Cosmic Run

WORST.EVENT.EVER.
They promised a free admission for the event next year (which is 2014) and these scammers were long gone. Karma will haunt you.

This review is long overdue.
This was by far the worst run ever. I saw so many people trip over the barricades and in turn getting trampled by the runners. It was so dark and unorganized! We didn’t run the 5k because we didn’t know where to go. There weren’t any signs or attendants anywhere. We saw a lot of teenagers smoking weed and drinking. This isn’t my idea of fun.
The saddest part is that this was my first 5k… and it was a horrible experience.

Oh Cosmic Run what were you thinking? Letting a herd full of people run aimlessly in the dark in an empty parking lot with no direction acting like wild beasts in the wilderness is not my idea of fun.
Where were the lights? Why was the colored powder just packed in a box with people literally throwing the whole box in the air? Why was the race more like .5 miles instead of a 5k?
My friends and I were able to laugh at the whole situation considering we only bought the groupon. Even then it was a waste of a night and a waste of $ 35. I feel bad for anyone who paid full price for this run. Even the end of the night party was really just a high school dance. Cosmic Run is now sending out an email saying if you ran in 2013 you get a free run in 2014. I wouldn’t run the cosmic run again.

This event couldn’t have been more disorganized. My friends and I were not able to pickup our packets before race day, so per the communication we arrived an hour early to register. We waited in line for 2 hours, eventually fighting our way to registration tent only to be told that all they had left was XL t-​shirts. No one even checked to see that we were actually registered. We then got into the lanes waiting to run. 45 minutes later we were still waiting, for no apparent reason. Communication was nill.
Save your money. Do not waste your time with this event.

Yeah, no. The experience was subpar to put it lightly. To put it more realistically, it was a disaster. I want my money back and I am not accepting free tickets in lieu of wasted time, energy, and cash. This was my first 5k race and I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO RUN!
Why, you ask? Because, even thought I showed up early for check in, I had to wait 2 hours in line. The race started an hour later than scheduled, and I was STILL in line for another hour before I got close to the front. Dozens who were behind me and my friend decided to go home. I don’t blame them. Faring 45 degree weather is hardly worth it when you’re in shorts. It’s asking for a cold when you’re in it for more than an hour like we were.
Thankfully I decided to say screw it with the rest of them, because of those who DID run, many recieved injuried due to a poorly lit and a crappily set up course.
I’ve filed a complaint about the company to the Better Business Bureau. This is a matter of principle, of which this company lacks. Their «peace offering» of free tickets to next years Cosmic Run is cheap. I’m not even gonna be in the damn country to enjoy it, first of all, and second of all, why would I take a chance on this stupid run a second time in another city?! I’ll stick with organized companies who know how to plan fun runs, like Run or Dye. Cosmic Run, you can kindly suck it.

#CosmicRun should be called #CosmicFail !
We were one of the first groups there and we had to WAIT!
This event was supposed to start at 7pm, so we went to Candlestick early, 5:30pm to pick up our packet, which we had to pay a fee of $ 5. There was already a line to get into the parking lot! It finally opened a little after 6pm and had to pay $ 15 for parking. Went to check in and they were not even ready! It was getting close to 6:30pm by then! We had to do a #CosmicWait
The Head organizer with a yellow shirt looked all stressed out. There was another guy setting up their fancy Microsoft Surface used for checking in runners and tell me why I hear, «We need power to charge them (Surface)! Too late guys, we are all lined up and waiting.
30 mins before the event started, the volunteers arrived! They got their T-​shirts then sat down in front of the Microsoft Surface. They all looked confused and didn’t know what to do. By then the line was from one end of the parking lot all the way to Candlestick, no one checked in yet!
We finally got checked in and we get our packet. We get ready and walk over to the starting line. That is when the next wait started… The even was suppose to start at 7pm, but actually started 8ish. We all waited so long I saw girls going behind a garbage bin and squatting to pee! At one point, there was 3 to 4 girls peeing at the same time!
When the race actually started, there was no announcement, we just starting running. I couldn’t even see the course! I had to avoid the garbage bins and anything that I was unable to see. Didn’t know it was a Spartan Race! When we all got to one of the stations, there was no volunteers throwing the glow and the dark powder! We had to do it ourselves! SAD! It was so hard to see the track, our 5K ended up being 1.37 miles! There was still people lining up for this waste of time.
If there was the option, I would give this a Negative 5 Stars!
This Fun Run was unsafe and unorganized! Need to have someone else handle the organization, kick that guy with the yellow shirt out!

