witsandnuts

I never thought that my kind of fun would someday include joining an electric run. When I got kick started with my sort of fitness journey last year, I did an early sign up for Abu Dhabi’s Electric Run to primarily get a discount. This month of February is quite eventful that I almost forgot about it and wanted to cancel or give my ticket to other people to catch up on personal time. I am glad I did not. Otherwise, I would have had one of the biggest regrets this year.

Count down!

What I learned about last Friday’s electric run:

The Good

1. Electric Run is gazillion times more enjoyable than the Beach Run and other fun runs. (I was supposed to experience my first Color Run next month. It is unfortunate that it coincided with the date of my flight.)
2. I got to experience and discover more the fun side of me. I wish though that I wore one of those glow in the dark tutus (even guys did!).
3. I was clever enough not to buy the premium/ VIP pack because I saved money and have been more creative by buying the accessories which are probably just for one-time use (e.g. those neon bracelets and other glow in the dark stuff from Daiso and Party Center). I would consider a pair of shoes with sparkling lights next time.
4. It reminded me of how much I loved headbands and the last time I wore one was in high school. After decades, I got to wear another one, a sparkling, glowing Minnie Mouse and Green Devil headbands (yeah, there was a spare!).
5. I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 km run/ walk because the lights and sounds display for each km were awesome. My most favorite was when we reached the Super Mario section, I wanted to walk like Mario and Luigi.
6. I never felt tired. I never wanted the 5 km run to end.
7. The ‘Finish Line After Party’ was fun. (See video at the end of this post.)

The Bad

1. Not a lot. Mainly on ticket pricing. I suggest that the organizers consider giving student discounts and provide more categorization/ segmentation for ticketing.
2. Will you allow some pet dogs to join next time, please?

The Ugly

1. The organizers should find a way to prevent some runners (basically, some teens) from skipping some sections of the sort of obstacle course. Personally, I would not want to skip anything. Why not design the track with an alternate route, from point C to E directly next time? Maybe some runners find the attractions in the next km more engaging. In this way, the volunteers may not need to do more policing and would instead act as guide to alternate directions.
2. The ‘out of the cage’ type of runners during The Finish Line After Party should be tamed. The after party was really one of the highlights of the ‘run’, I guess some patrons actually joined for this lone reason. However, they should have had mechanism how to control untoward behavior, e.g. those who were throwing water (shower type, I hope those were drinking water only) to the crowd.

Overall, this was an ultra fun experience. I am probably skipping the Beach Run and other fun runs next time for this.