Wednesday 17 July 2013

The Color Run Launches in the UK - The Happiest 5K!

The Color Run is a unique paint race that celebrates healthiness, happiness, individuality, and giving back to the community and we're proud to say we completed the UK's first!

Originally created in Utah in 2012, The Color Run was quickly hailed as the most popular 5K series in the United States and as soon as we heard the news it was coming over to the UK we just had to book our place on what is known as the happiest 5k on the planet.

The first rule of the race is to wear white so we made our way to Wembley, raring to go with our race tops on and Color Run tattoos transferred!

The Happiest 5k

The atmosphere was fantastic, and even though there was a wait of approximately an hour in the searing heat until we made it to the start-line, we were thrilled to feel part of the first UK Color Run.

It was with anticipation that we made it to the first 1K where we were showered with purple corn-starch powder. It was very busy through the stations so we had to make sure we found a volunteer to ensure we got as much colour on us as we could! A tip here, try to keep your mouth closed, my teeth also got a coat of purple, and the powder set Jane off coughing, but only for a few seconds!

At each 1k completed we went through pink, yellow and orange and saw some dedicated party-goers just sticking around the colour stations making ‘snow angels’ in the powder, it definitely felt like a celebration of happiness!

For such a hot day, we were pretty dehydrated throughout the run, and we do feel there should have been a few more water stations, but as the race isn’t long, we made it to the finish line in one piece.

The second rule of The Color Run, presented by Dulux, is to finish plastered in colour, which we happily were. Championing the Dulux mission of ‘adding colour to people’s lives’, we couldn’t think of a better brand association and title sponsor for the event. The Color Run is the ultimate celebration of how uplifting colour can be.

One downside was that we also had to queue to get to the finish line too. We were hoping to find water on hand as it was such a hot day but there was none to be seen among the crowds. Instead we made our way to the coldest beverage we could find, and keeping true to the colourful theme we each ended with an ice-cold Slush Puppy while we watched the Color Festival, the post-run party!

We would definitely recommend The Color Run to groups of friends that can party their way round rather than taking on a serious run. Definitely make sure someone in your group is the designated photographer; we were too busy trying to weave in and out of people to take photos during the run!

The Color Run UK

The official charity campaign is Cancer Research UK’s ‘Stand Up To Cancer’, so it’s a really worthwhile and meaningful event to be part of. Its aim is to inspire one million participants in 2013 to get active and motivate them to have fun with fitness, which is truly a great thing.

Future Color Runs in the UK are scheduled for July 21st in Manchester, August 24th in Belfast and September 14th in Brighton.

You can find out more about the events here and follow the team on Twitter – they are great at interacting with their runners before the event!

Katie x

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