Living Life in Full Color

Ever since my girls can remember, I have been a runner.  Well, more of a fast jogger.  And randomly, I sign up for a 5k or a 10k or a relay just for fun.  And for as long as I can remember they have wanted to come race with me but the timing has never been right; either the race was too late at night, or B wasn't home so he couldn't take them when they finished and I had to run, or they had other commitments.  So when my friend J asked us to join her team in walking the Color Run - we jumped at the chance.  And to add to the fun, so did many of our friends.  The girls were instantly excited and talking about how they were going to race.  Stinkerbell was planning on doing cartwheels for the entire 5k.  MadHatter was going to hold hands with her friends.  Me, I was just going to enjoy.

Started in 2011 in Phoenix, AZ to promote health and happiness and bring runners and non-runners together the run is an untimed event that emphasizes fun over competition.  Runners begin the race in white t-shirts (and pants) and are sprayed each kilometer with a different color of brightly dyed food grade corn starch.  Fittingly, it is known as the "Happiest 5k on the Planet".  It also holds the title of the World's Largest Running event with over a million people running one of the 200 races in over 40 countries. And this year, to mark the 5th anniversary of the race, they created a unique Tropicolor World Tour with brighter colors, island scents and a bigger after party.  And it seemed like a lot more people too - 12,000 to be exact.  

It was a lot of fun, and now I think my girls have the wrong impression of what my runs look like.  They believe that I always throw color, get dirty, walk the race, grab my medal and go to dinner.  Maybe another run is in their future.  This time, one that makes them actually run and finish the whole course because we ducked out of this one before finishing even 2k.  And that took us over 90 minutes to complete because of the bottlenecks and the crowds.  But they girls are glad they did it and had so much fun with their friends.  So did I!

Tattoos.  White clothes. Attitude.  Ready to catch the tram!

Our first throw of color.  They had no idea what to expect.

Our littlest participant was more than happy (some of the time) to plaster you in color.

We had 1 1/2 before race time, so we were a bit colorful before we even lined up to start.

And since we had so much time, we headed out for ice cream.

When we got back, it was people as far as the eye could see...

We had the kids pose with the Unicorn Mascots

And then we did it too...

Finally, we were off.  Only 40 minutes after the official start of the race (no wonder it isn't timed)

About 100 yards in, this was our first color!  We saw it coming and had plenty of time to prepare...

This is how she prepared.

We made it out the other side.  No worse for the wear, just purple.

Then we soaked up pink...

True to her word, she did a lot of cartwheels with her friend S.

There was that 5-minute stretch where no one was throwing color at us, so we took matters into our own hands and gave the girls some ammunition.

Finally, we had enough.  It was slow, there was dust in our mouths and our ears and our noses, and we were very thirsty.  So we cut across a field and headed to the finish line.  Now the kids wanted to run, so run we did.  For about 200 yards.  But hey, that constitutes a run...right?

We finished!