One of the (personal) challenges I was most looking forward to, was #10. I first heard about
The Color Run while I was blog-hopping one night and I kept seeing photos of all the fun that some of my American friends were having. When one of my friends posted on her facebook back in November 2012 that her and her daughters were doing it, I straight away asked if I could join in with them, and then booked my spot.
I patiently waited while the other states had their turn, and then finally on Sunday February 17, 2013 it was Perth's turn! We had been in the midst of a heatwave (temperatures the week previous had been in the high 30's and low 40's!), thankfully Mother Nature played nice, and we had a beautiful day with a maximum of about 26.
As is customary with any big event, the kids decided to muck around the night before, and not go to bed until really late (Lily finally went at 10:30pm [after watching How to Train Your Dragon] and Benji decided to fall asleep on the couch at 5:00pm and woke up at 8pm ready to play. He finally went down just after Midnight!)
I was picked up bright and early by Christine and her girls and we made the drive into the City, (Ian and the kids came in a little bit later), we didn't have too much trouble finding a car park - probably because we parked about 2km away...lucky it was a downhill walk!
After buying some brightly coloured knee-high socks (so I matched the others), we were ready to join the start chute, but first I conned some nice strangers into taking our photo.
We weren't in a hurry to get to the start line, and as a result we ended up being in the last wave of people to start the "run". I say run, in the loosest sense of the word, it wasn't a timed event, and the main aim of the day was to just have fun. We walked most of the 5km, and it seemed that most other people were walking too.
Not long after we crossed the start line, I happened to spot Ian and the kids along the edge of the course, so I ran the little bit towards the kids, so that Lily would be proud of me (she kept wondering how I was going to win the race if I wasn't going to run)!
I didn't get any photos from within the colour stations, mainly because I didn't want to pull my phone out and risk getting the dust all over it, or worse still behind the lens or battery. But, Christine had a disposable camera which we used during the race, so hopefully there are some good ones on that.
Every kilometre or so, there was a different coloured station - 1km was blue, 2km was pink, 3km was orange and 4km was yellow. Throughout the course there was also guys (and girls) with spray packs spraying us with paint (mostly green, but every now and then, I saw someone with a purple pack).
We took our time and enjoyed the beautiful day and scenery, and in some of the colour stations we hung around a bit making sure we got covered with lots of paint, and all up it took us just under an hour to walk the 5km.
We picked up a stray at the end, and Lily walked the last few hundred metres (from the finish line) to the water and paint packet stations.
Getting the extra paint packets at the end was also a lot of fun, and meant that we could get a really good covering with paint colours that weren't included in the actual course.
Lily was getting into the action too, and by the end of the day she was as dirty as the rest of us!
Hands in everyone!
By the end of the day, we were all covered in almost all the colours of the rainbow!
All in all, it was a fantastic day and I had so much fun!
I CAN.NOT.WAIT for next year! Ian and the kids want to join in too! I'm not sure how they will go walking the 5km, more than likely they will have to take turns in the pram.
If The Color Run comes to a city near you, I definitely recommend joining the fun!!
As a side note, I still have a faint blue colour all over one side of my face and ear, and a little bit of orange in the other ear.
You can see my entire 30-Before-30 List
HERE
