The Neon Run

Speaking as one of the djs for 2015 run in Irwindale I had a great time. I busted out a hardcore and hardstyle mix that the runners all loved. I was at the start/​finish line so the hard pumping music was the first and last thing they heard to push themselves to go faster during their run.

Its worth attending at least once in your lifetime!

Don’t waste your money. It’s a run through a parking lot at night with a few stations where people throw colored baking powder at you with resentment. The only neon is a small tent at the end with black lights. That’s it. Save your money and buy your own black light and dance around in your backyard. You’ll probably get more out of it.

I did this run about a year ago with a group of friends. We got a deal on living social for half the price so that always makes things better! Before we went we saw that they had a lot of things for sale to buy at the run but to save money we went to party city and got packages of glow sunglasses, colored socks, colored hair spray, and other items. The neon run was nice enough to tell us items that would glow and what to buy even if it wasn’t from them.
The items they have for sale are priced pretty decent but my friend is big on getting the best bargain prices and we had a group so it made sense to buy items in bulk. With our purchase of the run, the Neon run gave us a shirt, glow sticks, big blow up glow sticks, glow necklaces, tattoos, body paint, and more. It was a bag of fun things… I don’t remember every single item but it was more than any race I have ever done usually gives!
Just a few things to mention. this is a fun run. Absolutely silly, get dirty, dance with the music, feel good run! Yes getting dressed up was part of the fun! People on Unilocal complaining… um it’s not meant to be a real race for time… this is a get down and dirty party run!
I have done Spartan races, gladiator runs, mud runs, the color run, and many more. If you want a workout hit the gym. I ran but people were at all different levels of fitness here. So don’t be imitated by your fitness level… all ages and people are at different levels and are welcomed! There were lots of people that could only walk and some that ran. It’s suppose to be fun! They spray you as you go through the different stations and you can see it under the black light.
We had a blast! At the end of the run they have a big party going with music and a huge tent with black lights everywhere. Everyone is having dancing and they sell drinks.
I noticed some people mentioned they didn’t get T-Shirts…sounds like they couldn’t afford to keep the T-​Shirts going. They are selling all their tickets on groupon and living social dirt cheap and have to pay a lot of money to put this event on. Sounds like they couldn’t afford to do it anymore.
Honestly I feel bad for the company. It’s a shame. This was a fantastic event. I didn’t see one disappointed face all night. Smiles and laughter nonstop! They even sent out a survey asking how we liked the event, what they could do different and suggestions on letting people know about them.
I should mention we did this run in Sacramento but it’s a traveling run so I believe it’s the same people that work the runs. Also many places charge for parking, $ 10 isn’t bad.
In closing if your looking for a fun time I couldn’t recommend this run more! Most fun I’ve had on a run yet!

I wouldn’t have done this if it weren’t for the Groupon deal like probably most other people. For full price, it’s not worth it at all really.
The whole event felt like it was more about dressing up than actually running. Although, I was actually surprised to see more people run than I had expected. The music definitely helped to hype you up during the run. The spray zones are pretty gross. It doesn’t feel like water. It’s more like diluted goo.
We did street parking instead of the lot to avoid the charge… street parking was not far at all.
Like everyone said. no t-​shirt? Lame… the runners packet did not have much stuff in there. Two glow sticks. I’m sure they could’ve afforded more. The finish line wasn’t exciting at all. There shouldve been a cheer squad or something or extra extra paint to spray you. There was nothing…
It was overall okay. I just like the neon lights and the music. Other than that, it’s not something I plan to do again. It was something that could’ve been put together by high school kids. Not too organized. Running was hard with people walking in patches throughout the route.
By the way, the washable color that they spray on during the quarter miles weren’t that easily washable. I just ended up tossing everything away. Try harder Neon Run. You have potential, don’t cheap out.

