Color Me Rad Race

September 29, 2012

If you've never heard of the Color Me Rad Run, it's a unique race that combines fun, fitness, 'art,' and philanthropy.  A fantastic combination, if you ask me. Okay, so I'm not such a fitness buff.  I know, I know--shocker, right?  Also, I can't draw my way out of a paper bag, so the art thing isn't my strong suit.  (Who actually DOES draw their way out of a paper bag, anyway?  A very strange set of circumstances would have to occur in order for that to a course of action to take place, no?)  I am a big fan of fun, though, and philanthropy is a beautiful thing.  If you can help someone in need, you should, in my opinion.

So.  Color Me Rad is a 5K race (fitness) where they throw colored corn starch on you at strategic locations throughout the course ('art') as a fundraiser for a non-profit in the area (philanthropy).  And that, of course, adds up to the fun!

When I first heard about the Color Run, it was at a location down in Southern California.  I told Danielle about it and said I thought it would be great to do it with Aunt Lisa and her girls.  As soon as Danielle saw pictures of the finish lines of previous Color Runs, she was in, one hundred percent.  She'd been asking me to do some kind of a run with her for about a year, but running is a bit of a tough sell for me.  Since she and I became gym partners, though, I committed to finding something we could do together like this, and the prospect of doing it with Lisa and the girls as well drew me in.

And then, I went on line to sign up.  Sold out.  Shut out.  We were out of luck, and I had to break the bad news to Danielle.  It got put on the back shelf until a couple of months later, when I saw a Facebook post that Color Me Rad was bringing its brand of messy, colorful fun to Fresno.  I jumped online immediately, and Danielle and I became the founding members of Team Skittles, racing to benefit Ronald McDonald House.

At the Color Run, everyone starts off in plain white t-shirts.  There were literally thousands of people who showed up at Woodward Park to participate.  Doug, being the great husband and good sport that he is, came along with us to take pictures of the event.

There were sections of the race where the cloud of color was so dense that it was difficult to see directly in front of us.  Each station had volunteer 'color bombers' with different colors--handfuls of the powdered stuff that they flung at us to 'decorate' the runners.

I should point out here that I use the terms 'runners' and 'race' loosely.  Not only am I not much of a runner to begin with, but I had recently injured my knee.  (Freak trampoline accident, if you must know.)  Honestly, Danielle can walk as fast as I run.  Faster, probably.  We weren't running for the best time, though--we were running to have a cool experience together, and we did.  There were at least a few times during the run where she turned to me and said, "This is really fun, Mom.  I want to do this again next year!"  And really, that alone was worth the price of admission.