I kinda forgot about this run….

Back in April, the day night before the Horsetooth Half, I participated, last minute, in the Rave Run 5K in Denver.

There’s a reason why I kinda forgot about this race…. Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time, there was a girl who really wanted to help others. Her name was Wendy.  She was really into running and wanted to use her passion to help others and motivate them to achieve whatever goals they desired.

She enrolled in a seven month technical program to learn all about the world of personal training and become certified.

In the meantime, Wendy wanted to start learning more about the possible careers out there and she wanted to get her foot in the door of the personal training world.

She applied to work at a gym, let’s just call it Hell, I mean, The Big Box Gym. She got a call shortly after and put on some nice clothes and went in to see this kingdom.

It all seemed so wonderful, and the Ruler of the kingdom seemed so nice and promised her so many good things like full time hours, competetive pay, and even health insurance!

She was hired on the spot and started immediately!

Little did she know that people tend to lie and cheat just to get ahead in the Kingdom and that all those promises were falsely made.

She met another girl there, lets just call her Bria, who also shared her passion for running but after suffering multiple injuries over the years, she was left with the inability to race anymore.

Instead, Bria chose to participate in fun runs where competition wasn’t an issue and you could still enjoy the things you loved without the stress on the body.

Wendy and Bria become fast friends. One day, Bria announced the she was volunteering, and in turn, got to compete in a fun event called The Rave Run! Being such short notice, and too much money, Wendy was intrigued but realized she couldn’t join in on the fun.

The next day, Wendy got a text message from Bria stating that she had asked the race volunteers if she could get another race entry and they said yes!

Bria and Wendy met up and ran the Rave Run for free!! What a fun time! There was so many people all adorned with glow in the dark clothes, neon glasses and flashing bracelets!

The race was 3.1 miles around City Park in Denver, CO. So many people had showed up to this wonderful event! As the racers ran around, they were greeted by colorful light displays on walls, trees and the road as well as fun lighted, blow up pillars.

The most beautiful of the displays was the lit up fountain that made the water look like it was colored!

After everyone made it around the course, they ended at a big Ball and danced to the electronic music, waving colors through the air.

Music filled the air around every corner as people ran and danced the night away!

After the race, It seemed like Bria and Wendy would make great friends and could participate in more events like these…but what was once fun and honest turned into exactly the opposite.

Bria turned out to be a fake and a liar; she ended up selling out to The Big Box Gym at the cost of Wendy’s career. Wendy noticed that she wasn’t getting credit for things that she did at The Big Box Gym, like sales that she made, and was getting thrown under the bus carriage, as they say, for things that she had no control over and that everyone at The Big Box Gym was responsible for.

Bria went on to steal a handful of sales from Wendy, and obviously demolished their friendship. She got promoted and went on to a different Big Box Gym in the Kindgdom.

Wendy, in turn, to stand up for herself, told the Ruler of the Big Box Gym exactly where he could shove it and she left without looking behind her.

She is now working hard on opening her own business.

On a serious note:

I didn’t actually tell my boss where to shove it, but I did tell him that I was treated unfairly and explained why sales numbers were short for the month, but he didn’t care, so I decided that Bally’s didn’t deserve a person like me and put in my two weeks notice. After having an inside look at the company, my view on fitness was completely different than Bally’s money hungry approach to training anyway, and I would not have migrated over to peronal training there.

I usually don’t have posts like this, but I told this story to show you why I blocked the Rave Run out of my mind. I was actually kinda hurt by the fact that someone I thought would make a cool friend would so easily cheat and lie just to get ahead in a career. It’s actually pretty disheartening, especially because I thought I had found a running buddy! lol

Let’s talk running; The Rave Run Itself:

It was actually pretty fun, if you like gigantic crowds. I mean, I’ve done one other “fun 5K,” the Color Run. They are both pretty much the same, down to the course itself. One just has  colored lights and is at night while the other has colored cornstarch and is during the day.

It’s a great way to spend time with friends and be active at the same time. They are perfect for the person that wants to do their first 5K or race.

The after parties are pretty fun; I really just don’t like being in rambunctious crowds that much in general….

The Rave Run didn’t really seem that organized, and honestly, I don’t know if they could make it more organized because of the amount of people.

The perks: A shirt, glow in the dark glasses and light up bracelets. (I didn’t end up getting a shirt because they ran out and I had a free entry).

I’m really trying to not bash the Rave Run, or other fun runs like this, I just think they’re over priced to be jammed in with that amount of people. Plus, I prefer a little friendly competition, even if that competition is only myself and I’m trying to break a PR.

Conclusion:

I’ll leave you with this, do a Rave Run, Color Run, or other fun run for the experience. Let me know what YOU think. I personally probably wont register for THIS race in particular again, BUT I’m glad I tried it once. In the future, I’ll probably do other fun runs to try them OR if some friends of mine want to do them too. I really want to try something like the Foam Fest or Drenched…those look fun!

Your turn: Have you ever done the Rave Run in your city??? What did you think??