I already knew a little bit about the Electric Run when one of my BFFs, Nancy, suggested we do one together!

Nancy found us a GROUPON for it in Baltimore (where she lives) which helped take a little bit off of the price.  Entry fees are kind of pricey but they do donate a portion of the funds to charity, so that’s good.

Fun runs like the Electric Run seem to be all the rage right now. They are short enough in distance (5Ks) that any active person can participate without too much training. They also highlight the camaraderie that has been taking over the forefront of the running movement lately.

I usually try to pretend to be cool and not wear the race tee during the race but these ones were nice tech quality and super soft so we had to.

The run was off/under one of the main highways in Baltimore but in a pocket of the neighborhood that the Ravens M&T Stadium and Orioles’ Camden Yards is in. I saw them setting up for the race earlier in the day when I arrived into town. It seemed like a really big event and got crowded pretty early in the evening. Apparently there were 15,000 people there.

A lot of people wore crazy costumes and neon tutus so Nancy and I felt a little under-dressed. Luckily one of the goodies in our Electric Run packet was a light up wristband. It will also be useful in the future for runs in the dark, especially in the winter.

It was also cool that FitBit is one of their sponsors. I still love my FitBit. 

The group of people at the run was a little different than running events I’ve done before. There were mostly college-age kids and families. A bunch of people brought their kids to it – I think they participate for free.

For all you distance runners out there, the Electric Run is  produced by the Ragnar Relay Founder. I was thinking the symbols everywhere looked Ragnar-esqe!

They stuck us in a chute of sorts to wait in line to start the run in waves. We waited about fifteen minutes or so to start. It wasn’t too long to wait though because crazy techno music was playing and people up on balconies were chucking glow sticks everywhere.

All the blow up things kept changing colors. 🙂

Once we started, we saw how the course was laid out. Each section of the race was a different world, with lit up bigger-than-life decorations. The first world was “Under the Sea” themed and was filled with jellyfish and seaweed with some bubble makers on the side.

Gotta love the jellyfish.

The next world seemed to be sport themed as we trotted through the two sports stadiums. I had never been to a Ravens game before, but I liked running through Camden Yards since I went to games growing up (before the Nats existed).

But my favorite world was Candy Land with the the giant gummi bears.

We ran most of the time, but a bunch of the people were actually walking and taking in the sights.

Once we finished we walked straight into a finishing shoot which led to the after party.

We just bopped along until for a little while with our newly-caught glow sticks.

The Electric Run was my first night running event. I don’t ever run at night since it’s not safe (unless with a buddy of course) I loved running in the dark!

It wasn’t a super serious race but it was a fun night with a lot of positive energy.

The run was a fun way to get a workout in. It wasn’t an mileage intense run but it sure did help me get a lot of steps in that day.

Though they are a little expensive to do all of the time, fancy fun runs with a lot of flair are definitely a winning way to work out. I think I’ll continue to do one every now and then to pump me up to keep movin’!

(sweet collage cred to Nancy)