Last weekend I had a blast doing the Color Run 5K with my friend Bonnie. What's the Color Run? Well, I imagine that someone saw some photos of a Holi celebration, thought, "How can I bring that to the U.S. in a non-religious context?" and decided a 5K was the way to go.
The 5K route was around Kansas City's sports complex. About every 3/4 of a mile, there was a Color Station with attendants who would throw handfuls of powdered pigment at you as you ran by. At the end of the race, they invited everyone to gather in a crowd for a Color Party, which meant opening up the packet of pigment you received at check-in and throwing it into the air. That's where the serious color came from.
Here are some of the photos I took that day:
Here's Bonnie with Arrowhead Stadium in the background. Note the clean white shirt. I was wearing one just like it.
There was a huge crowd – about 15,000 people. We were in the first wave of the run, so we managed to get through to the end and leave while it was still easy to do so.
All be-colored at the end of the race.
Even though I brought sheets to drape over my car seats, I couldn't help but smudge some pigment onto the fabric of my car door. Oops.
Pro tip: Don't park too close to a color station.
I had saved my old running shoes specifically for this race, so they were ready for the trash in more ways than one when I was finished.
Next on my agenda: The Glow Run on Saturday, July 14th. Because I'm obviously up for any color-oriented racing gimmick that someone can think up!
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