Throwing Down at the Color Vibe's 5K "Color Run"

Last Saturday, my sister and I drove up to Vallejo to do the 5K "Color Run" hosted by the Color Vibe. If you've never heard of a "Color Run", they are events held across the nation where participants wear white clothes and volunteers throw color on them throughout the run. I saw a lot of photos from my friends who did one in Atlanta, so my sister and I decided to give it a shot. What I didn't realize is how many people would be there - I went to pick up the race packet on Friday at a sporting goods store in Walnut Creek and the line was ridiculous... I waited 20 minutes in a single file line that wrapped around the store (and felt like I was waiting for a roller coaster ride at Disneyland).

Splattered in color after the race!

Luckily, the event was hosted at the fairgrounds in Vallejo so there was plenty of parking. Everyone just parked on the grass in rows, just like you would at the state fair. It was freezing in the morning - by freezing, I mean about 40 degrees F. Since this was a fun run, there were people of all ages there and lots of people showed up in fun costumes and white tutus!

My sister and I before the race with our clean white tshirts.

See? It looks just like the state fair parking.

Walking to the entrance.

It took us much longer than expected to park the car, so we actually only got there about 15 minutes before the starting time.... I was really thankful that I had picked up our race packets the day before. Since there were thousands of runners, they started everyone in waves every 5 or 10 minutes. My sister and I were lucky enough to start in the first wave : )

The starting line for the first wave.

Of course the lines for the port-o-potties were also like the state fair.

And we're off!

I used the Nike Run app on my phone to track our run, and it turns out that we only ran a total of 2.82 miles (which is less than a 5K). We ran through 4 different "color stations" where people threw fistfuls of the color powder onto us and it got everywhere! **Note: the color that they use for this event is NOT paint, it is basically a powder like cornstarch so it is non-toxic and comes off in the wash easily.

My sister after getting hit with yellow and blue at the 3rd color station.

Yes, I paused to take a photo with a random chicken statue along the way.

We finished our run in about 30 minutes, just in time to see the last wave of runners start from the starting line. It was a lot shorter than I expected and the course was not bad at all. It was a great experience and I'd definitely do another "Color Run"!