The Color Run

I planned on running this morning with a friend of mine at 9 AM. I woke up as I had planned at 8 AM, but I could hear a bunch of loud music outside. What was happening? Then, I realized it: “The Color Run” was today!

I had been interested in doing “The Color Run” but it was one of those things that fell through the cracks. I talked about it with friends but then no one followed up on it, and then all of a sudden, registration for the event was sold out.

Hearing the music so close to my apartment, in my daze to wake up, I pulled up “The Color Run” website on my phone to see the race route. I wanted to make sure I'd be able to get out on to the streets to meet my friend for our run. As it turned out, the race was running right in front of my apartment and my street was a part where color would be thrown on to runners.

I quickly got ready for my own run and postponed it until 10 AM so that I could watch runners get hit with colors. It was pretty hilarious. Some of the volunteers throwing colors were nailing people in the face pretty well. Someone brought a baby in a stroller. The baby wasn't having it. He started crying mostly because he got hit in the face with color at some point.

When I came out of my apartment, I talked to one of the volunteers outside. Seeing that I had emerged from my apartment, he told me my car would be fine. I told him I didn't care. My car was in the lot. I didn't expect it to get hit with colors. However, there was a BMW on the street, and despite this volunteer's claim, it got hit with plenty of orange on its black exterior. The funny part was the ton of people who ran by it either feeling bad for the car, pointing it out, taking pictures of it, or writing stuff on it. As of right now, trucks have cleaned off the streets and even gave a free car wash to the BMW, so I think all is okay for the owner of that car (Why shouldn't it be? He/she owns a BMW!)

Since I was preparing to go on a run, I was in running clothes while I stood outside. I must have looked like a dick. I was wearing my 2009 Capital City Half Marathon shirt. It almost seemed like I was bragging. “Oh, you're running a 5K with colors? I run half marathons, and I've been doing it since 2009. Look at me!” Also, it's kind of odd when you and two random photographers are the only people observing the runners. I didn't know what to do, but stand and smile. It's not as if I could cheer them on. It's not like they're really concerned about their times or goals. They are running a race where they are getting covered in colors. Some of them are running backwards or in circles. At most, I could just dance or jump around, but it's 9 AM and I'm by myself. I'm trying to avoid looking insane and weird.

Despite the fact that I just stood there lurking, people were really excited and approachable. As they saw I was just a random guy, I was asked by six different people to take a photograph of their group of runners. Some of these cameras/smartphones were just caked in the colors of “The Color Run.” The funniest was when I came back out of my apartment and a group were standing outside and asked me to take a photo. I took it, and then one of the women asked if I wanted some color for my shirt. I said, “Sure,” we hugged, and now I was going for a run looking like I had already been in “The Color Run.”

The mist of the colors wafted in the air. As a result, even in my walk over to meet my friend for our run, my running shoes became covered in colors. As is our tradition, my friend and I do a run and then head to breakfast. The host said to me, “We've had a lot of people look like you come in today.” I laughed then wished I said, “What? Indian people?” What a racist host. Then again, she was actually saying I looked like tons of people who had many colors on themselves. What a diverse host!

As we paid for our breakfast and left, another employee asked if I ran “The Color Run” since I still had colors on me (though it looked more like I sweat orange at this point), and I explained to her that we ran separately yet I still got hit by colors, which had to only be confusing. I wasn't about to lie about “The Color Run” and my participation. But, judging by how fun it looked today, I see a color run definitely in my future.

Now, for no other reason than frequent use of the word color reminding me of it, here's the opening theme to In Living Color!