Color Me Rad

Today was another race day....but this one was a little different.  For starters, the 5 year olds came with me. (The baby was supposed to come, but he woke up with a pretty nasty cough and a little fever, so he missed out on the fun this time.)  My husband and my mom came too.  All of the extras came as runners, not spectators.  We also came to the race looking like the Casper the Friendly Ghost.  

You may be asking why.....well, today was our second Color Me Rad race.  We all ran it last year in Boston and we had so much fun, we decided to do it again.  This time the race was at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, not in a mall parking lot like in Boston. (The other big difference from Boston is that this year it was CHILLY.  We were in long pants and thermal shirts for the race.)  We got there, got parked, and met up with the MRTT girls and some of their families.  

There were SO many cameras trying to capture this good looking group.  :)

After the picture, we made our way to the football/field hockey/soccer field to gather with all of the other color runners before the waves started.  There was a guy entertaining the crowd with root beer chugging contests and by throwing shirts into the air.  Some people did a little pre-partying and started throwing their color packets before they even started the race.  At just about 8:00, they started letting groups of "500" through the fence and around the the starting line.  As you can see from the picture, all runners 7 and over had bibs, but the bibs were not chipped or grouped in any way.  The wave start was whoever made it through the gate before the flags went down to end the wave.  The crowd got a little packed and a little testy during this process, but once we got to the starting line, the fun began!!

The race was through fields for probably 4 of the 5K.  My running friend, Kris hung with us instead of running the race, so it was nice to have company.  I am really glad that the monkeys were with us and I didn't feel like i had to run.  It was more like a cross country course with random hard tufts of grass and unexpected holes, and yucky mud...I just don't do mud.  I would have not been able to run a good race because I would have been worried about breaking myself.  So, I hid behind my children and we walked. 

At Color Me Rad, you are doused with color every kilometer.  After a little nature walk through the woods (nature = baby buck romping out of the meadow back to the safety of the woods), we came to the orange color station.  The enthusiastic volunteers threw orange powder all over us.  We remembered to keep our mouths closed and powered through the station.  At 2k, we came to green.   Green was a little different.  The color at 2k was in liquid form.  The volunteers used weed sprayer bottles to spray us down with green color.  (GREAT idea when it's hot outside.  Not so fun when it's a bit chilly.  That color was cold!)  Jeffrey had to potty between 2k and 3k, so we jumped off the path and let him take care of business.    3k brought us back to powdered color and my favorite - pink!  There was a water stop after pink and then we ran through liquid yellow.  For the last kilometer, we made our way back to pavement and the parking lot of the Sportsplex.  We picked up our color bomb packet and ran though a fog of purple to cross the finish line!  There was more water and some granola bars at the finish.  We got our official finisher picture and took an unofficial one too.

Then it was time for the real fun to start!  All of the finishers headed toward our entertainer from the start who was up on a fork lift throwing color packets (and colored powder) out into the crowd.  Every 5 minutes or so, he would tell everyone to open their packets and then it was time for a color bomb.

After a couple of these, our finisher picture changed a little bit.

All in all, this is a great race.  It's fun and it's wonderful for families to do together.  Packet pick up was quick and easy!  The holding area before the start was a little packed and unorganized, but everyone got to start the race.  For the crazy wave start and no rhyme or reason to the waves, walkers stayed to the right and runners passed on the left - probably the best course etiquette I have seen in a long time!  I really did not like the actual course....it was a little too cross country for me.  I am happier on the pavement.  :) Most importantly, it was family fun day and my kids had a BLAST!!!   Color Me Rad, we will see you next year!