Race Report: Color Me Purple 5K

Color Me Purple 5K | Athens, GA

March 24, 2013

We all know I like color. We all know I like running. We all know I like combining the two and running any color run I can.  So when I saw the Color Me Purple race, sponsored by our UGA chapter of Relay for Life, and not to mention that it was a whopping $15, I knew this race had to be done. Thankfully, I quickly pulled on board a few friends and turned it into an adventure.

Relay for Life is a really big production here at UGA - it's the second-largest collegiate Relay in the country, and is coming up here in a few weeks. I saw this race just a few weeks ago from one of my students who has been super involved in Relay the last two years. It's a more-than-fun way of just handing over a check or making an online donation - you get to donate and run and play in a little bit of color-clouds. Who's in?

They couldn't even get balloons to stay up it had started raining so hard!

Little did we know what kind of adventure the weather wanted to create for us too. It poured all day Saturday (thereby cancelling  my group run with ARR), poured and thundered all night, and poured until about 5 minutes before go time on Sunday morning. Meh, what's a little rain hurt anyone?

Chandler, her coworker Jane, Paula, and her boyfriend Zack all joined in for the wet, purple fun - and it was a blast. The UGA 5K course is no joke - for the awesome downhills it provides, you're given the equivalent (or worse) uphills in return. But all in a good time; this race isn't one I'd run for seriousness anyway! 

Jane, Chandler, me, Paula and Zack, pre-rain, pre-color.

I don't remember it actually raining during the race itself - it may have drizzled, but I honestly feel like once we were moving, it didn't really continue to storm. Lucky us! There were only three color stations, which made me kind of sad, but had it not been raining, maybe there would have been more. The Relay-ers are a really fantastic bunch and were out there the whole time with posters, cheering, and being really great course support even in the crappy weather. 

All in all a good time - you can never go wrong with a little color, a little rain to throw you all off, and friends to look like a fool in a downpour with on a Sunday morning. Thanks y'all for a great Sunday morning!

Post-rain, post color.

Have you ever done a color run? What'd you think?

PS. All photo credit to Chandler.  :)