Awesome 80’s Run

I took on the 10K for this run series. It was pleasant, easy, and hassle-​free, but seemed more low-​key than it should have been. To understand what I mean, the course was spectacular — it was flat and very scenic along the Mission Bay Drive stretch. Some people were also dressed up (as was encouraged) and mostly for Back to the Future since October, 21, 2015 («the future») had just passed. Two guys were outfitted in a cardboard Delorean and were dressed as Marty McFly and the Doctor. They also had an actual Delorean on-​site which everyone queued up for to take pictures. I can say it was quite wonderful to see the man in the short shorts, mustache, and aviators running past me. ;) But, other than that, I still feel like it was dead. I mean they did abruptly change the original day of the event 10 days prior and because of this, I believe many participants had cancelled along with vendors as there was definitely a general lack of enthusiasm and activity all around.
The MC was OK — he attempted to liven up the crowd pre-​race, but either everyone was out of spirits from waking up at the butt crack of dawn, or there was just a serious lack of numbers to illicit any type of response. Therefore the start of the race was very non-​ceremonial — everyone lined up in a small cluster after which the MC said it was time for the 10K racers to begin. Yay. Finished the race in good time and was welcomed to the finish line by the MC again. Shortly after, they were already cleaning up! Very sad…
They also lacked any real swag along with the registration fee, but I guess the finisher’s medal more than made up for it! Probably the biggest and heaviest medal I own! Only wished that it distinguished between the 10K course finish versus the 5K. Regardless, I’ll definitely register for next year’s race again.

Months after having registered, booked a flight, made arrangements for accommodations, got my costume together, organized with friends, I get an email from the event organizers just 10 days before the event. The organizers decided to postpone the event by 2 weeks to accommodate another event on the same day. TEN FRIGGIN DAYS before the event!!! Who does that? I would never ever recommend this event to anyone. May it die a painful death to obscurity.

«WE ARE LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD, AND I’M A MATERIAL GIRL…»
Or why else would you do this race? ;)
The Awesome 80s Run is one of my fave 5Ks. Music is catchy, costumes are great and colorful, almost everyone that participates is festive and the medals are pretty gnarly, dude. lol.
For the 2014 run, they did not provide a running chip/​timer. To tell you the truth, I could have done without the T-​Shirt, and would have preferred a timing chip instead. Oh well. Overall, it was a fun, easy-​peasy 500 mile… I mean 5K.
So far, all their medals have been pretty bad ass. Hopefully next years will be just as b*tchin’ as the others. lol. :)
2014: Ms. PacMan
2013: Darth Vader
2012: Cassette Tape

The first Awesome 80s Run didn’t go so smoothly. If you showed up late, due to massive amounts of slacker runner traffic, it was hard to find parking. Thankfully, my friends and I got here early enough that we only had to walk a quarter of a mile to the start. The start of the actual race seemed a little chaotic and it looked like we started the event a little late. I did the 10k and thought it was just WEIRD that one of the turn around points was up an incline through dirt and plants. For their first ever Awesome 80s Run, I’m giving them 3-​stars.
My second Awesome 80s experience was definitely 5-​stars. This event went a whole lot smoother. They didn’t offer a 10k this time around. So no cutting through brush for us. We found closer parking to the starting line, so we didn’t have to trudge so far. Lastly, I got a DARTH VADER medal! How cool was that? You know you’re jealous…
I love the costumed runners. The funniest being the Super Mario Bros and their own sound track. Loved it. Also, running to 80s music? Like totally fun!
Can’t wait until next year! I wonder how they’re gonna outdo the Darth Vader medal?

So much fun! I grew up in the 80’s and it brought back so many good memories. The costumes, the music, the big hair… It was a great race, I ran the 10K and it was fast, flat and fun. The bib pick up was fast and convenient. Don’t even get me started on the medal (a cassette tape), it’s one of my favorites. Will run this race again.

Better than we expected!!! First off, we paid about $ 35 dollars for a 10k (each), which is relatively cheap considering that most 5k runs go for an average of $ 30-​$ 50 dlls. Second, the music they were playing was not half bad, it’s a good time to reminesce if you grew up in the 80’s with Cindy Lauper and McHammer (CAN’T TOUCH THIS!!!) and all those funky singers.
The course was around Fiesta Island so NO HILLS!!! (thank God) And the really cool medal was a big bonus, my wife and I run for the satisfaction of running but we have received other medals and this one was in the shape of a cassette tape (younger people you may have to Google it to see what it looks like), and from what I’ve been reading the medals for 2013 are gonna be Star Wars theme, I think in the shape of a Storm Trooper or Darth Vader not sure.
Things to consider:
1– Dress in layers, at least your ears and core because the weather is a bit crazy around October, it starts off really cold (many ppl were freezing and brought no jackets) then it gets warm.
2– The parking is a bit confusing but nothing you can’t handle just arrive early about an hour before the race starts, otherwise you may park a bit far from the start line.
3-​Enjoy, if the race is held again in Fiesta Island then this is a great opportunity for those who are intimidated of doing a 5k run, the course is really easy no hills and no tricky curves.
4– Many people dressed up so feel free to wear your funny 80’s clothes!

