Today was the day for The Color Run in Buffalo!
The Color Run’s tagline is, The Happiest 5k on the planet, but up until the actual race today, I had not been looking forward to actually participating. I just didn’t feel like being away from Emmett any more than I already am, but I had signed-up and realized that I probably shouldn’t let my $35 entrance fee go to waste. I’m glad I went, in the end I had a really great time.
For anyone who hasn’t heard of the Color Run, it consists of a 5K race where, throughout the course, you find color stations, yellow, pink, orange and blue. As you run through these color chutes, the workers of the race have bottles similar to a ketchup bottles you’d see in a diner, filled with that particular color paint, as you run past they squirt you with the powdered paint. All the paint consists of, is corn starch, a flavoring agent and dye, completely safe. Thank goodness because it gets everywhere!
Urias’ eye lashes had been colored pink!
From the very moment I received my first email correspondence from The Color Run – Buffalo crew, I knew that this race had been well planned and executed perfectly, many times over. The email talked about all the information you’d need, where you could pick-up your packet and any other pertinent information to the actual run. Packet pick-up was a breeze! I went in with some of the people I did the race with and we were in and out of there in 15 minutes. Quick and easy! They were well prepared, you could tell.
This morning, when I woke up I still wasn’t feeling like going out and walking / jogging a race but I had already said I wouldn’t back out and I figured it would be over before I knew it so I got showered and dressed. Sooner than I could have imagined, I was downtown enjoying the pre-game party. There’s a lot of space down by the marina and they took full advantage of everything. They had a full stage, with plenty of room for gathering and dancing. Lots of smaller tents where you could sign-up (if you hadn’t already) buy some merch and all sorts of other things. While we waited for the race to start, there was a Zumba instructor on stage instructing the largest Zumba class I’ve ever seen.
At almost 9 AM on the nose, they had people start lining up for the start of the race. Again, things seemed really well planned, especially for an event where over 10,000 people were participating. We all slowly started making our way in that direction but ended up getting stopped not far from where we had started. They start people in waves and every time they’d like a chunk of folks go, we’d steadily move up but then have to slow down and stop again. It took a good 30 minutes for us to get through the start but that had nothing to do with poor planning on their parts, there really isn’t much you can do to make a 10,000 person race run more smoothly. We still hadn’t gone past the starting line and the first finishers were coming in. That was fun because we all got a chance to cheer him on.
From left to right, Kurt, me, Jen, Mimi, Urias, Kristen and Jenn
Me, Mimi, Jen, Jenn, Urias, Kurt & Kristen
Once past the starting line, the race moved very quickly. I ran through all four color stations and walked the majority of the rest of the race. I originally thought I’d hate having “paint” thrown at me but it sat so lightly on the skin that you couldn’t even tell it was there other than by sight, by the end my clothes, face and hair were a complete disaster. Not that it mattered, I’d had so much fun running through the colors.
I crossed the finish line and headed to the after party. They had some great upbeat music playing and every few minutes would have a color throw. When you pick-up your race packet you also get a bag of the paint and you’re asked to save it until the end so that you can join in with the group and throw it in the air. Check out these pictures! These were my favorites!
It was a really great time and we finished with a yummy breakfast from Towne Restaurant, on Allen St.
What I learned:
I got covered in the paint and once I jumped in the shower, most of it came off really easily. However, the blue, green and purple had the hardest time coming off my skin. I actually still have some streaks now. Next time I don’t think I’d walk as closely to those blue paint tossers.
You can host a 10,000+ person race and still have your stuff together so that it goes off without a hitch (Turkey Trot, take note).
That you really can complete a race AND have a good time, even if you haven’t been training for the run.
And I’d absolutely, 100% do this race again!
