Color Me Rad 5k

On a cool, Saturday morning, I participated in the Color Me Rad 5k here in Vancouver. Just a fun themed run where you get sprayed with colour at every kilometer you run, ending off with a big colour fight and dance party at the finish. And let me tell ya - I had a blast.

To be completely honest, when Jen first asked if any of us were interested in doing this run, I thought it would be fun. But as the day came closer, I dreaded it more and more. What did I sign myself up for? Why did I want to subject myself to such torture of getting all dirty and gross? What if it rains? How miserable would that be? What about clean-up? When was the last time I ran an organized run? When was the last time I ran? And the days leading up to this event, the weather has changed and it's been freezing cold outside. But knowing that some of my friends who signed up along with me were just as hesitant gave me a little comfort in knowing that if this turns out miserable, we'd be miserable together. Those were my thoughts before it all happened anyway.

I woke up that morning, unlike most mornings, a little more chirpy than normal. But I still wasn't ready for a messy run. We made it to UBC much earlier than our start time, which gave me enough time to reminisce on my days as a student there and took a stroll down memory lane. We stopped by the gym that I played intramurals volleyball at during my university days. That hasn't changed, but everything surrounding that building has.

When we got to the meet-up point, we did a little warm-up with some zumba. And the first blast of color was released into the crowd.

Since this was the first year for Vancouver to host a Color Me Rad run, most people didn't know what to expect. Everyone was looking mighty clean at the start.

We all made our way to the start line when our start time neared, and another blast of colour was blown at the start line.

The music was pumping. The MCs were working people up. And everyone was trying to grab for a bag of free colour when they threw them out. The best thing was catching a bag and dumping a colour on your friends.

The run itself was a nice and easy jog. The weather was perfect. Cool and dry. Some colour stations were dry, and some were wet. And at the finish, we were all given packs of colour to go crazy. I put my phone away during the run, but here are some pics from the aftermath. Some were taken in the middle of a blast. 

The colours are made by coloured cornstarch. So you don't actually feel the mess at all. Weightless powder that felt like nothing. We didn't actually know how colourful we were until we saw ourselves in the reflection of a friend's sunglasses (which were also provided to us by the run). And you really get only as dirty as you want to. You can come out pretty clean if you just avoided it all. But we... we chose to be in the middle of it, and ran into the big colour fight at the end. We danced our heart out to the beats. Jumping and moving to beats like "I Got A Feeling" and "Party Rock Anthem". We all had amazing fun.

Everyone's colourful faces, uniform sunglasses, and all facing the same direction (the stage) made it look like a scene from the Walking Dead. But a more rainbow kind of apocalypse.

And for a final pose at the finish line! 

I gotta say it was one of the best fun I've had all year. Think we may just sign up for it again next year! Wanna come?