Neon Run

A group of us from work bought a living social for the Neon Run at Candlestick Park. We were all very excited and were decked out in our neon attire. We stood in line waiting and waiting for the sun to go down. (we were told to come early, I am not sure why there really wasn’t a line at all). Once the sun went down the first part was fun, until we turned a corner. It was not organized well, it was hard to know where to go as the run was not clearly marked so we just followed the other people. It was advertised as the neon run so I assumed there would be more neon type experiences. The first color area was a neon goop that at the end we found out could be seen with black light. At the end, where there was a line to a small area of black lights. The rest were powder that was thrown at your face. There was a lot of black plastic on the ground which gets slippery when wet (common knowledge I thought) so people fell or slipped. Towards the end of the race you couldn’t see were you were going which was scary. It was fun because of the people I was with, we could have fun almost anywhere. However I would never do it again. It just isn’t fun.

Attended Neon Run at Candlestick Park with three of my friends. We give this event ZERO stars for minimal organization, lack of customer care, and unfulfilled promises. Run far away from the Neon Run!

It’s called a Neon Run, so therefore I envision night running with neon lights everywhere, if not neon people running with me. I picture a rave with glowing lights, black light and crazy music everywhere. This is definitely not what it was. It was definitely night running with people who had powder on them. They had to go through ONE station to see how they were glowing. SUCKED ASS. That station with the black lights was like mosquitoes and flies to a flame during camping. It was nuts just to see how you were in neon. Stupid effin idea ever. If you’re gonna have a Neon Run, then do it, don’t half ass it. It wasn’t worth my $$$. The only thing I got out of it was a 5 mile workout (including the walk to and from my car).

–Unorganized
–Barely any workers/​volunteers
–Trash everywhere
–Ran around the parking lot in the dark
–VERY UNSAFE
–No lit up path so everyone was clueless
–I thought there would be a blacklight room but NO. There was not.
I bought a LivingSocial deal and I want my money back. It was stupid.

Worst run ever. It was mostly outside, very poorly lit (since it was at night), no clear course, and tons of trash and other clearly dangerous obstacles (including a dumpster. In middle of the course. That is not a joke.). We just ran around the Candlestick parking lot, couldn’t have been more boring. They didn’t break it into waves by speed, so it was impossible to run with all the walkers in the way.
If they had 2 people working there, I would be shocked. Besides the guy announcing the the start, I didn’t see a single staff member (the kids throwing powder don’t count).
There was colored powder everywhere, but since there weren’t any lights, they could have been throwing powdered sugar and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
I’ve run a lot of races, and I think this organization is almost criminal. This is the last time I’ll ever run a corporate race.

The colorun was infinitely better than this neon run. I wanted to have fun but honestly,
I wouldn’t do it again even if they paid me.
— Disorganized.
They ran out of glow paint and neon powder at a neon run.
–The glow sticks they gave me didn’t glow
— Dangerous.
Some parts of the course were dark and wayfinding was awful. No visible lines of where to run.
— Don’t do it. My friends think so too.

1. Packet Pick up– The best part of this whole event was the fact that the packet pick up was organized. That was the only part of the WHOLE EVENT that was organized. Staff at packet pick-​up seemed unhappy and not very professional. I got my stuff quickly, a free headband, a few glowsticks, some powder, and that’s it. There is no medal and no free shirt. The packet pick-​up staff seemed bored and un-​interested. Didn’t really get me excited but I guess that isn’t really the point.
2. Event Day — No signs showing where to park or where the event is. You just kinda have to stick your head out of the window to try and find it. Staff no where to be found at event night and it was hard to understand where the starting line was (because the large crowd), and what waves were going. I was a wave 8 and a wave 7:30 was running with us. Not a timed race so it wasn’t very challenging, or fun. Only one (indoor) area with a few black lights and one light that shown off some dots. Weird and confusing in the tent, just a place where people were taking selfies, not very fun at all. Then the rest of the run was a color run (getting powder thrown at you? No more indoor tents) We basically ran a huge parking lot, THIS RUN IS 98% OUTDOORS!!! Not organized, people were going off course, people walking mixed with running, me and my friend were running weaving in and out of everyone. Not amazing in any way, mediocre at best. I would not recommend to anyone. Save your money for another run!!!
Music was fine. Hahaaaa. Save your money.
Also, there were 2 food trucks. and one of the food trucks was selling crab cakes…
crab cakes… uh…
SERIOUSLY?! I DON’T WANT NO CRAB CAKES!!! That is the grossest crap I’ve ever heard of.

