Race Recap: ColorMeRad5k

*As a member of Tampa Bay Bloggers, I received complimentary registrations to the ColorMeRad5k event mentioned in this post in exchange for social media love and this recap review. As always, all opinions are my own.*

Two weekends ago I put a team together of friends to run the ColorMeRad5k here in Tampa.

After going through the website looking at pictures and sending them to my friends, I was so excited to run the ColorMeRad5k with my friends and kids! Actually walk...not run. 

I knew I wasn't going to run this race because

1. It's not timed so what's the point? :)

2. I wanted my kids to have the option of not sitting in the stroller

3. My friends, who are not "runners", were gracing me with their presence. 

Being my first color run I envisioned color bombs going off everywhere, having a blast and crossing the finish line looking like a tie dyed mess! 

This is how it went:

Our start time was 9:10 and when we walked up to the starting area there wasn't much going on. We were the 2^nd to last group to start so maybe that’s why it was so lackluster? We must have missed the excitement. Just a guy on a microphone, talking about the colors packs and gels, letting small crowds thru the start line every 5 minutes or so. 

Side note: My pregnant friend went up for a water while we were standing around in the heat and got turned down...what?! I know the volunteers were probably told not to give out water before the race but come on! Have some common sense when you see an obviously pregnant women standing in the heat asking for water. 

Before starting, Sophia and Kennedy got comfortable in the double stroller pushed by Angelo, and Harper went into the other stroller pushed by Katie. That left Nelps in my arms. She was not having it with the stroller that morning and so I thought "ok, she'll for sure walk some of this course...right?" 

The short trek from the start to the first color, yellow, was so empty and kind of a early buzzkill for the run. I was trying to scope out how the course went and didn't see much going on. Where were the huge color explosions?! And the heat...Thank goodness the second half of the course was shaded! 

Once we got to the color station, we quickly realized that if you weren't walking right by the color throwers on the outsides, you would come out of the color station perfectly clean.

At some stations the color bombers were SITTING DOWN! You had to stop, get color thrown on you, and then proceed.

Angelo, Chad, and Katie ran ahead of us to keep the girls occupied in the strollers. We saw them on the course about half way through and the stroller was completely color bombed with orange and the girls looked like they were having too much fun in that stroller!

At one color station Alisha walked right in front of a color thrower to get color bombed. He looked at her face, looked at her belly, and went "bam! Color bombed to the boobs!" This gave us a good laugh! 

On the last color station before the finish line I was irritated that some people weren't all tie-dyed and skittle-like. So I ran up to the box of colored corn starch and color bombed people on my own! Was this allowed? Probably not, but at that point I wasn't about to take an “after picture” with people still resembling Mr. Clean.

Action shot towards the finish line!

All in all, I think the run was OK. And I'm probably writing all this still thinking about my aching arm from holding Nelpe the entire time. 

Tip: Don't carry an 18 month old child through a 5k run.

BUT, would I do it again? Yeah, why not? :)

After Pictures

XOXO