Electric Run 5K Orange County - Review, pics, and vids!

*REVIEW*
I had a great time at the Electric Run on Friday night, which was at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, CA. It was my 2nd 5K, and I had planned to run it with my boyfriend, but he recently injured himself in a motorcycle accident, so he was my own personal cheerleader! LOL

Anyway, I signed up for the race about four months ago, as soon as registration opened, for $45. They said the fee included a t-shirt and a race bib. The closer it got to race day, the price went up to $55. So, I went to Sports Authority two days before the race to pick up my registration packet. They had a ton of super duper friendly volunteers and the huge line moved quickly.

Race day! The race started at 7:00PM, and I wanted to be at the front of the pack so I arrived around 6:15. Parking was $10.They had glow-in-the-dark items for sale and registration pick up there too. I immediately headed to the front of the "chute" aka the starting line and weaseled myself to the ribbon. As it got darker and darker, and the chute filled up with thousands of people decked out in costumes and glow-gear, they played loud electronic music and two MC's up on a tower got the crowd pumped and threw out handfuls of glow-jewelry.

The race started immediately at 7:00PM, and the younger teams/runners (by younger, I mean high-schoolers) blasted out the front of the pack but slowly burned up all their energy and started walking. Supposedly they sent out people in waves, and I maintained my position towards the back of my wave, keeping my pace around 9:00/mile.

When I rounded the first u-turn to go down "Rainbow Road", I was impressed by the sea of runners leaving the chute. What an excited crowd!

I kept to myself most of the "race" and finished just under 3 miles in 29:00 (my GPS lost reception at one point, so the timing and distance isn't exact).

You finish the race in front of the "Hangar" where a DJ and light show played upbeat electronic music to a crowd of excited, sweaty people who had just finished their run. I rehydrated with a few waters, and then had a Cherry SoCo with Pepsi before leaving - they had a few food trucks and plenty of booze at the "after party". Also, there was an AFTER after party at Sutra, but I didn't partake.

PROS:
Nice staff/volunteers
Exciting course
Lots of great photo ops
Fun pre- and after-party - great MC's/DJ's

CONS:
No actual race timing (the race bibs were just for show)
Loud music+flashing lights=Dizzy running!
Watch out for the glow-jewelry in the road
Some parts of the course were so dark that I had no idea where I was running, and it slowed me down
It was only 2.93 miles

TIPS:
DON'T run in a costume! I was dying of heat exhaustion at the end! hahaha
Age range: A lot of 16-24 year olds, followed by late 20-ers, and then the moms and dads running with their kids.

I will most certainly do this run again next year. A little expensive for an untimed "race" but worth it for the experience!

*PICTURES*
(I didn’t stop to take pictures during the actual course/race, but if you go to www.ElectricRun.com, they have pictures and videos of the different “lands” there).



































*VIDEOS*
Having upload issues at the moment…will edit this post when video is available!