| Company Site: | thecolorrun.com |
| Notes: | All Ages!! Kids 5 and under can run with an adult FREE! Unregistered children do not get the race packet. |
| What you get: | The Color Run race shirt, Over the shoulder bag Tattoo, Bag of Color, Race Bib, Color Runner finisher sweat band, & sponsor goodies. |
The Color Run is a 5k Run/Jog/Walk event that let’s you get messy and makes you happy. Seriously you cannot help but smile when you are being covered in various colors while music is playing unless you are Scrooge…then MAYBE you won’t smile.
Ok so the title is a bit misleading….we really just walked and slow jogged randomly through out the race but I was with a 5 year old and he was apparently SUPER tired that day. Still we had a lot of fun and because he wore goggles he didn’t get color IN his eyes this year! Although next year we need to remember to get him a bandanna for his mouth.
This is our 3rd Color Run together and our last Color Run by ourselves. Next year my Diva will be 4 and ready to join in the tradition along with their Daddy. THAT should be a nice scenic race and a whole lot of fun. I’m thinking family picture opportunity. The Color Run will let kids under age 6 run for free! Once they turn 6 though they will need to register. 
I highly recommend picking up your race packet ahead of time to avoid the crazy long line that WILL be there the day of the race. They are really great about giving you a day or even two to pick up your packets and they will even have the store open for you! I loved that because we always get everyone a bracelet. Since this was the first year they gave them as part of the registration packets we would have to buy one for everyone as like a souvenir. This year we did anyway cause they were pretty neat bracelets.
For this years race signing up was pretty sweet. You received your race bib of course with a tear off tab that gave you a Color Pouch at the Finish line to throw up in the air. They also included a T shirt, a rainbow running sweat band, a Color Run bracelet, a over the shoulder bag, a Color Run square tattoo and a Happy tattoo and a little Shout packet for removing the color from things you actually don’t want it on.
SO you get ALL that, plus a nice walk, jog or run depending on your level (or partner), and you end up looking like a rainbow! To me that was a great deal and they always do a great job of making sure everyone has an amazingly fun time. Volunteers make sure you get as much (or little) color as you want at each station and are mindful of smaller children which is nice. They even have police officers blocking certain areas for traffic so you won’t have to worry about safety in the street parts of the race.
We were dropped off about an hour before the race started so we got to see some of the before race Zumba with a guest instructor and the Runicorn…which you won’t want to miss. It was pretty chilly so we were glad we had a chance to move around and warm up. My race buddy (let’s call her) Zumba Queen was with us again this year and with our matching tutus we shook our booties and headed towards the start of the race where they even had bubbles!
I think we were part of the 4th wave or maybe the 5 so we started pretty close to the 9:00 am start time. They had music at the Start line too and were even getting the crowd to stretch and warm up there. They took the warming up thing very seriously which was a lot of fun. We always start off a race jogging but my little Gentleman was NOT in the mood to run at all that day. Some days are like that and we DID have a VERY long two weeks prior to the race so I excused him…and may have been on the same page. Zumba Queen, however, was ready to run after the first color station so we wished her luck and off she went.
Gentleman and I learned to cover his mouth after that station so we cleaned up and walked on. I did make him jog for short bursts every so often and always right before a Color Station. By the time we got through the second one (with his goggles on and hand over his mouth) he was excited but he still didn’t want to run. We had a LOT of color on us this time which we liked. Around that same time the weather either changed (it IS Indiana) or the sun was helping us a LOT because we were pretty warmed up. It was really a beautiful day for a race despite the cold start.
I never got to use my headphones and the Gentleman didn’t want his anymore around the 3rd Color Station. Instead we chatted about the color that was on us, how he is excited for Kindergarten, and our plans for the summer. I LOVED that we had that time together! We have such a busy schedule that we hardly ever get to do that. We jogged the last little bit through the Finish Line because it is a rule of ours. Start and Finish with at least a jog. Though we couldn’t go THROUGH the Finish Line this time because of the tear off Color Pouch tabs. Everyone was getting them so there was a line but other than that the race was great and so much fun.
Of course there was the big party afterwards. Color exploding everywhere at different times, music and dancing, shopping at the Color Run Store booth and a Brozinnis Pizza (other cities probably have a local place) truck if you were hungry. We were starving apparently so we grabbed a slice…OMG it was bigger than my son’s head! He ate almost all of it by himself too so I guess he worked up an appetite.
I really cannot wait to do this again next year and with my whole family. It is a lot of fun getting colors thrown at you and the route is always scenic. If your city (or a city near you) offers this race sign up! You won’t want to miss out on all that colorful fun! 
