2013, 2: The Color Run

Squeezed in amongst my “official” runs for 2013, was the Color Run, in Wembley, north-west London. The Color Run (argh, American spelling is driving me crazy!) markets itself as “The Happiest 5k” and I certainly had a good time.

One of my housemates heard about the race from his girlfriend and she rallied us all into a team booking. We’d all agreed to meet at Wembley and headed for our various tube trains and buses, finding them packed with other runners all dressed head-to-toe in white, plus lots of dodgy headbands, face paints and tutus.

 

 

 

 

 

The sun was high in the sky as we did the cheesy mass warm-up routine and lined up for the race to begin.  We were quite a crowd with eleven from our two households, plus I’d brought my friends Jeff and Zoltan along, and then Zol brought another friend, Clare too!

All this time, it was getting hotter and hotter in amongst the crowds and I didn’t have enough water with me. Also, I’d been out already that morning for a run and probably hadn’t rehydrated enough after that. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail, or so I’ve heard..

Before the race even began we lost two in our ranks, with Zol and Clare being pulled and pushed ahead of into a different starting group. When we were able to start running, Jeff definitely had his game face on and was ready to get round the 5k and back to his sweaty grandchildren, sheltering under a tree’s worth of shade at the Finishing Area. Knowing that Jeff had this in mind and thinking me housemates had each other to keep company, I decided to stick with Jeff and headed along the back kilometre with him.

The idea of the Color Run is that everyone starts in white clothes, then every kilometre you past a “color station” where you are pelted with dyed flour by willing volunteers, and by the end you’re covered in colour and ready for the Color Festival post-race party. The party mostly involves loud music, a water cannon and more packets of colourful flour- it is a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, between my pre-race dehydration and the flour getting in mouth (dry mouth central), I had a tough time getting round the route in the heat. Embarrassingly the last kilometre even saw me walking a bit! Nothing like telling your friends you’re running a half marathon in a few weeks and then not even managing a full 5k…

But really, who cares? I failed to prepare and it showed. Maybe one day I will learn to hydrate myself properly. But for now, a few more photos of a great day with great friends:

In truth, this probably was the happiest 5k I’ve ever run