5 for FUN, but there were some kinks along the way.
Packet pickup was avail at 2 locations on 2 different days. I opted to go during my lunch to RoadRunner. A tad disorganized — the person behind the table didn’t know what to do when I presented with my number, no safety pins were offered and the people giving out the shirts used a verbal system in giving the shirts away vs. reviewing bibs. Nonetheless, since I went early, I was done within 10 mins.
Pros:
–Course was relatively flat (YAY.)
–We actually got real medals.
–Loved how everyone dressed up in 80s attire!!!
–The band for the after-​party was BAD ASS!!!
Cons:
–Traffic was horrible!!! If you’re coming down on the 5, get off at Mission Bay Drive vs. Sea World Drive and park. Trust me, you’ll be grateful…
–When you leave, there is only 1 way out (if you parked north of Sea World Drive).
–I was late to the start, so I got stuck with all the walkers and strollers. It was hard to bypass some groups since they took up the entire walkway. HELLOOOO!!!
–Weather was very crisp and cool. When you round the bend on Fiesta, you get a lot of headwind, which also contributed to an even worse sore throat.
–Line to take pics with the Dolorian was waaaay too long. The photographer took several shots per group, which resulted in a very long wait time.
–There were mini cups of water and orange slices for post-​race. That’s it?!
It was unfortunate that (1) I hadn’t trained due to my surgery and (2) I woke up sick. This course is definitely PR-​able, but it was mostly all about having fun. This is a great 5k for beginners or for those wanting a PR.

Lets start from beginning:
PARKING — horrible. Not enough police to guide traffic. Miles of cars waiting on freeeway off-​ramp to get to locale.
START TIME — Up to a couple of days before event, website advertised a 7:30 a.m. start. Emails, however, said 7a.m. Didnt matter. Run started late anyway.
WARM UP — Gee, it would have been nice if we could all see the warm-​up guy. Hmm. maybe he should have had a platform/​stage??? Common sense, right? But nope, no common sense at this event. Instead, we were all like, «Who’s talking? Where is he? Do you see him? What’s he doing?»
LINE UP — What kind of 10K/​5K organizer lets everyone just line up willy-​nilly??? Organized events have separate corrals for runners and walkers.
COURSE — Mile markers spray painted on pieces of cardboard? Really? Come on, now. Confused 10K’ers wondering which way to go… a sign of incompetent organizers.
PHOTOGRAPHERS — THE WORST EVER!!! DO NOT BUY YOUR «GREEN SCREEN» PICTURES FROM SUPERSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY!!! QUALITY IS HORRENDOUS. UNPROFESSIONAL SALES REPS, FAULTY EQUIPMENT, AND LOWEST QUALITY PRINTS. Save your money. Forget the DeLorean.
Having said all that, the 80s cover band was great! They rocked it out! The finishers’ medals were nice too. Oh, and of course, loved seeing all the creative 80s outfits! Will I be doing this again? Nah. At least not til they have a race director that knows what they’re doing. Get it together, man.

in one word. clusterf*ck.
seriously. who uses the work clusterf*ck.
this motherf*cker right here.
there really isn’t any other way to describe what went down.
didn’t have to worry about traffic. got there early. i had a feeling that a lot of n00bs would be showing up late. so they were pretty much sh*t out of luck.
didn’t matter anyways. because the sh*t didn’t start on time.
i did the 10k. it pretty much sucked. you basically did two laps around fiesta island. and the turnaround point for the 10k made you go up ice plants. a serious wtf moment that threw you off your pace.
they let the 5k and 10k go at the same time.
that was a big mistake. can we say bottleneck.
and then once you got past that. you hit the bottleneck again when you lapped the slow motherf*ckers.
T_​T
f*ck that noise. i ain’t doing this sh*t again.
it was neat to see people in costumes.
and the medal looked cool.
but seriously. hell to the f*cking no. when it comes to doing this sh*t again.

Definitely a fun run. It was my first 5k so I don’t have a ton to compare it to, but I felt like it was well organized. I will say that the parking wasn’t quite as close to the start as the website implied (but I kind of expected that) so I had to run with the pack we received. It ended up working to my advantage, though, because I was able to put my fleece in there when I got warm. The turn off for the 5k vs. the 10k was marked well, and volunteers were there making sure you got it right.
The costumes were impressive. I particularly liked the Pacman group and the Stay Puff Marshmellow man. I’m definitely going to try this again with a group.

My first Awesome 80’s Run. I had a blast, had great 80’s music playing and a lot of people dressed up and also break dancers. Can’t wait until the next event.