Let’s cut to the chase. Had it not been for the wonderful world of social media, I don’t think I’d have ever heard of ‘The Color Run’. I would never have seen Instagram photos of it, Twitter tweets about excitement for it, or blog posts about fellow bloggers’ experiences from doing it. 

So when I heard The Color Run was heading to Melbourne, from what I had seen through social media, I knew I wanted to, nay, had to be a part of it.

The Color Run started in January 2012 and has absolutely taken off. They are now hosting their colourful 5km run/walks in over 40 cities throughout the States, and just launched their Australian tour (hey Australia, sign up! and hey The Color Run - go to Canada!). 

Going into The Color Run on Sunday I had little idea of what was about to happen; I knew I’d start out white, and then end up, well, colourful.

And colourful, I did!

Essentially it’s a 5km run/walk course and at every 1km mark, they have a “colour station” you run/walk through. You could see the cloud of colour as you approached each station, and then got to run through the stations as volunteers pumped the “100% natural, safe and food grade quality” powder colour onto participants.

But let’s start at the beginning, shall we? We shall indeed, we shall.

White-white-white-white-white-white.

Heidi, Anna and I rocked up to the race early (to ensure we got parking), which meant we had plenty of time to grab breakfast. But sadly for my wannabe-lighter, paleo arse, the only food available was delicious crepes, or breakfast buns. BUT. But because I’m now *that girl*, I ate the egg and bacon, and left the roll. DAMN YOU PALEO, DAMN YOU! But you guys, you can ask Anna, I was THISCLOSE to cheating. THISCLOSE. But didn’t. Wa-freaking-hooo.

And, because we were super early, we were also in the first wave of runners (like, 20 people from the start) which turned out awesome-sauce, because as you could imagine, 12,500 runners took a long (lonnnnng) time to feed through the start.

The actual run itself? Well let’s just say I’m giving the whole “5km (3 miles)” course some serious side-eye. Pretty sure it was only 4km. If that. But still, the race coordinators staggered the participants really well, and I really enjoyed walking/running the Flemington Racecourse (<— where the event was held) while chatting to Anna.

BUT. But without a doubt it’s not the actual run that’s the awesome part of The Color Run, nope, it’s actually the “Finish Festival” afterwards. Once you cross the finish line, each runner is given a colour pack of their own, and then most runners headed to the main stage where a dancing mosh pit is formed. It’s kinda hard to explain, but the coordinators of the event would count down, “3, 2, 1,” and then everyone would open their colour packs at once; it was awesome to watch and be a part of.

I’ll let Matt’s photos do the talking for the rest of the event, but if you get the chance to participate in it, I would highly recommend you do - totally worth $50!

pooped!

Final thoughts:

• You do not need to run this event. I actually think it’s more colour economical to walk it - you’d get the most bang for your buck then!
• As my bloody leg picture shows, I fell within 5 minutes of the start. I blame tiredness and feeling kinda sick for this.
• It’s a GREAT family event. I believe kids enter for FREE, which means there were lots of parents with their kids there; thought it was a great activity to do with the little ones.
• Matt wins LOTS of points for coming, supporting, and taking photos for me :)
• If I were to do it again, I’d 1000% get a group of people together and dress up in a white theme - angels, ballet dancers, or something. I was jealous of the white tu-tus I saw.
• More of my The Color Run photos found here