It was supposed to be my entire family: my wife, all the kids, and I. Well, as it worked out my aunt came in from Memphis, TN, and my daughter's club lacrosse team had a tournament in Kalamazoo. My wife was going to take my daughter to that, so they couldn't go. I had paid for all the bibs in advance. So, I asked my aunt if she wanted to join the boys and I. At first she said yes, but as the week wore on, she was unable to run with us.
I began working Facebook and my friends to see if anyone wanted a free bib. My buddy Jeff and his wife decided to take us up on the offer and they already had other friends doing the "race". You'll see why I call it a "race" later.
My normal running group was coming in from Howell and we were going to try to meet up to do it all together. I snagged waiver forms from everyone in Howell so they didn't have to make the trip to Lansing, which is 30-40 minute drive, just to get their bibs and head back. There were no issues picking up the bibs. The Color Run was out front of packet pick up selling tons of merchandise. Everyone got a Tshirt, head band, color packet, and tattoos in their packet.
For those of you who don't know what a Color Run is, it is a 5K with 4 color stations set up throughout the course. At the color stations, they "throw" color at you. The color is made up of corn starch and some people become a color mess by the end.
There is a Color Run in Ypsilanti, MI that's been going on for years. The one in 2013 sold out in a mere 45 minutes. Lansing was no exception to this. It sold out, but not in 45 minutes. We were given 3 start times, a half hour apart, to choose from when we registered for the race. There were 15,000 people signed up to do this Color Run. Yes, you read that right, 15,000.
So, plans were made on where to park, where to meet, all sorts of stuff and then the day arrived. The best laid plan was...well, you know the rest. It was a nightmare in downtown Lansing. 15,000 runners, family, friends, and spectators descended upon the city. I was in almost constant contact with my buddy, Jeff, who was driving around trying to find a place to park so we could meet up, and then my running group who had listened to me, unlike Jeff, and had gotten there early to get spot to park.
The boys and I were waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally, Jeff found spot somewhere no where near where we were waiting for him, so we ambled over to Michigan Ave and the front of the capitol building to look for him.
Now do you see him? Yeah, me either....
Holy hell this place is crowded.
Found him, finally!!!
Ok, enough with the pictures in front of the capitol with 15,000 of our closest friends. Let's "run!!"
See the caution tape in the above picture. They make their own "corrals" and that's how people started. Just basically get in the crowd and follow the caution tape up to the front and every 5 minutes they would release about 1500 people. There was lots of music, a DJ was pumping people up, and they were throwing Color Run swag to people near the start line. Of which, my tallness came in handy and I was able to get some. I caught yellow knee high socks, gave them to my kids, and a bandanna.
Then we were off!!! Now I call it a "race" because there's not much racing going on. It's more of a walk. We tried running, and we did run, until we got to our first color zone, and then applied the breaks.
Once we got through the first color zone, we "ran" some more until the next color zone. Again, full stop. After that, everyone was more or less walking the course. Whole groups of people were curb to curb and you had to zig zag through them or around them to keep running. My oldest son went on ahead with Jeff and his wife and my youngest and I took our time.
We were able to run towards the end of the course until we got close to the finish, then there was a big bottle neck to get into the park where a big stage was set up to "throw" color.
Here's what we looked like after the race and had hit all the colors. If you can't tell, one of us took the Color Run to heart.
Every 15 minutes they "throw" color. Everyone had done it but Carter and I. So, we go up close to the stage and wait. We got relatively close, not too crowded. There was a little space between us and the people in front of us. We both had our packets of color. With about 1 minute to go a group of 20 somethings walk between us and then promptly stand in front of us. At first, I'm thinking, "really? of all the places to go and stand, you couldn't stand behind us, but you had to occupy the 18 inches in front of us!??!" Carter couldn't see the stage anymore and I had to go and get him because I didn't want him to get lost in the crowd. Now, he is directly behind one of the guys who cut in front of us.
I decide to keep my mouth shut, which turned out to be a good thing in the end as you'll see. Let's have some fun and throw our color and hopefully, Carter won't be all that unhappy. If he sees me having fun maybe he'll get the message.
The count down begins and we throw our color. Carter dumps his color down the back, like down his collar so its going inside the shirt of the guy in front of us. I couldn't help but start laughing hysterically. I basically high fived him right then and there. He didn't do it intentionally, he's only 10. He just couldn't throw it like everyone else. Priceless. Just rewards.
Here's what it looks like when they throw the color.
And when you come out, you look like this.
After that, we were a bit hungry, thirsty, and very colorful. We headed out of the park. Here's an issue I had. We had to go out away from our car. There was an "in" where the runners entered the park from the street and an "out". We couldn't go out the "in". We had to cross a bridge, then walk back to the street and then back to our car. I didn't mind so much and neither did Erich, but Carter was sort of having an issue with it because we had to walk another half mile after the 5K. Little guy was a bit on the tired side. But we made it, and headed home for showers and trying unsuccessfully to get the color off of us. About 99% of it came off, but there were still some residual color for about a week.
All in all it was just OK. I doubt I'm going to do it again this year. It was just fun though. If you plan on doing one, unless you get there early enough and are one of the first "corrals" released, forget get about time. It's just impossible to do for time and even then, you'll miss all the color on the course.
That's that for now.
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