Got this through the living social deal last year. Was unable to attend due to my father becoming being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Asked if I could transfer the tickets over to this years run and was declined with no explanation whatsoever.
Terrible customer service and I would never recommend this company to anyone in the future.

Got a Livingsocial for Neon Run at Candlestick Park in SF earlier this year and decided it to do it with two of my friends. Overall experience was okay, not AMAZING, but not terrible. I’ve heard from friends that the Electric Run was a lot better, with more lasers, more effects, more interesting routes to run along.
This was my first 5k and it was pretty cool, but not an overhwelmingly huge production it seems. The stage at the end of the run was small, with a decent sized crowd but I think most people left after finishing the run.
During the run, we went through a few tents with neon paint water which was entertaining, but otherwise there was not much to see while running along what seemed like a giant parking lot. We didn’t run inside the building, but outside, along the side of the building, and back into the parking lot at the end.
And checking in took FOREVER at Sports Authority — we were in line for over an hour waiting to check in and get our packets. No free t-​shirt, but free glow paint and some glow sticks and a bandana.
Overall, not bad for a first night-​run 5k but I’ll look forward to larger more spectacular runs in the future.
Oh, also at the end of the run people starting toting away free boxes of Zico coconut water (like, 10+ boxes per group, it was cray.) So I suppose there was a fair amount of free swag at the event.

Pick up packet around 5:30pm at Sport Authority Daly City with short line and no problem. But I heard that after 6:30pm-ish, the line was out-​the-​door long… so go early if you can!
On race day, get there an hour early or prepare to wait to get into the parking lot in your car. There was no waits, and I was immediately parked when I got there at 7:15pm. If you wish to park closer to the starting line, park at Gate #2.
The pre-​run ground offers tons of porta-​potties and a couple of food trucks for those who haven’t eaten dinner. The event I went to was held in June, so it was still pretty bright out at 8pm. The sun didn’t set til a bit later, so they didn’t start the run until later than 8pm too.
The run was a little chaotic. It really doesn’t matter what start time you pick because people just started lining up whenever. No one was there to instigate whether you have to run at the «assigned» time. They do, however, cut the line by waves, so make sure you line up with your friends nearby.
Since this is a fun «run», expect lots of walkers. If you want to run, start lining up early and run so that you don’t have to weave through walkers. Also, the whole course is not lit with black lights. There were about 4 spray stations you go passed and 4 glow/​black light tents or so after. Oh yes, not to mention the course was lined with orange cones… which are easily knock-​off and if you want a shorter run, you can practically cut through them.
The after party was just okay. A stage with neon dressed people and DJs and music. Well, nevertheless, it was one of those, been there done that… yup, tried-​it-​once kind of event.

I run races ALL the time half marathons, 5ks, color runs, you name it and I was blown away by how AWESOME and organized the Neon Run was. I bought the groupon along with 12 of my friends. This is not your ordinary start at 8pm type night race– there were thousands of people which brought the energy up like crazy. A couple MC type guys hyped up the crowd with fun house music n neon glow stick give always and counted down as they let out crowds every 5 min or so. The DJs along the way played the most modern popular house music n got the crowd pumped up. There were prob about 5 neon tunnels with black lights, neon color being sprayed, light shows along the way. My group n I dressed up as a kids neon pool party theme n ran the whole thing together having a Blast every second on the race! Thank you neon run for putting on a GREAT event!!!

Terrible. Unorganized. Boring.
1) Check-​In at Sports Authority in Daly City — was actually pretty seamless. I got there at round 4:30PM and only waited about 5 minutes in line. I had pre-​printed out everything for myself and my friend whose packet I was picking up. We did the Groupon and it make with a Shirt, I got ours no problem, but a lot of people in line behind me were complaining they didn’t get there shirts. The Light Stick Necklaces they gave us broke when they handed to me, so I put them in the freezer, but it didn’t work. I just bought my own at the Dollar Store.
2) Parking — They were clearly picking and choosing who got the better spots. It wasn’t clear to me that we had to fill up the spots in order, starting farthest from the entry/​exit so I pulled in next to two other cars who had just arrived near the exit, but my car was the only car approached by the attendant and told to move down until another attendant guides me into a spot. The spot I was given was TINY and I could BARELY open my doors, and I have a small car (Honda Civic)
3) Pre-​Race — Boring. They had music and only a couple of vendors giving out Activated and Coconut Water. The staff of both of these spots were trying very hard to keep the lines moving but people were SO RUDE and just cutting in front of everyone else, finally I had to just tell some people to move to the back of the line.
4) No professional photographers in front of the Neon Run photo-​opts, they were self taken photos.
5) We had to sign up for a Run Wave Time, but they were NOT enforced. It was never made clear to people that WALKERS should stay to ONE SIDE and runners to the other areas. I feel like this may have been the first run for a lot of these people and that information would have been great.
6) The race started late.
7) Once you passed the first color spray section the «Black Light Tent» became one gaint traffic jam blob of humans. Everyone was stopping to take pictures inside the tent.
8) The course was confusing. The cones were being moved around and at some points it was not clear where we were supposed to go. The cones were also really hard to see in some of the darker parts of the course.
9) After the Run — We didn’t hang around. I saw too many Kandi Kids and girls wearing almost nothing and booty shaking with zero respect to the little kids around them.
10) I would never, ever do The Neon Run again. It’s a shame, because I LOVED The Color Run-​SF but this was terrible.
I DO NOT recommend this race.

