Color me Rad

I know, suddenly EVERYONE is doing a Color Run, and I did one today!  I signed up when the groupon had it for a great price a few months ago, and my friend Marlie was bugging me to do it with her.  I figured that if we were going to be walking most of it, I could take Callie with me, since kids 7 and under were free.  Callie thought this was a fabulous idea and she was very excited about it.  

Color Me Rad was the name of our race and it was more fun than I expected.

You are suppose to wear a white shirt, which was incredibly difficult for me to find.  But I did find one and here's me and Callie, with pristine white shirts!

 Packing in at the starting line.  We'd signed up for the first wave at 9am.  None of our other friends wanted to go that early, so it was just Callie, me and my friend Marlie.

Marlie and me at the start. 

Callie rocking the shades.  The race packet included a shirt (which oddly enough was a blue shirt!), some temporary tattoos, and these awesome sunglasses. 

Showing off the white shirts. 

 And we're off!  Callie wanted to run and run.  I'd have run the whole thing, but Marlie isn't a runner, and I knew Callie couldn't run a whole 3 miles.  So we mostly walked it.  But started strong!

The first Color Storm station. 

Callie was disappointed she didn't have more color. 

Blazing through the pink Color Station. 

Definitely have more color now! 

Is it a New Orleans thing?  Dan thinks it is.  Do other races have folks who dress up to run?  

We saw this this guy on the course and he looked like he had a good time. 

At the end of the race, and Callie still wants more color! 

Yeah, that might be enough color! 

This was the crowd at the end.  The DJs were tossing loot into the crowd between the tossing of color bombs.  Callie really really wanted them to throw her something, but you can see the problem here- she's a little girl surrounded by tall people with long arms.  Callie was bitterly disappointed to not get anything and it about ruined her day. 

Throwing the color bombs! 

Every 10 minutes or so, they would count down and everyone would release the color and scream and jump up and down.  Callie enjoyed it a lot.  I prefer to breathe, so I stayed back after the first one. You can see Callie there on the lower right.

Callie took this photo for me, but she was grumpy about the whole no-loot thing, so this was all I got from her.  See how colorful I am?! 

This picture does not do her justice!  Her hair was quite orange!  And there was a bit of blue and green on the other side.

You can't see my color goatee, but I had one.  I discovered blue boogers later as well.  Fun stuff. 

 My shoes were well colored too.  Yikes.  And my skort- well, it just looked dirty.

My trophies!  Colorful shoes and shirt.

I made Callie shake her hair out before getting in the car.  You can't see the cloud of color coming off her really well, but it was very much there!

Consensus:  It was more fun than I expected it to be.  The volunteers were all very friendly and great.  At the end of the race, they give you a color packet, and when Callie went back to trade for a different color, the lady there stuffed 5 packets into her hand.  The color stations were short enough  you could hold your breath through it, but you still inhaled a lot of colored cornstarch over the course.  Wearing a hat and sunglasses kept my eyes pretty well protected, and I had no issues with my contacts.  My hands became green and blue pretty quickly though and I ran out of places to wipe anything on.  I carried my little waterproof camera on the run, and while the quality of picture isn't great, it was still a lot of fun.

They do not time the race.  They did not check that you were in the correct time group.   They didn't offer any snacks afterwards.  Fortunately, they did offer water and a lot of fun!  I was pretty impressed as well with the DJ at the end.  He directed people to a certain lady and said she was handing out trash bags, and anyone who brought a full bag to the merchandise tent would get free stuff.  The bags were gone in a flash and folks started picking up trash.  What a great idea!

We had brought a bunch of towels, but didn't need most of them.  I changed clothes in the parking lot before getting in the car.  I also brought sandals to change into, and was really glad I did.  I lucked out with the discovery of a leftover pack of wet wipes in the car and those were the best thing ever!  I had color caked on my arms, legs and face that the wipes took care of.  I suppose towels would have worked too.

Would I do it again?  I would.  It was fun to do with Callie, but it would have been fun to run with friends as well.  I am so glad I took Callie.  We had a good time.