First timer here and I was really looking forward to this fun run. The concept was cool… seemed like this could be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was the complete opposite in my experience.
PROS:
— cool concept
— decent DJs playing good music
— music sound quality was great
— venue was ideal (just not used to its full potential)
CONS:
— very poorly executed course
— not enough resources to direct and guide foot traffic
— course had had some narrow trails making it hard for actual runners to get by walkers (walkers to the right!!)
— not enough blacklight on the course to give it that feeling of a neon night run
— not enough music during the run, music only near the tents
— parking was far from the start and finish line (i think this aided in the confusion of where to go)
— swag bags included temporary tattoos, glow-​in-​the-​dark necklace/​bracelet, glow-​in-​the-​dark paint
— one water station during course and it was room temperature. eww.
read on for more details…
Event Parking — Just about the only thing that went smoothly. One issue I had was $ 10 parking fee. on top of registration, we still have to pay for parking? if you’re going to rent a venue out to host an event, consider including parking fees into the registration cost.
Entrance — very poorly organized. from the parking area, we walked in the same direction as the crowd only to find out most of the crowd had walked to the packet pick-​up booths. no one was on site to direct people to the starting line, if they were there, they did not speak up and it was hard to tell at night who was staff vs a participant. i didn’t see any signs either. we opted to walk into the stub hub center and started following another crowd of people who were luckily walking toward the starting line which was on the completely opposite side of the parking area.
Starting Line — waves of participants went every few minutes. the first 10^th of a mile was a narrow bottleneck which made it difficult to even trot
Course –
most of the course was well lit. cool, they’re being safe, but in all honesty i was expecting more darkened areas with blacklights… it is a neon run, right?
the spray tents were a claustrophobic nightmare. many people stayed until they were drenched in glow in the dark water then taking pictures by the blacklights causing a traffic jam.
on the last leg of the course, they had us go from one end of a parking lot to the the other end, then back again… i felt like a lab rat in a maze… it was at this point that we lost complete direction of the course and made our own way to the packet pick up location. from here, we were trying to figure out where the finish line was… once again, ZERO help in navigating participants in where to go. i overheard people say the finish line was inside the arena, so we went.
i mapped my run using the Nike Running app and came up 1 mile short… walking from the lab rat maze that was the parking lot to packet pick-​up definitely was not a mile… taking a look at the course map on their website, i suspect there’s an entire section everyone failed to run through (i don’t recall running through there) b’coz there was most likely no one there to direct traffic or it wasn’t clearly marked.
Conclusion: with the lack of organization and staff… i shouldn’t have paid for this event and just showed up… maybe i woulda had more fun that way.

EXTREMELY POORLY ORGANIZED EVENT!
Packet Pick-​Up: Showed up to Sports Authority, walked in, didn’t even know where to go. I almost thought I was at the wrong place. I was directed to the back, there was lot’s of volunteers ready to assist so that was a good thing. I was picking up packets for my friends, they basically had to sign their life away and donate a kidney in order for me to pick it up (I’m exaggerating — all they had to do was write a letter giving me permission, send a photocopy of their ID, and sign their Hunger Games style waiver). I was given a glow stick necklace, the neon run bib, and a neon run tattoo. NO T-​SHIRT. $ 49 for NO T-​SHIRT. Thank God we bought the Groupon for this!!!
I asked for the t-​shirt and I was told «T-​shirts will be available for sale tomorrow at the event for $ 15». I was also informed that this is the first time that they do not include the t-​shirt in the packet, they did previously.
Super bummed.
Later that not I realized we weren’t given tubes of neon paint. My friend had gone an hour before me and she hadn’t gotten the mini neon tube of paint either.
Event day: It was relatively easy to get into the parking lot, nothing compare to the nightmare line we faced for the Color Run in OC months ago. Parking was $ 10 which we thought sucked, we didn’t have to pay for parking for the Color Run. There weren’t any signs directing us where to go so we just followed the crowds. When we got to the Stub Hub Center it was a mess. People everywhere, lines for late packet pick up, no signs directing us where the start line was. Again we just followed people who looked like they knew where they were going. We walked into the arena, and followed everyone.
We get to an area, we see people dancing and a DJ is playing music… then we see a crowd forming at what appears to be (and is) the start line. We were released in short waves. We wove in and out, in and out of parking lots. The first two Neon Spash Zones were disappointing, paint seemed horribly watered down! We just got wet. The last two or three splash zones made up for it, there was someone with buckets of gooey paint and I stood in front of that person and turned around in circles until I was covered in neon paint.
Music was really good, otherwise it would get one star. My friends made it fun. Majority of people walked (we did… I wanted to wog/​jog but my skinny friends walked it and I was totally fine with that) and we had a good time.
Finish line was disappointing, because there was NO indication that it was the Finish Line! no sign, no banner, no extra gooey paint. We just (again) assumed we were at the finish line based on the location and everyone taking photos. We basically made it back to where we started. There were three food trucks, two areas with black lights to take photos (props for having Neon Run volunteers taking pics of everyone with their cell phones) and a merchandise area that I didn’t even have to walk over to because from where I stood I could see there was nothing on display to buy other than t-​shirts. The t-​shirts were really plain. The DJ was playing some kick-​ass jams and a lot of people were dancing.
If you want to keep reading, let me compare the Neon Run to the Color Run…
When I arrived at the pick-​up for the Color Run, it looked like a party. It was awesome. We got t-​shirts, color packets of powder, tattoos, and directions to the Color Run. Although the Color Run was hellish to get in and out of, we didn’t have to pay for parking and there were plenty of signs telling us how to get to the start line. There were half a dozen food trucks, free Victorias Secret drawstring sacks, free Kind bars, free samples of food, tons of porta potties and a very well marked start line and the finish line was like a huge victory celebration.
I’m just grateful we got the Groupon hook up for $ 24 !!! On to the next fun 5K…

