2 Days Ago I ran my first 5K.
I chose The Color Run
to be my goal race when I decided back in June
that I was going to celebrate my 40th birthday
by making my body obey me and run a 5K.
Why The Color Run?
To be honest, I saw the pictures of other Color Runs on Facebook and it looked absolutely fun as heck.
Why run a plain, boring 5K when you can come out of it looking like rainbows barfed all over you. Am I right?!?!
40 and Fabulous? I'll take that!
I am SO glad I did. Not only did I have the personal satisfaction of getting myself trained well enough to run the whole 5K in a few months, but I had an amazing time.
And so did my family.
Here are some things I think you need to know about
The Color Run...
Loud, fun, dance music (clean, no profanity) is cranking before the race and also at the various color stations set up about every 1/2 mile.
At each color station, you will run under a colored arch where race volunteers will be standing on either side ready to squirt you with squeeze bottles of colored cornstarch. Each archway is a particular color, and that's the color you get bombed with there. If you don't want to be color-bombed, stick to the middle and run fast!
Water is provided TWICE. Once at the near half-way point, and then at the finishing area. You WILL want to have a water bottle or two with you for pre-race dancing & hi-jinx. Trust me. 1.5 hours of Zumba will make you thirsty!
Look! It's the Runicorn!
On that point...around 6:30-ish, they start cranking the high-energy dance music and 2 instructors began leading us in a fun, happy, "just-move-if-nothing-else" Zumba session.
Zumba with the Hubs
This was so fun, my hubby and my kiddos joined me and my fellow runners in shaking our booties. We had a complete blast!
What to wear? Let me be clear here...
Do NOT wear something important to you! The colors STAIN.
Yes, they stain! I honestly thought they MIGHT stain, but figured, surely they won't. I wore old crappy clothes just to be sure, but didn't ensure that my kiddos did. And YES, they ended up with color all over them, too.
(That was half the fun!)
My kids had a blast
Also, I did NOT think to bring towels for us to sit on in the car, so we got colors on our car seats, too.
They DO stand there with a blower (think leaf blower here) at the end for you to get blown off if you want, but the line for that was long and I didn't want to wait, so we just left all colored up.
Me and my Rainbow Girls!
Be sure to get creative with your outfit. We made ourselves some cheap tutus for the race. I opted NOT to wear the shirt you get from them. It's super soft and really nice, and I wanted it to stay that way so I could wear it later. At the race, you can wear it or not. It's your choice.
My T-shirt and packet of colored cornstarch
You get a white headband that says Color Runner, as well as 2 temporary tattoos. One says HAPPY, while the other says The Color Run.
My niece and I pre-race
You also get your race number and 4 small safety pins to pin it on with. I know it's vain, but I hate that my number placket made me look like I had a beer gut. I'm not skinny, by no means, but I ain't got no beer gut! I think maybe I should've stuck it on my chest.
In addition, they give you one packet of colored cornstarch for you to bring and throw at the After Party.
They do sell the color packets, so you can buy more if you'd like. My hubby bought some for my kids because they were DYING to throw it at me (a little pent-up aggression, perhaps?). They also sell some other Color Run items, like big, colorful socks, T-shirts, do-rags, sunglasses, hats, armband/phone holder, etc.
I'll wrap up with two more things: something that I really liked... and something that really annoyed me.
Liked:
The money they raise at each race goes to a different charity. Ours went to our local YMCA (North Mobile YMCA). Awesomeness!
Annoyed me:
Despite the race info emails telling you that runners stick to the left while walkers and stroller pushers should stay to the right, people were TOTALLY NOT FOLLOWING THIS. AT. ALL. As I said, this was my very first 5K RUN. I wanted to run the whole thing. And I did. But it was like running a friggin' obstacle course trying to get around all the folks who were walking and taking up the whole raceway without a thought for the people who were actually trying to RUN the race. Come on, people! A little consideration (and rule-following) is NOT too much to ask!
All in all, I LOVED The Color Run. I plan on doing it again next year, and my family does too. My hubby said he might even consider trying to actually run it with me (yeah, he doesn't run, so that's big).
Get yourself a few friends or a group and
GET YOUR COLOR ON!!!
P.S. The Color Run gives you a discount if you sign up early, PLUS if you do a search, you can probably find a current $5 coupon code to save a little more.
I signed up early PLUS used a coupon code, so I only paid like $32-something ($30 plus taxes, I think?).
