Electric Run

After being sidelined by a shin injury for months, I could not wait to get back to running. What better way to restart my preparations for Peachtree than to run a none timed, fun, easy going event? Yesterday, Lenny and I went to the Electric Run that took place at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

While I made my way to the Start line through crowds of glowing, dressed up people, I couldn't help but notice how excited everyone was to be at this event. It took about an hour to begin the run due to the sheer numbers of participants there. People were dancing, jumping, singing along with the 90's "techno" remixes and overall having a great time while awaiting their turn to cross the Start line. Honestly, I don't think I ever had this much fun with strangers while trying to find my friends.

By the time I gave up trying to look for the group of people that I was planning to be hanging out with during the run, I saw a familiar face in the crowd. Heather and her group of fun loving peeps have found me despite the crowd of 10 000 people that were there. Thank god for cell phones and perseverance of awesome people.  

Once we finally got to the Start, we found Lenny, standing at the start line with his camera ready to document the event just like I asked him to. He did a great job and captured a lot of great photos.

I think the crowd expected much more out of this event. Although, it was a great low key event with a lot of pretty lights and great music, but I think that the advertising overinflated the event and our expectations were too high. 

Light tunnels

I expected more out of the "wonderland", I thought that there would be much more lights, installations, and speakers placed throughout the course. There were stretches of the course that were completely devoid of anything extraordinary or fun with zero light.  I felt let down any time I entered those stretches. 

The crowd also seemed to lose a lot of enthusiasm after we left the first mile (which is where most of the lights were). Most people didn't run, those that were taking pictures, stopped, and the rain started. About a mile and a half into the event, after the first water station (which was awesome), I said goodbye to the people I was with and decided to run the last 1.5 miles.

Water Station

 It was a good thing that I decided to go ahead and run, because the rain picked up, the rest of the course was fairly dark and the energy of the crowd was slowly dying around me. I was the only one who was running to finish, and I was excited when I finally did.  The promised after party was rained out and we drove home tired, wet, and slightly disappointed.

I will give Electric Run another chance next year, hopefully they'll put up more lights and the weather will be nicer. As it comes to my injury, I have learned that it is time to start running short distances, I did not hurt after the run, and I am excited to begin training again.  

Heather and I