afraid to say, I agree with most my fellow Unilocalers– SOOOOOO badly organized– waited over an hour with the first wave of runners and we began to question whether it was going to happen. The route was not lit or marked out and was definitely not even a mile, let alone 3.
the powder stations were like a free for all– still in cardboard boxes and peeps had to dig in with both hands frantically to scoop, or some just grabbed whole box and dumped said contents over a buddy which meant nothing left for the rest of runners in the group
my friend finally joined me in the next wave going, after giving up on the on site check in (another fiasco– waited for an hour and a half) and i went around again, after waiting another hour for the next wave. the MC was running out of things to keep the crowd alive. i was dreading the moment he would step off the crane and possibly be booed again for promising us moment after moment that we are going to run
the live DJ sets and guys on the stage after the run (tho i missed ¾ of MAKJ set) almost made up for a cold, messy, questionable night. I was looking forward to an EPIC night… not close.

Never again. We spent more time waiting in line for packets than doing the actual run. Race time was supposed to be at 7pm. By 9pm, the crowds were booing the MC because the color still wasn’t ready.
The course was not clearly marked, as people were moving trashcans and cones. There is no way we walked 3.1 miles in 30 minutes.
There was no food either. A food truck would’ve been perfect for this event.
I paid half price for this run via groupon and I still feel ripped off. If you used a GroupOn, contact their support!

Due to the terrible organization showed at the event in San Francisco I requested a full refund for 2 tickets.
I haven’t received a formal response yet.
Unfortunately we feel robbed after this race, there was no organization at all, and they can’t expect us to just let it go.
We will not stop complaining about this until we get our refund.
Here are our impressions on this race (just in case they want to improve it or In case hey still have a reputation for next year)
*race cost: 60 usd pp
*other costs: 30 usd pp (transportation to the packet pickup place & to the race itself)
*TOTAL COST: 90 USD pp (see below what it was worth of)
Downsides:
1. The actual race started 2 hours later! And we arrived 30 min as requested, basically freezing there. There was no microphone or person to guide the race start, finish or schedule.
2. Initial packet pickup for those who
Didn’t get it on advance was a mess, there was no line, and volunteers were not organized. People told me they waited for about an hour.
Still the volunteers managed to charge 5 usd to most people for the «Late» packet pickup.
Packet included: 1 t-​shirt — 1 tattoo sticker — 2 glowsticks — runner number
3. There was no final packet pickup!
4. There was no defined road so I ended up running no more than 3k since I didn’t know where was I supposed to go.
5. No road or station signaling. No road illumination at all so I saw lots of people hitting and tripping over cones and being stepped over! This could have cause a serious accident! Just because we signed a weaver doesn’t mean that we were willing to loose a few teeth!
6. There was no race timing and definitely no winner! Don’t know what my number was for…
7. Volunteers knew nothing about the race, schedule or road map! There was a guy who told me: «I’m only the guy holding the rope», some other volunteers lost control and started throwing the glow in the dark powder at each other in huge amounts, leaving behind boxes and huge bags of the product around for everyone to trip over again… Seriously?
Upsides:
1. Station lighting & decoration
2. Neon powder (though you need to be careful no to throw it directly to a person’s mouth or eyes!)
3. Music /​DJ
Nevertheless I don’t think our money was worth it… Seriously WHERE DID ALL THAT MONEY GO???
***90 USD worth of 1 regular quality t-​shirt, 1 tattoo sticker, 2 glowsticks, runner number, «some stage lights», neon powder & a DJ?****
If we wanted to spend that amount of money on a party I think we would just go clubbing or raving… At least we would have spent it on drinks!
If there is no fair response from the organizers I’m going to report them to the BBB, along with lots of groups & unsatisfied costumers.

