It's Electric!

It’s Electric! Do do do do do do do do do.  {Is that song stuck in your head now? It is in mine!}

Friday marked a day of adventure. A few months ago some coworkers and I had excitedly made plans to do the Electric Run. We planned to take the train and spend the night and just have a grand old grown up time. Right away I told a friend of mine {a sister from college who I haven’t seen in a few years} that I would be in her town and she should join us. Unfortunately, life intervened with my coworkers and they weren’t able to come, but my friend and I were already so excited by the idea of a reunion that I decided to make the trip myself and have a little fun before we move.

I hopped on a Megabus for the way there {it was $50 cheaper than the Amtrak that day} and read my way all the way to Chicago.  Funny story, when I got there my friend was parked a few blocks away and silly me, too reliant on technology, couldn’t figure out how to get there when the GPS on my phone wasn’t working right, but after a few minutes of flustered brain farts, I realized that I know how to read maps. I had a cross street. I could be a big girl and get there all by myself! Anyway, I digress.

The Electric Run is much like the plethora of runs that have been popping up all over the place, Color Run, Run or Dye, Color Me Rad, etc.  Happening at night, instead of having color thrown at you, this run creates a wacky wonderland of light and sound and ends in a big dance party {yup, pretty much a rave} Throw in that The Electric Run advertises that there will be alcohol & food for purchase at the after party and it sounded like an amazing time.

Perhaps it was just the location {although Chicago is a big city, so you’d think they would have a pretty stellar setup} but overall my friend and I were a little unimpressed. There were a lot of points in the run between light setups where it just seemed like they didn’t know where to put us {no music, minimal lighting, BORING} and then some of the sections were downright dangerous {bubbles + smooth concrete= fall hazard} but what was most disappointing was the party. Sure they had a dj and awesome lights, but they had 4 people bartending/taking money for THOUSANDS. We tried waiting in line for about 25 minutes and we only moved about three feet. People started streaming out of there pretty quickly because it was kind of a bust.

In spite of the negatives, we enjoyed it, but my friend had done a similar run put on as a living social event and she said that the other event had much better execution. Since we enjoyed catching up and being in each others company, it worked out, but I would have been pretty disappointed overall if the bonus of seeing her wasn’t there.  To finish the night we went out on the town in Chicago still wearing our race gear which was an adventure all on it’s own.  Glad to have experienced it even if it wasn’t my favorite!

K is unimpressed!