The Color Run

I had seen photos from The Color Run around the Internet so when I saw an ad for it on tv I knew I had to sign up. That was in 2012. I'm glad to say I was a part of the first Australian Color Run, which also happened to be the first in the Southern Hemisphere.

Unfortunately I missed out on the 2013 event as I was in America at the time. I signed up for the Grand Prix edition (at Albert Park Lake, the Formula 1 Melbourne Grand Prix track) by myself but was secretly hoping to find someone to do the course with.

I found some friends that had also signed up & we agreed to go in together. After some deliberation about costumes, I decided on wearing onesies. My brother had a monkey onesie from a onesie party last year & I am sure he would let me borrow it. But the day before the event, my friend found some cheap white leggings for us instead. The colour would look great on the white & it would save my brother’s poor monkey onesie from being destroyed.

There were no sleep ins in my house that weekend because I still had to get in to town & pick up my pack before the race start at 9am. My friends picked me up at 6 on the dot & I changed into my white leggings in the car. We found a great free all day parking spot & made our journey to the start line to collect our pack.

I was surprised to see the set up for the Grand Prix was already well under way, with barricades already around the track & the stands taking shape. After picking up our packs & putting on our shirts, race bibs & head bands we walked back to the car to drop off jumpers & bags. I ate a banana on the way back to the start line because I seem to eat all the time & knew I wouldn’t make it until I got home without eating anything.

When I got back to the start I lined up straight away hoping to be in the first wave of people released onto the course. By this stage I had already walked about 1.5km going to the car & back. It was exciting to start at poll position. I didn’t have to wait around too long either.

Once the event had started there were a lot of people still arriving. I knew there were just arriving because they were going in the opposite direction! A little way down the track there was a huge water truck spraying water over the road & everyone went under it. Around the corner from that appeared to be the first colour station. There were a few flags & about 10 people with what looked like commercial weed killer packs on their back spraying people. After going through that my white clothes had a slight blue tinge when I had been squirted. I began writing a letter of complaint thinking that was how they had to do the colour because it was on the race track & they didn't get permission to use the coloured powder like normal.

Luckily it wasn’t long before I was able to scrap that mental complaint letter & skip through the pink colour station. Blasting Katy Perry, it was all fairy floss & lollypops.

Next up was the blue colour station, remember that 90’s song Blue by Eiffel 65? I came out the other side looking like half a smurf because they only squirt colour at you from one side.

This time I decided that I would run through the yellow colour zone on the other side to give myself an even coverage.

I got a nice free orange fake tan in the orange colour zone. There were a lot of people that rolled on the ground to cover themselves in orange. I decided against it because I didn’t want to be in anyone’s way.

There was another zone that really surprised me: the bubble zone. It was quite magical & I think everyone slowed down to walk through it. There were so many bubbles & some of the photos turned out fantastic.

From the bubble zone to the finish line was quite a bit further than I anticipated. It was nice running up to the finish line with a stack of spectators waiting to see people they knew cross the finish line, its just a shame they weren’t cheering for me like you see on tv I was handed a water bottle & a colour packet after crossing the finish line. The colour packet I got was fluoro green.

After I found my friends & we colour bombed each other with our colour packets we headed over to the stage for the finish festival. Since I wasn’t that close to the front or the middle I wasn’t expecting to be drenched in colour when they did the first colour throw. Boy was I wrong! I think some people near me had a colour packet or two because I got drenched & probably closed my eyes & mouth just in time. It looks incredible though.

After the first colour throw we decided to get out of there. It seemed like a long walk back to the car after that. I fell asleep for a little while on the way home. I was home in time for lunch & still had the rest of my Sunday to enjoy.