Sweat and Rainbows - The Color Run

Over the summer I had a conversation with my husband's cousin, Heather, about running and upcoming race events.  I asked her if she had ever been to a color run?  She told me she was registered for one in Memphis for October...I was like like "shut up!"  I tried to register for the one in Nashville, but it had sold out, so I sort of asked Heather if I could join her team for the run.  Of course, she was all for it.  I normally don't invite myself to things, but I wasn't about to miss my chance for another color run.  So, a week or so later I got in touch with Heather...I wanted to make sure it was okay that I joined the team...we had been drinking the night we discussed it, and I had to be sure that they didn't mind...since we would also be staying at their house.  She promised that it was okay, and I joined their team - Race the Rainbow.

So, this weekend Kyle, Trey and I packed up, and headed to Arkansas.  It was a beautiful drive, mostly through rural countryside...and took just under 4 hours. We arrived just in time for dinner...had a healthy light meal, and then sat outside catching up over a few beers and some wine.  I guess we really shouldn't have been drinking the night before a run, buuut it's the "happiest 5K on the planet"...so drinking kind of goes along with that, right?!  You should just agree..thanks.

I was so wound up, and excited for the run in the morning that I could hardly sleep.  I ended up waking before my alarm went off, and could never go back to sleep.

Heather and I were up at the crack of dawn super pumped!

We got ourselves ready, put on our white shirts, our rainbow socks...got our race bibs on and then we were ready to run!

(my neon ear buds from Birchbox were perfect for this)

We got to the Liberty Bowl Stadium in Memphis and met up with Haley. 

Keeping up with the team name...Race the Rainbow...we wore rainbow race legs..

I even got Trey to wake up early to wait for me at the finish line...he thought it was super cool and even though he was half asleep..he was my biggest cheerleader.

There were so many people there.  Thousands!  Each wave had 1,000-1,500 people, and we were in the 4th wave.  I would like to say there were 8 waves, but I am not certain..there could have been more.

I wish I had my camera while we were running, but I didn't want to risk ruining it, and to be honest I was having way too much fun to worry about it at the time.

So basically as you are running you will come to 4 different color stations along the way...yellow, orange, blue and pink.   From a distance you can see the color cloud in the air and you get really excited because you know you are almost there....the substance they throw on you is colored cornstarch..

We went through the stations in mega-slow motion so we could get as much color as we could...I literally walked as slow as I could through the stations, put my arms in the air, spun around in circles...and made sure that every color thrower on my side was covering me as I passed by.

It was awesome!

So, as we arrived at the next stations, and were covered in more sweat the color would stick to us even better...There was one station that we seriously had to stand in line to get to the color...It seemed like it took forever, but I'm sure no more than 4 minutes...we kept watching our time because we were timing ourselves to see how long it took us to complete...

We finally finished in a little over 40 minutes, which I thought was great considering the amount of time we slowed down to get blasted with color!!

Once we got to the finish line we went to the color festival.  They have one every 15 minutes so no one will miss it.  It was so much fun...everyone looked like they were blasted with crayons and sweating rainbows.  The music had everyone pumped up...everyone was happy, smiling , dancing...laughing having the best time. Each runner is given a color pack with their race packet.  Once you are at the color festival each person throws their color up in the air after the 10 second countdown...this is what it looks like from a distance...

This is what it looks like to be in it....Can we say F.U.N!!

After the festival we found our guys waiting around on us...I was still super pumped and still having so much fun that I probably could have ran another race..

We had a blast and were literally covered head to toe in color...we even had colored teeth...

It was the best time I think I have ever had!!

I am so glad that I invited myself to join their team.  If you have never done a color run it is something that you have to put on your "to do" list.  I seriously will try to make a point to do at least one a year...if not more.  I left Arkansas feeling accomplished, happy, full of fun memories, and ready to run again...

xo

Carrie