trey Clark, co-founder of the Halloween Havoc Half Marathon. “Our first one was a Halloween night race, and we really fell in love with it. It was a ton of fun.”

Fans may better recognize Clark from his work coaching football at Thompson, but he founded the Zombie Trail Race series three years ago with his co-founder and cousin, Nicholas Doss.

“Nick and I founded this together, and he is the creative force behind it all,” Clark said. “He does all of our promotional or artwork for races and merchandising. Without Nick, it would just really be a lame duck.”

Halloween Havoc was the first race Clark and Doss put on together, and it continues to hold a special place in their hearts. 

“It’s just a fun, Halloween-themed race in the woods,” Clark said. “It’s got a half marathon and a six-mile, so it’s two distances, and then we have a costume contest. A lot of folks actually race in costume.”

This year’s Halloween Havoc saw 110 participants and attendees ran from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

This year’s Halloween Havoc’s top three male participants ranked as follows:

-Tilman Bertam was in first place with a time of 1:58:51

-Drew Kilgore was in second place with a time of 2:04:44

-Samuel Ongaki was in third place with a time of 2:06:52

This year’s Halloween Havoc’s top three female participants ranked as follows:

-Shannon Rearden was in first place with a time of 2:41:34

-Shelby Britt was in second place with a time of 2:43:23

-Monica Showers was in third place with a time of 2:46:10

While Clark did not participate in the race himself this year due to his commitments to organizing the race itself, he expressed pride in how much the event has grown since Halloween Havoc’s first race in 2020.

“I was very happy with us and the number of participants we were able to get,” Clark said.