i want ALL the color

so last sunday i did a color run with my dear friend meredith. you know meredith, the one who runs marathons? just the friend you want next to you when doing a 5K that you haven't even thought about training for.

but let's start at the very beginning. it's a very good place to start.




that song is awesome and you should totally stream it as you read the rest of this post.

anyway, a few months ago when i thought i might want to become a "runner" i signed up for a few themed races that i thought would make me excited about jogging. (spoiler alert: it didn't) including a mud run in two weeks and a color run that happened this past sunday. i encouraged others to join so i wouldn't look like a complete asshole alone. meredith took me up on the color run and that was that.

so a week ago, we realized the "race" was around the corner and needed to make plans to head to - gasp - new jersey. yep, this race required me to leave manhattan proper and if you know me or ANYTHING about me, you know that this is NOT something that pleases me. i figured out that there was a bus that dropped us off at the race site, but in order to make sure we arrived on time, we had to board a bus at port authority (aka the scourge of the earth) at 6:50. AM. as in ANTE MERIDIEM. which means that i had to be up before 6 am. this was going to suck.

somehow, we managed to get bagels, bus tickets and coffee and in line early enough that we could get seats and head out to jersey. dressed in white tanks, white hats and shorts, we were ready for "all the color."

we got out there, checked in and received our free sunglasses and realized that our heat wasn't for over an hour. since i am not a patient person by nature (meredith is a bit better), we obviously just got into the starting ranks as early as we could because we could tell there was no checking to see who was where. music was going, people were jumping, we were ready to run.

if you know me, it should come to no surprise to you that other than the first 3 minutes of the race, there was no running to be had. just simply had to beat out the slow walkers so i wouldn't start punching people to get moving. the course was lacking: it was a parking lot. with cones separating the field. not much scenery. but there were color stations throughout the course where volunteers would either shoot you with colored water or throw dyed cornstarch at you and give you a very "pollock" look. the first station we encountered was yellow colored water, so mere and i spent the first 5 minutes of the race discussing how we looked like we got peed on. #classy. luckily, pink was after that and then we were full on tye-died from the point forward, as you can see below:

finishers.

strength, we've got it. "borrowed" from the official site

bad boys fo' life. 

going through the color station and PUMPED

though it was fun, color runs don't impress us. (not much does)

meredith happened to be at the exact height of where everyone throws the color at, so she was legit pink in the face. me? not so much.

the irony of this is that the only real running we did was to the bus after the race was over. during the ride home, we realized that color was EVERYWHERE. and while originally we wanted all the color, when i was in the shower, i realized i was wrong. my stomach and underarms were stained pink through tuesday. good thing pink is great on me.

overall, i may do a color "run" again, but i'd need a better location. while mere and i wrote an EXCELLENT song called "walking through a parking lot," there was little other inspirational points in the course. the color was fun, until shower time, and the live music was a nice incentive.

i'll review the mud run after i take part in it in a few weeks, but don't be shocked if the review is messy. get it? GET IT?