The amazing Color Run

What a fantastic day we had – arriving at Sydney Olympic Park with tens of thousands of peeps of all ages, shapes and sizes, while most of Sydney was still in bed on a lazy Sunday. Passers-by must have thought there was some sort of cult gathering, as everyone was dressed in white – some with crazy wigs, angel wings or colourful socks and shoes to help them stand out from the crowd. Thanks to the awesome eagle-eyes of the youngest Steph in our gang, we somehow managed to meet up with everyone at the starting area. And then we waited. Standing in the sun, already roasting hot before 9am, as they released runners in waves from the crowd of thousands that were in the queue.

The music was pumping and there were beachballs, dancing, Mexican waves and people-watching to keep us all entertained as we waited for our turn.  The place was buzzing, I tell you – such an amazing experience to be a part of something like that, everyone was smiling and laughing and enjoying the fun atmosphere: DEFINITELY the ‘happiest 5k on the planet’, as the organisers had promised.

My friend Anne and I were caught out by a nice sort of chap who seemed to be spraying water at people in the crowd – we were so hot and thirsty after standing around waiting to start, so we went right up to him to be refreshed…and then realised that the tank on his back was actually full of purple coloured water, which was now all across our faces and shirts. Ah well, off to a colourful start!

It’s hard to explain what happened from then on – each km was marked by a colour and at the colour ‘checkpoint’, it was bedlam as volunteers sprayed liquid colour or blasted coloured powder at you as you passed through. Gone were the pristine white t-shirts and the clean faces as people emerged looking as though they’d been dunked in colour.

And with all that was going on, the 5k passed pretty quickly and soon we were running Chariots-of-Fire-style to the finish line. And it was then that my lovely friend Steph decided to open her packet of coloured powder (meant to be saved for the ‘finish line festival’ when all recent finishers throw them in the air together, I might add). She opened it and threw it…IN MY FACE. So my left cheek, ear and down my neck was a very dark (and very pretty, to be fair) magenta colour. An interesting beauty note for you, peeps – painting your skin a really dark magenta colour really makes your white teeth ‘pop’ and looks like you’ve had a Hollywood-style dental whitening session. But be warned that you may scare young children and yourself, when you finally get to a mirror.

We all had such a great time at the Color Run – I highly recommend signing up when it’s next in your town!