I'm still learning how this actually works. It's essentially an app which runs on your smart phone. The action is set post-apocalypse in a world full of zombies. Runners are employed to fetch vital supplies by out-running the zombies and you are Runner No. 5. You have missions to complete and collect items while you're running (you don't really collect them). You are simply told that you've collected it during your run. I'm not quite sure what you do with them (I think you can distract zombies by dropping items but I'm not sure you have any control over this) and I think you can build additional buildings as well but not sure why I'd want to!
You get a bit of dialogue as the story unfolds and then it uses the music already loaded on your smart phone in between while you carry on running. (eg last night I was told to run towards a tower. My music cut in for 3-5 minutes while I ran towards this imaginary tower) When you get to the next bit of the story, the music cuts out and you return to dialogue. I think there are other features in the app (eg time, pace, distance covered, etc but I've not looked at these yet.)
After a bit of research (thanks to hubby) he found that I'd activated the interval training feature. Every 15 minutes you are attacked by zombies and basically you have to pick up your speed in order to evade them. This is why I failed. I only really have one run speed at the moment! I did try to run a bit faster but it wasn't different enough to my usual plod so the app didn't recognise it as a faster run. I will try the app again on my next run (Sunday) with the internal training feature on still but won't try running faster until the zombies are closer (a tip hubby found on the 'net) so I don't tire myself out so early.
I probably don't have the speed so I expect I'll be turning off the interval training feature and will ttry to learn the other aspects of the game.
I may also try the 5K+ podcasts in the coming weeks too but mostly I'm going to concentrate on upping my run time from 30 to 35 minutes (the time in which I completed last week's Park Run) to see if I can improve on my time over distance.