Never been to such a horrible event in my life. An hour late to start. People started to get hurt and falling over cones being injured. There was no lit path or barriers to fallow. I was with my girlfriend and everyone went everywhere. We ran down a path and got stopped after 20 min of confusion by a volunteer. He yelled at everyone to go back to the start line and start over. WE HAD BEEN RUNNING FOR 20 min LOST! He kept yelling at everyone, people just then bum rushed him and he gave up finally.
I was even turning on generators and lights that weren’t even setup right. Im working on my day off and paying these idiots. I want a full refund. Everyone should band the cosmic run from their city. PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!!!
I think we should all sue them! And get our money back.

Everything that everyone has mentioned, INCLUDING THE REVIEWS THAT Unilocal WRONGLY HID, are true.
The entire «race» was a fraud. People paid $ 40 plus dollars to receive two glowsticks, a t-​shirt that clearly had no thought behind it, a tattoo sticker that did not even work, and a bib. Add to that the additional cost of $ 15 for parking within a lot that had plenty of space. Oh, and if you could not pick up your packets in San Carlos you were charged $ 5 for picking them up on race day.
The race started late, was actually more like a crawl, and was highly disorganized from start to finish. When people expressed their displeasure the next day on Cosmic Run’s Facebook page their comments were deleted. Afterwards, Cosmic Run’s PR team decided to spin an apology by blaming being short staffed when, it was so very clear, the reason for the Cosmic Fail was poor Race Organizer (s).
Cosmic Run’s idea of compensation? Getting a free pass next year. I say hell no to that. I want a refund, if not all, at least for half of what I paid. And I expressed this on their Facebook page. I would not be surprised if they continued to delete my comments as well as others.
The main reason for the displeasure for this so-​called race is for the dishonesty and lack of respect this organization has shown.
We, paying customers, deserved so much more than less-​than-​half-​assed-​work.

What a phenomenal event! One of the best Vietnam war reenactments I’ve ever been to. Some of my favorite moments:
— Watching people wait in line for hours, so they could hand volunteers $ 5 for no reason. Not only did you not need to wait in line, you didn’t even need to pay.
— Seeing runners collide with the dumpster and trash can booby traps that were spewed all over the course. This was a great idea, because it slowed down all the old people and runners with poor eyesight and let me get ahead of them. What a bunch of idiots — it wasn’t even that dark!
— 30 seconds of blaring music followed by 15 minutes of silence, and «water stations» that were just hoses on the ground. Everyone loves good ‘ol fashioned candlestick parking lot hose water!
— Boxes of colored clay that had clearly come directly off of the truck and hadn’t been opened. Luckily, the angry mob was able to rip open the boxes and start attacking each other regardless, and I think someone had used a knife they brought to cut into them. Thank god for that.
But far and away my favorite moment: watching drunk teenagers attack each other near open containers of gasoline —
The only thing missing was my close family and friends that I love and care about. Too bad I didn’t bring them along — can’t wait to bring them next year!

I agree with all of the ⁰⁄₅ stars above.
Literally a booby trap. Glass, no direction, no paint, no waves to create a real run, bruises and cuts and a broken iPhone (it broke my fall when i walked between two cement dividers with a chain linking them between.) Awesome layout for the course, by the way.
«Race» was an hour late and not worth the $ 15 cash for parking, which I hope, went towards the girls for fitness program this whole thing was benefiting.
Cosmic Run I want a new phone.

Horrible experience and waste of money! Total bust. We waited for 2 hours in the freezing cold to start. Very poorly organized all around. The course was dangerous and too short. Almost tripped over a cone, among other things. They ran out of powder so we had to pick it up off the ground. There was only one bar (with terrible beer) and no food. The DJs were the only positive part of this event. I HIGHLY recommend NOT signing up for their events!