The Neon Run was a fun 5K at Candlestick Park held at night. The «Neon» part of the run is reflected in the use of glowing/​flashing gear (think stunners, glasses, bumpy rings, etc.), glow sticks, and neon colored water/“paint” they spray and throw at you during the course.
For a brand new event, it was pretty well-​done. However, there is a lot of room for growth and improvement going forward.
1) On-​site check-​in: pretty terrible. They don’t have pre-​made packets made like at most other runs. Everyone had a mini iPad or other small tablet where they looked up your name, pulled a bib, and wrote your name on the back. Then, if you had purchased any Neon Run gear online, they wrote that info down too. Can you imagine about 6 people doing this for maybe thousands of people? Even though they encouraged people to pick up their race packets at pick up locations the day before (in Daly City and Sunnyvale, really inconvenient for people living in SF or for anyone without a car!), pretty much nobody did. They said they would charge $ 5/​person for same-​day packet pick up, but they didn’t collect any money, probably because they knew it would just prolong the painful process even more. Good call on that part.
2) Start Line: So once we finally got inside, there was this really really really long line to actually get to the start line. Since the waves are scheduled 15 minutes apart and they can only let a certain number of people into each wave time, we basically stood in line for about a half an hour, maybe longer.
Let me put it this way, we arrived to Candlestick a little before 8pm. We didn’t get to the start line until at least after 9pm, I kid you not.
3) The course: the course itself was pretty fine. It was all done on the parking lot and other areas outside of the stadium. The concept of doing this run in the dark is really cool. The problem? Nobody can really see where they’re going! The course is only lit in certain areas because they are promoting glowing things on the run (which I totally dig). There were cones marking the course but people didn’t necessarily see them, some people tripped on them, etc. I’m guessing this is why the vast majority of the people walked the course. OR they were all drunk and walked it. I can’t really tell.
4) Runners vs. Walkers: Any normal runner should know that walkers should stick to the side and runners will figure their path out as they go. The problem with NR was that EVERYBODY was walking. I’m totally fine with that given the circumstances, but dear God get out of the friggin way people!
5) Neon colored water/​paint: There are multiple located throughout the course. I recommend side-​shuffling across with your front facing the hoses so you get maximum exposure to the water/​paint. They have tents with blacklight right after each water/​paint station so you can take pics. Honestly, though, just wait til the last one when you’ve had as much neon colored stuff thrown at you.
6) DJs: awesome! Don’t bother bringing your iPod or other form of music player. I saw someone with speakers in their backpack, which was cool, but with the water and stuff I wouldn’t risk the damage. There are multiple DJs located throughout the course playing EDM and other dance tracks that you will want to dance to. It makes walking/​running kind of difficult but totally worth it.
7) Post-​race festivities: just ok. DJ was fun (except he spent way too much time on a dance-​off prompting the crowd to chant/​protest for him to shut up and play music again). 3 food trucks with decently moving lines available. The most disappointing part was that there was a bar that was hidden and closed at 9:30pm. As far as I’m concerned, there was no warning that the bar closes at 9:30pm. Had I known, I would have gone there straight after running (assuming it was before 9:30pm, I’m not even sure it was) and/​or run a hell of a lot faster to make sure I could get some beer. This was poorly advertised and pretty lame, honestly.
I see a LOT of potential for Neon Run. I think the question is whether it’ll become more Bay-​2-​Breakers like with the focus being more on the drinking/​dancing than running. The costumes were fun and I really enjoyed the neon paint, black light tents, and everything else. The music was awesome. The logistical stuff needs to be worked out for real, but I had a really good time.