Ever since last summer I’ve been seeing advertisements for various races where volunteers throw handfuls of colorful powder into your face while you simultaneously try to run 5K. I figure the idea is borrowed from the Hindu holiday of Holi, which seems to be gaining a lot of popularity among non-Hindu people who don’t understand the religious significance, but are attracted to bright colors.
It took me a whole year to decide whether getting colored cornstarch thrown at me sounded more fun or scary, but I finally signed up for Color Me Rad in Boston (and convinced Rae to run it too!). Now that the race is over, I can confirm that it was a bit more fun than scary, although the first time I ran through a thick, purple cloud it was a bit disconcerting!
Me, Katie, and Rae looking so clean in our white T-shirts.
Our heat was starting at 1:00, which was the first race of the second part of the day. What little time we had before the race (traffic was really bad!) we spent listening to the MC on the main stage who was trying to get everyone pumped by throwing color on them and encouraging them to dance along with a Zumba instructor. We had a hard time getting pumped, as we were confused about where we were supposed to go to start the race. No one was hanging out at the big starting line!
Turns out we didn’t have to worry, everything was just extremely casual. Eventually the MC directed us all to gather at the starting line, and we were off!
We had a colorful Smart Car as the pace car (also a guy dressed as a bunny).
And they’re off!
The only other race I’ve done is the Boilermaker, which is pretty intense. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone was treating this race very casually. There were no timing chips in our bibs (though the MC did claim to have a sundial to tell time) and there were lots of people who walked nearly the entire course. I guess no one expects to set a PR while being pelted by cornstarch!
Running through a hazy, pink cloud. Trust me — that stuff did not taste good!
In the end, my friends and I (team VOxNT!) did about half running and half walking. I thought that was pretty good considering we hadn’t trained at all and it was about 90 degrees out.
After. I’m still cleaning green dye out of my ear!
George very kindly took photos for us and sat in a Dunkin’ Donuts while we were out racing. By the end, he was entirely covered in a thin layer of pink powder from the finish line. Luckily no one mistook him as a runner and threw powder at him, since he was wearing his usual white T-shirt!
Before going in the house, we attempted to clean off in the kids’ play fountain in the park down the street. Pretty sure we freaked out some families!
Eventually the novelty of being all colorful started to wear off and I started to wonder how difficult it was going to be to wash this stuff off. I was a little concerned that I was going to have to go to work with a big green splotch on my face and hair full of pink and blue. And don’t even get me started on how much color had somehow gotten under my clothes!
Yikes!
Luckily, all the color came off relatively easily in the shower. All the blue liquid swirling down the drain kind of made it looked like a Smurf recreating the shower murder scene from Psycho, but it eventually started running clear. My shoes, however, might be a lost cause — glad I didn’t wear my nice ones!
Overall, I’d definitely run in another colorful race! Much more exciting than a regular 5K!
For Science! 