The Color Run Recap

Yesterday morning Dave and I got up early to head over to the Color Run with our friends Li and Rob to meet up with some other coworkers/friends. All was going well on our ride to the race location until we hit the exit off the highway. The exit had traffic going back so far that we weren’t even sure what the exit sign had said but assumed it was right since all the people waiting in line were clearly doing the Color Run! The traffic was moving so slow that a couple of cars ahead of us had the people jumping out to do Chinese fire drills, pick flowers, dance moves (like the Bernie, which immediately made me think of some of my coworkers), or just sit on the ground for a few minutes and get some fresh air. We ended up waiting in traffic on the exit for at least an hour or more.

Once we finally made it to the parking lot and paid our $10 for parking, we found our other coworkers. We all made sure our cameras/phones were either covered in Saran wrap or in a zip log bag so we could still take pictures during the run. Here are some of our before pictures!

We made sure we had everything and then headed to the shuttle line which wasn’t too bad. It took us maybe about half an hour until we got on the bus.

Color Run Shuttle Line

We weren’t really sure how many runners were running the Color Run, but we soon found out there were 11,000 runners!! Insane! So as you can imagine, the start line was a bit crowded. They sent us off in waves of 500-1000 people (says the packet). I did get my own little dance party started while waiting though-so that was fun. My new move was called “the bunny rabbit.” Dave and Rob decided they wanted to walk away from me at that point because they said I was embarrassing them but I know they love it! Life would be boring if you took it too seriously and tried to do sexy dance moves. I’d rather be a goofball!

Color Run Start Line

The race started and I was pumped to see the first color station. The ground was covered in orange and my Syracuse coworkers probably would have had a ball there! One of my Syracuse coworkers Ewelina ran it so I’m sure she was glad to get her orange on! I was kind of disappointed that you had to get in line to get color thrown on you by means of a ketchup/mustard squeeze bottle and after the first station I had barely any color on me. I feel like there could have been a better way to engineer a color dispersing technique so there were no lines. Hey Color Run you should hire me as your mechanical engineer and I’ll help you fix this problem!

First Color Station

I jogged slowly for a lot of the beginning. Dave and Li kept asking if I was ok and I said I wanted to make sure I go slow and might walk/jog. I knew Rob and Dave wanted to run most of it so I told them to keep going because I knew Li wouldn’t mind walking with me. After the first hill I could tell my hips were telling me I need to remember to take it easy and be in recovery mode. I told Li I needed to walk which was nice because I got to catch up with her. Because we were walking, we didn’t really mind waiting in the lines to get colored and Li really got it at the blue station!

Li is Blue!

When we got to the yellow station, Li’s favorite color, we decided to roll around-heck why not! I felt like a puppy rolling in the mud! The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I loved seeing the waterside and the houses were really pretty. Once I am back into long distance running I may want to take a visit here to do some of my long runs!

Before we knew it, we were at the finish line! Every color runner was given a color packet to throw up in the air and get the color that you might not have gotten during the run. When Li and I found the guys-they had saved their packets just for us and really got us!

After taking some after pictures with everyone, we checked out the after party situation and decided to grab food elsewhere. In order to get food, you had to wait in a really long line to get tickets to then get in another line to get food. The food didn’t look like anything too special so we searched for the shuttle line. To our surprise…another long line. We had to wait in line for an hour or more for a shuttle back to the parking lot. It was really hot and we were hoping they would send people around selling water but no luck. Thank goodness we had each other’s company.

The people running the Color Run had said there was an accident so the buses would be running late. As we were in the line waiting for shuttles we talked about how maybe the race could have been so that we are shuttled out but run back to the parking lot where all our cars were. My friends and I were thinking that they might not have done it this way because it may have been difficult to get approval to throw the color on other roads, but the wait for the shuttle back was almost unbearable.

Overall, the race itself was a lot of fun and I was really glad I tried it, but I don’t think I’ll do it again. I know I sound like an oober Debbie-downer, but as someone who has done a lot of races and knows there always some sort of wait, it seemed like this race was a little crazy with all the waiting. For a 5k, I spent the same amount of my day traveling and doing the race as I had for the Tough Mudder, which is a 10 mile race with obstacles! Having said that, I know that it might not be as bad of a wait at other Color Run locations and I don’t discourage you from trying the race.  Some of the things that made us wait may not have been in control of the race organizers. I think it is always important to try something at least once and then decide from then on if you want to do it again!

Have you done a Color Run?  Did you have a lot of waiting? Would you do it again?