Color Me Rad Race Recap

What a "rad" and colorful experience on Saturday.  For the first time, the Color Me Rad race series came to Raleigh.  This race was just a blast!  No other way to describe it.  Leading up to the race, we were unsure if Hurricane Sandy would impact things.  Fortunately the rain held off and it was just cloudy and windy.

If you are unfamiliar me Color Me Rad, this is a 5K race series with venues all across the US.  Most, if not all of the races sell out and Raleigh was no exception.  There were 9,000 participants in the race yesterday raising $25,000 for the Special Olympics of North Carolina.  All of the participants wear white starting out the race, but by the end, you are covered in blue, green, pink, purple and yellow from the color bombardment of various stations along the course and at the finish.  If you are wondering, the color that is being thrown and sprayed at you is simply colored corn starch.

All clean prior to the race.

We arrived at the race site an hour before the race and there was already a flurry of activity.  As we walked from the car towards the starting area at the Time Warner Music Pavilion  all you could see ahead was this line of white.  Seemed to stretch on for miles.  Our first stop was to the bathrooms one last time before the race and then we headed over to the start.  We took a few "before" photos to capture what we looked like prior to the color madness.  They also had one of the Smart cars with a Color Me Rad paint scheme in front of the start line.  I had to go aver and lay on the ground next to it as this car is so small.  With my arms extended above my head, I am actually longer than the car.  Too funny!

Smart, no wait...short car!

We could hear some cheering going on the grassy hill at the pavilion so we headed over there to see what was going on.  One of the race staff members was high atop the crowd throwing out gear and color packets.  We headed over to join in the fun.  They were throwing out tons of gear.  From t-shirts to tank tops, to hats, to silicon bracelets.  The best was all of the color bomb packets that they were throwing.  Leigh was able to snag an orange color bomb that I put in my pocket to use for post-race.

Everyone proceeded to head to starting line for the first wave.  Seemed like there were about 1,000 runners in this wave.  Another staff member was tossing out goodies and color bombs at the start line.  Some of the runners were opening their color bombs and spreading the fun to give us a preview of what was to come on the course.  As the race started it was a good 1/4 mile before you could do any running because of a narrow path the race started on.  Speed was no concern as this was an un-timed event.  At first it felt odd not wearing my Garmin or my phone on my sleeve, but that quickly passed.  Just had a waterproof camera in my pocket.  This race was all about having fun.

As we made a right hand turn approximately 1/2 mile into the run, you could see this purple haze in the distance.  Our first color station was just ahead.  Bye-bye clean white shirt.  As we arrived at the station, the volunteers reached into boxes full of purple corn starch to throw it at everyone.  With the wind, color was going everywhere.  The volunteers were just as covered as we were.  It was all fun and laughs knowing what to expect.  We continued on and arrive at our second color station.  This time there was no color in the air.  At this station, the volunteers had sprayer packs on their backs and were spraying yellow color onto you.  We were not expecting the "wet" feeling.  It was a little chilly and the spray color helped to "set in" the powdered color already on our shirts.  As we left the aid stations we stopped to take pictures and have a few laughs.

Magic is coming!

As we approached the 3rd color station I took this photo.  I looked at Leigh and MaKayla and said "magic is coming".  As big Once Upon A Time fans, it was like we were in Storeybrooke and Mr. Gold had release the magic from the well.  All we could see was a purple cloud.  When we arrived at this aid station, there was more color than the others flying all over the place.  At one point, you could not see because it was so think.  One of the volunteers grabbed a handful of powdered, looked at me and I told him to "go for it".  He delivered a fastball to my chest like he was a Cy Young winning pitcher.  Nice strike, even if he was throwing purple dust at me.  After this color station there was bottled water to help wash down the corn starch.

The last color station before the finish line was a green mess as they had the sprayers out.  The ground was like green mud.  What we did not expect was that some of the volunteers had bottles full of the green color.  All of the sudden I got hit on the right side of my head with it...splat!  I could feel it dripping off my hair, down my neck and shirt.  You could say that I was not expecting that.  Same thing happened to Leigh as well.

All the colors of the rainbow!

Coming to the finish line each participant was handed a color bomb to be used at the end.  As we crossed the finish line there were more volunteers throwing all kinds of colors on you.  After finishing , everyone made their way to the grassy hill to get their official finisher pictures take and to join in the final color bomb.  The color bomb was so much fun.  Every 15 minutes all of the runners would gather and all at once would through their color packets in the air.  If you did not have enough color on you at that point, you were sure to be covered.  See the video below for the color bomb!

 

Overall this race was a lot of fun.  Lots of color and laughs!  If the Color Me Rad race series comes to a town near you, I highly recommend you join in the fun.