So last Saturday Z and I ran The Color Run with a great group of people from Kosama. It wasn’t really a run I was super interested in doing as it is a bit gimmicky (which I don’t particularly hate) with no timing (which I do particularly hate). However, I REALLY wanted to do a Kosama group run after not being able to to the Rugged Maniac this fall due to the gym putting a team together so late in the game (the prices were at around $60 per person, with a coupon code, by that time). Plus, The Color Run was running a deal for a $35 entry fee on LivingSocial.com ($10 off the single runner fee).
Our awesome coaches Mari and Melissa kindly stood in line on Friday afternoon to pick up race packets and shirts for a bunch of us and we all met up at Kosama in the dark to pick up our goody bags and special Kosama team shirts.
Overall it was a pretty fun run with a great group of people. Here are some of the pro & con takeaways I had:
Parking & Race Route. Parking was a bit of a walk from the run start, but in Downtown Tempe you don’t usually have a whole lot of options anyhow and there were TONS of participants. Also, while I have run many runs at Tempe Town Lake, like the Esprit de She I ran in November this run decided not to follow the 5k route that has become so standard with other 5ks done there, so the route was new and interesting. Yay!
Photography. There were photographers at multiple photo stations in the festival area where runners could get their before and after photos taken, which was a really nice addition to the usual photos that are taken during a run and at the finish line. The other sweet benefit with their photographers is the price. You can purchase any photo for only $0.99 each if all you want is a copy to share on social media (a 900×600 digital copy – not bad quality at all!). To provide some contrast, the Altheta Iron Girl charges $22 for a SINGLE digital download, and the Survivor Mud Run charges $18-35 (depending on when you buy their “photo package”) to get copies of all photos taken of you during the run (and for my personal experience last year there weren’t many and some were so unflattering I wouldn’t have wanted them). I wish more runs would do the photos the way The Color Run does them. The photos were fun and professional, and the costs are reasonable.
You get well covered in color at each of the 5 color stations. Per a friend’s tip, I stayed toward the sides of the color stations to ensure I got out of there nice and colorful. The yellow didn’t really take as the other colors were so overpoweringly bright, with purple and blue being the brightest. The earlier color stations (pink, yellow, and red) didn’t seem to have as many color throwers as the others though. They could improve upon that.
The color mists that result from throwing powdered color at the runners is next to impossible not to inhale. Running through each station took my breath away and it only seemed to get worse with each station. Even though the colorers are only present for the first few feet of each station, the cloud of color hangs in the air quite a ways after that. I imagine this would be much worse for someone with respiratory issues/asthma.
The participants knew nothing of race etiquette. Basic race etiquette is the same as highway etiquette – slow (walkers) the right, runners to left. We had to dodge LOTS of people and at one point I became that person yelling “on your left” so that I wouldn’t get stuck behind 4-5 people walking SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER across the pathway. Listen guys, I get it. Not everyone wants to or can run these things. But I did and I can and I even though it wasn’t timed it was still incredibly frustrating to be bobbing and weaving between people who just didn’t get it. Going along with that were the participants who felt it necessary to stop in the middle of the color stations – you know, where you can’t see a damned thing. If the air is colored purple, and the ground is colored purple, and you are rolling around on the ground picking up color, I can’t see you. I don’t feel sorry for you if you get stepped on. If you insist on collecting the color to throw on yourself and your friends, take it to the sidelines to keep it safe for everyone involved. And I shouldn’t even have to mention that the safety guidelines for the run that come with the race packet says as much (trust me, I sent feedback to the race organizers asking them to do a better job of pointing it out to hopefully reach more people).
There were people participating with their small children in strollers and dogs on leashes. Look, I have no problem if YOU want to make the decision to inhale colored cornstarch, and I was perfectly capable of waving the mist of color away from my face so that I could breath (at least for the first four color stations – I was choking on the last one), but your dogs and your children don’t really know what’s going on and are completely within your control. Some participants were at least walking toward the center of the color stations, but I’m sure lots of kids inhaled more than their fair share of colored powder. I recommend you leave your poor doggy home for this one, and maybe tie a bandanna bandit style around your toddler’s face if you absolutely must take them along.
The Finish Line. I was confused when they wanted to give me a bag of colored powered at the end of the race (what am I going to do with THAT?) and happy they gave me a headband to keep the sweat on my forehead from running the stinging color into my eyes (not sure if it was the sweat or color that was stinging). I got a little lost trying to find the water and snacks, as it was NOT near the finish line and there was no sign to indicate it. Our teammates pointed us in the right direction and there wasn’t even anyone manning the water when we got there – just cases to pull bottles from. But they had yummy Kind bars for a snack so I was okay. =)
Getting back to the bags of color – they had a DJ and they were playing some pretty good music. For each “wave” of finishers that crowded up to the stage they did a countdown for everyone to throw their opened color into the air. It looked pretty badass, but I was thankful NOT to be standing in it. I probably would have suffocated.
To conclude, I’ve decided I probably wouldn’t do this particular run again because being a themed run it’s sort of a once-in-a-lifetime event for me. There are certainly a few runs I choose to do every year because they are fun or go to a cause I feel strongly about, but I don’t think this run is one of them, especially because in the future I’d bypass the color stations to salvage my breathing and what fun id that? (P.S. this run benefited Banner Children’s at Cardon Children’s Medical Center and The Special Olympics of Arizona. They may be for-profit but at least they give back!)
Not being a timed run I don’t know our exact time. I took a quick screenshot on my phone when we started at 8:38 am, and we finished shortly after 9:00 (I forgot to look at the time until we had already been standing around with our group for about 10-15 minutes). I believe we finished the run in around 35-40 minutes – not all that terrible considering Z was still recovering from a chest cold and we had to walk behind people several times. M/M was about 12:82. I don’t even want to count it…
If this sounds like your kind of run and you’ve never done it before, check out The Color Run website here; it’s going to be in 80 cities this year, so you’re sure to find one near you!
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