There are three ways to move in Zomboid: walking, running, and sprinting, each faster than the last. You will be tempted to run away from the horde of 65 zombies you just picked up walking through a commercial zone. But you walk faster than zombies, so do not run unless absolutely necessary; you will become exhausted and tire quicker, slowing you and weakening you. The lowest level of exhaustion (out of four) will halve your melee damage and make you walk 20% slower, and it only gets worse from there. And never sprint. It will get you killed. The other comment mentioned a far better way to lose zombies than running away full speed.

When creating a character, you pick from a list of negative and positive traits. Positive traits cost points which you get through picking negative traits, so you need to balance them. But when first starting out, I think you’re better off not touching too many negative traits; you don’t want to start the game obese if you don’t know how to lose weight or in what ways it will affect you! That said, there are a few smaller negatives worth picking up. I would recommend Short Sighted, which is completely counteracted by wearing glasses (which you can choose to spawn with), Prone to Illness, which is countered entirely by Outdoorsy (a cheap positive trait), and Weak Stomach, which only affects eating rotting foods (which you really shouldn’t be doing anyway!). That’ll start you off with an extra +8 points to spend on things you want without really affecting you.

I would also like to reinforce an idea the other comment mentioned, it is a sandbox and you can change settings however you like. I highly encourage you to look through them if you get annoyed by something. My friends like to start with starter backpacks, so I do that when I play with them. I like to change the infection to be transmitted through bites only. There’s loads of options to fit any playstyle.