Like the rest of the reviews, I would put zero stars if I was able to.
What can I say didn’t go wrong with this race… yeah, everything went wrong. Check in started late. Race started late. Super unsafe course with trash cans and orange cones scattered all over that weren’t removed before the race. My mom and cousin tripped over a trash can and fell and we’re trampled by oncoming racers.
We chose not to pay the $ 15 for parking and we parked on the side of Candlestick Park. Unfortunately when we returned to our car, we noticed at least 40 cars had parking tickets. It would have been nice if the staff told us we could not park there but they chose to keep letting people park there. I would say around 100 cars parked there. SF PD sure made bank on last night.
I also noticed that Cosmic Run has deleted all negative comments from their Facebook page. No wonder no one can find out the truth of this organization. I would have never spent my money on this ridiculous race if I knew about this.
Beware the Cosmic Run races!

I really wish there was a 0 Star option.
This event was such an epic failure, I was honestly hoping that whoever was in charge had an emergency or quit at the last minute, or that it would all turn out to be a huge practical joke.
To sum things up-​I feel very let down about the entire experience and would love to contact the BBB because I feel that for $ 60 I basically stood in line in the dark and cold for an hour, put my life in danger, ran about half a mile and went home feeling cheated. But other than a «Contact Us» form on their website I can’t seem to find any information about this organization (no phone#, headquarters, etc).
Other than one guy very rudely yelling at everyone to leave b/​c we were going the wrong way (the course was so poorly marked, no one had any idea which way we were supposed to go) the only other person that seemed to be working for the event was the photographer taking pics that will inevitably go up on their website and Facebook page so they can go scam another city.
Don’t do it!!!

Horrendous. run along a sidewalk in the city and youd get a much prettier experience Was shocked that there was no guidance regarding the course. hell, just a track lined by crappy walgreens christmas lights would have been SOMETHING. like a previous post mentioned, it was essentially a moths to flame situation.
as for the check in… there was not even a need to do so! all they did was vaguely give out shirts and a runner’s number. which no one even checked afterwards! we all could have just waltzed up to the starting line. random passerbys could have stumbled upon the event and ran. for no cost.
absolute waste of time and money.

I thought my first 1 star review was going to be about a rat falling off the ceiling on my birthday.
The concept of combing color run and electric run into one was an awesome idea, but was executed horribly. I knew that the company wasn’t going to be organized as color run because the pick up location for the packets were in San Carlos. No one in San Francisco is going to go that far for packets. When you get to the event there was a really long line for registration and you to pay a $ 5 fee for picking up at the event. Everyone was basically waiting in line to get their numbers causing the whole race to start 45 mins late.
Once the race started there was NO sense of direction of where people were suppose to go. They let so many people go at the same time, it felt like zombie run. People including myself ran into combs and falling all over the place. The worse part is when you get to the color stations there were NO VOLUNTEERS! Runners literally had to fight to get a handful of color to throw. A mile after the run started — you are lost in direction because there was no dividers in which direction you were suppose to go, so people just started going in any direction — just to go to next color station. Some of the stations were just light tunnels with a faulty speakers that would turn on and off. The first water station — which were hoses left of the ground. People were drinking from it like dogs ehh!
By the time we got to the half way point — it was unclear if it was over since the race went thru the concert area and the DJ was already playing. So we just partied at the concert. DJ was fun playing hiphop and house. That was the only positive thing i had to say about the whole event. oh yeah they started to pass out the color packets 1 hour after the DJ started playing.
This event could have been 10x better than color run if they were more prepared. Now i know why color run is so much more expensive.

This was by far the worst event I have ever attended! The course was dangerous and it was terribly understaffed. There was at least a 2 hour wait for the packet pick up. Also the fact that they charged $ 15 for parking and a $ 5 fee to wait 2 hours in the cold is a slap in the face.
I will never support this organization and the fact that they are deleting negative reviews on Facebook makes things worse. Ditto to what all the other reviews are saying, do not support cosmic run!

Horribly planned event. We stood in line for two hours to check in and there was a mile of people behind us. So frustrated we almost didn’t run. They had ten people to check in at least a few thousand. Whoever planned this event should be fired. At $ 60 per person, I would expect much better service. I’ve done several other runs and all were max a 20 minute wait to check in. DON’T be lured by the fluorescent lights. This is a fun concept, but very bad planning.