Crowd spirit, music, and glowing in the dark was cool as neon should be, but the organization and execution was dimly lit. For the first wave, they didn’t have everything set up. No clock time. We had followed some workers after the MC said, «…are you ready to go, follow them!» Crowd flowed in past the balloon that said start… so was that the start? Runners started jogging only to find a wall of people standing. Then some dudes hyped up the crowd from a lift waving a giant bouquet of glowing green neon sticks. We got pumped… counted down til they said go. Still, no clock? Along the way, no mile/​k markers as we weaved out of the stadium, through a track, looping through the parking lot. Thank God for the djs, getting slimed with gloe paint, and going under black light tents. We ran back into the stadium… i guess towards the finish… no official finishing line marker… and of course, no timer showing finish time, just arched NR balloons and people on the sides… VERRRYY anticlimactic. I guess all the hype went to the next wave starting. FAIL for the 7:45 wave. The start and ending really sucked.
For the lack of quality, I was disappointed I had to pay an extra 15 bucks just to get my bib and park. Guess I better rock the hell out of that headband to make up for it. With the next wave of runners… it was confusing for where the first group was supposed to go and exit.

This was one disorganized hot mess of a run! Lets start before the race with the packet pick up in Torrance. If you live in la your not going to want to drive there in rush hour on a Wed or thur, for a race on a freakin Friday! Seriously why hold a race on a Friday? Soooo, if you couldn’t drive to pick it up you could pick the packet up race day like most races but now you to pay $ 5 a person, WTF? On top of that you had to pay $ 10 for parking!!! WTF? The «packet» consisted of your bib, glow stick, headband, chick filet coupon and a little tube of paint to split between two people … not even a shirt !
The run was so disorganized in the beginning people started running and nobody new where the start line was, it was lol ridiculous! Everyone was running and asking each other if it started… and it had not! Then the course just went up and down parking lots and the finish line… lol WHAT finish line? There was not anything saying finish just series of lighted poles it was ridiculous ! After the race was over there was no indication of how to get out and back to the car, so people started walking back along the race against the people still running, also people started walking against all the other people still walking to start the race…
The glow part was kinda fun, all five or so black light areas, the music at one point was cool, but overall it was a joke of an event. We had gone to the firefly run here a couple months ago and it was much better!!! Free parking, no fees to pick up packets, tee shirts and better swag, better course, more organized and they had timers with defined start and finishes!

This was rather a special event for me because I’ve never done any race in my entire life and overall I had a pretty good time. The name says it all, it’s a 5k Neon Run. Be prepared to see a lot of colorful glow sticks and people.
~BEFORE THE RUN~
Here’s the break down of how me and my friend got it all started. My friend saw the deal on Groupon and purchased 2 of them because it was half off the original price. For each participant, the discounted price is less than $ 30.
You pick up your package at Sports Authority located in Torrance to avoid $ 5 pay at the day of event at the race track.
The package comes with:
–Your ID tag,
–Color paint,
–A temporary tatto
–White head sweat band
–2 glove stick necklaces
–A Chick-​fil-​A coupon for a free Chicken Sandwich (Redeemable only in the South Bay area),
Since I live in the South Bay, it was easier for me to pick up and to avoid the $ 5 pick up fee on the day of and as well as avoiding the long line. I’m so glad I did because people who picked up their packages on the day of didn’t even get face paint because they ran out of supplies. The body paint was really fun, you can put that on your face, arms, legs… anywhere!
~PARKING~
This is hosted within the LA Galaxy stadium and parking lot. On the way in for parking, the traffic was a SOB! Waited for so long… and parking is $ 10. –_​_​_​–
Plenty of parking spaces in there so no worries.
~ATTIRE & CROWD~
I saw many interesting outfits. People were in colorful costumes, glowing bras, stockings, shoe laces, pacifier necklaces and MANY wore multicolored tutu dresses. INCLUDING GUYS. Some even wore tight colorful stockings and leggings… yah sexy.
The crowd were mainly teenie boppers. They made me feel like a dino but gotta love their energy. There were also some parents strolling their babies around.
~DURING THE RUN~
It starts at 7:30pm but we were the last wave… and we didn’t start until 8pm ish. It got dark, and all the neon lights and glove sticks were looking pretty dang awesome! I LOVE how throughout the whole run, there were music blasting and they had live DJs! I did not run at all. It was too crowded. I mainly power walked and jogged a little bit.
We went through about 4 spray stations. Those were FUN! You run through it and they spray colors at you. You will be able to see the awesome colors under the tent where they have black lights. So awesome! Cover your eyes because they might accidentally spray on your eyes!
~AFTER PARTY~
It took an hour to finish the 5K by walking. They had live band and DJs at the end near the food trucks. They were giving out complimentary bottled waters.
There were about 3 – 4 different food trunks. Wings, beer, burgers, dogs etc…
We didn’t go to any of the stand. I wanted to sit down and dine so we bounced to somewhere else to grub.