Portland Electric Run

I signed up for the Portland Electric Run right before the last price increase. I have a hard time shelling out more than about $38 for a 5k event, and by the time I was registered, with a team discount AND a discount code (and added fees and taxes? Come on races, if the race says $55, make it $55, don't tack on another $5 half way through the registration process) it still came to a little over $50 for this race.

 

And, no beer included.....

 





It's Electric?

 

I had a good time walking this event (we'll get to that part shortly) with Leann, another Team Slow Poke member, but once was plenty. Even if I had remembered to sign up with the early bird discount, it just wasn't my style.



Waiting for about 1.5 hours to actually start....

The race was out at Portland International Raceway. I've done a couple of events out there before, and it's always been on the actual race track, so I figured it would be the same for the Electric Run.

 

Yea, no so much...

 

The parking was rough, and it was recommended to get there several hours early to park.....

 they weren't kidding. With 9000 runners attending, it was a bit of a cluster.

 

Leann and I managed to get up to the front of the start line, so luckily we ended up in the second wave of "runners" after waiting over 1.5 hours. I know they were waiting for the sun to set, but even after checking out the few booths at the start line, there wasn't much to do, besides dance to the DJ (also, not my style, I don't dance. It's just safer for everyone that way) They released many waves, and I think by the time the finish party was over, people from the last wave were still coming in.

The aid station water, cool to look at, but warm dusty plastic flavored water was kind of yucky

 

We ended up walking the race because the course was actually out behind/next to the PIR, so we were out in grass, gravel roads, uneven ground and who knows what else. Lots of tripping going on, and runners brave enough to actually run were crashing and rolling all over the place. With Portland to Coast coming up, I was not going to bust an ankle with this event.

 

I know it's advertised as the "Electric Run" and there were some pretty cool displays and music playing, but they were spaced pretty far apart, so there were a lot of dark places to be trying to run. We had some blinky/glow stuff with us,  but had I known it was going to be that dark, and flash light might have been handy to have.

 

We didn't hang around for the finish line party, with store brand granola bars (not vegan), more warm water, and rock star "juice" to drink, we were good to skip.

 

If Leann and I had remembered to bring our rave drugs maybe we would have stayed longer ;)

 

It was beyond dark out in the fields where we were parked, and I managed to roll my ankle while walking to the car. I guess on the upside, at least I wasn't on the course and still had miles to go.....

 

We thought that the parking before was bad, leaving was even worse. I think it was an hour or more to get out of the field, and Leann happened to know a back way that got us away from the huge line to get on the freeway. For some reason the organizers didn't think to have anyone directing traffic out of the fields.

 

So, for $50+ for the Electric Run, you got a few neat light show displays in the dark and techno music, a shirt that runs pretty small, a race bib, a blinking bracelet, a pair of glow stick glasses, some water and a granola bar.

 

Like I said, once was plenty for me. I can say I did it, but not doing it again. There seems to be several more glow/neon night runs happening in the Portland area, and they are one paved roads, which seems a lot safer, if I do decide to try another race like this again.