All You Need Is A Little Splash Of Colour
I've become the exact person that I would have called 'crazy' in the past. I now love to run and am addicted to running events. I always thought running was torture on a person's body but now have a completely different opinion about it. If there is something that I have learned it is to not judge something until you give it a fair shot (try it more than once and don't have a pre-determined opinion about it - be open minded!). When I first started running I didn't like it at all (but I was still determined to be able to run 5 km). As I became better at it I started to like it more. To this day, I still don't like the first part of the run (does anyone?) but after about the first 1 km or so that's when the enjoyment starts to set in for me.
I just recently participated in the #happiest5k on the planet (aka The Color Run). One thing that coaching has helped me a lot with is finding out who I am and learning more and more about my passions. Even though being a coach is to help others in their health & fitness journeys it has actually helped me grow more than I ever expected.
Last weekend we participated in Mud Hero and this weekend we completed The Color Run (or The Colour Run as I like to spell it). BEEP BEEP BEEP - that was the alarm going off at 5:00 am on a Saturday morning. It was time to get up and get ready to make the trip to St. John for the run. The night before I had prepared a lot of the things I would need to take with me since I knew that it would be an early morning for me. The one important thing that I needed to do that morning was to paint my finger nails for the run (priorities, I tell ya - it was an absolute MUST for me for the run). For someone who doesn't often paint their nails I did end up having 10 different shades of nail polish which was perfect - one for each finger nail. {Side note: It turns out that at the event there were stations set up where you could paint your nails so I could have waited to do it at the event. Then again, goodness knows how long I would have had to wait. Sally's Beauty Supply has donated the nail polish.} That morning, I also packed a lunch for after the run that included chicken, a banana, an apple and some rice cakes as well as water to re-fuel after the event. After me running around like a chicken with its head chopped off we were finally on the road but our first stop was to pick up one of our members for our team, Christine. The drive to St. John was quick and full of chit chat and excitement. Once in St. John we parked at the Harbour Station (the only time that we would be there to not see a hockey game) and was shuttled from the station to the event. Unfortunately, the event didn't have a bag check in. I wasn't prepared for that at all (maybe I should have read those important event emails) so everything (including my phone) was left in the car. Thankfully Amanda brought her phone and took pictures. All photo credit goes to her for the event unless otherwise stated. It's a crazy world we live because I felt completely naked without my phone but after a couple of hours I kinda got use to it. Before we left for the event I texted everyone to tell them to meet at the main entrance. It definitely brought me back to high school since that was exactly how we use to meet our friends at different places. I then remembered the pay phones - oh goodness did I ever start to feel old. The world changes so fast and technology is always changing so no wonder I can't keep up with it (good excuse, right?). Seriously though, it's almost too fast! Once at the event we met up with Amanda and Al but unfortunately were unable to meet up with the second group of ladies. We waited at the entrance until the very last minute but by that time there were so many people that it would have been more difficult to find. THANKFULLY, Amanda had picked up all 3 of our registration kits the night before since she had spent the night in St. John. I threw on my official color run shirt over the shirt I was wearing and slapped on some wicked awesome temporary tattoos (I absolutely LOVED the 'Happy' tattoo which was a shinny silver). During the wait time before the run, there was a warm up of Zumba and the official mascot of the colour run (which is a unicorn) was around to make everyone happy.
And of course, before the run in true Steph fashion I had to pee. That morning I had drank minimal water because I really wanted to try and avoid the porta potty (I had learned from my Mud Hero experience). I'm not a huge fan of using public restrooms in general so the idea of using a porta potty is terrible to me. With approximately 1,700 people registered for the event but only approximately 10 porta potties I ended up waiting in line for 15 - 20 minutes. What's worse than having to use a porta potty? Having to wait in line to use one! But when you gotta go you gotta go! I guess on a positive note the floor of the porta potty was filled with glitter from people's costumes.
Finally they lined us up at the start line. I swear these fun runs are similar to club life but without the drinks. Although, in my opinion, Mud Hero had a much more exciting start this run also got everyone into the run with cheering, high fives, the wave and Color Run swag giveaways. I must say the giveaways that were done at The Color Run were AMAZING. They gave away A TON of free swag. We also sang "Oh Canada" which was interesting since it was the first time I heard the anthem since the recent change in lyrics. I have to say that what I heard in the audience was "all thy sons command" and not "all of us command". I'm just sayin'.
The run finally begun - seriously we waited in that start line for probably a good 15 minutes. It was almost a bit excessive but they did keep us entertained as much as they possibly could. The run was in a park which was absolutely beautiful. There were some hills and dirt trails so you had to be careful where you stepped but there were also plenty of flowers and ducks (#thingsthatmakemehappy). And of course, just like Mud Hero we didn't leave any of our team members behind. During the run, we would go through colour zones where we would be sprayed with colours from volunteers. The volunteers had bottles that they squirted coloured powder (consisting of cornstarch, baking soda, and FD&C dyes) on us. There were 4 stations which had cute sayings at each station. Pineapple of my eye - yellow zone
Orange is the new everything - orange zone
Wink for pink - pink zone
You are blue-tiful - blue zone
And finally at the end we went through a line of volunteers spraying us with all the colours. We received our medals and a packet of colour and glitter for the huge colour throws (seriously, there was not a lack of colour at these colour throws). There were also samples of flavoured water that I took a sip of and quickly realized I didn't like them at all so I opted for just water instead. They also provided us with granola bars. We all put on our medals on and of course we had to photograph our memories.
The colour throws were so much fun. In fact, we did as many as we possibly could (no wonder we were so full of colour). The colour throws consisted of music pumping and everyone dancing and at one point the announcer said "oh BTW you all know it's only 10 am, right?" I had completely forgot it was that early in the morning. We were all having an absolutely AMAZING time. I swear it was impossible to not be smiling during the whole event. When they say it's the happiest 5k on the planet I think they may be right! Colour throws happen by the announcer counting to 3 and everyone would all throw the packets of colour in the air producing a huge colour cloud. HOW EXCITING! During the colour madness we actually met up with the other girls we were suppose to meet before the run at the gates - Amanda (yes another Amanda), Terri, Kaelyn and Michelle. The group picture photo credit (see below) goes to Kaelyn Merrithew (thanks for the tag on Facebook). I was so excited to see these ladies! Next year, we will have to get a better system in place to meet up with one another.
At one point in time, the announcer actually wanted 4 people on stage who had a recent birthday so Al and I ended up on stage. We had no idea what was going to be expected of us but we did it anyway.
AND it was a dance off. I don't dance (I have zero moves. I try but I don't have any flow or rhythm) but I didn't care because I figured there was going to be some free Color Run swag which I had been trying to grab all day (again, seriously, there was so much given away). I never liked being the center of attention but now I also don't really care about what people think of me anymore. I lived my life in fear for so long because of the possibility that others wouldn't like me or make fun of me that I've finally had enough and I do what I wanna do now. People can either love me for that (or not) and if they don't that's okay! Even though the dance off wasn't so much of a dance off it was still fun. Seriously, does anyone really dance anymore? Back in the day there were actual dance moves and now there is twerking? No thanks! Some day I would love to take some actual dance lessons because I do have interest in it. After the dance off I thought "damn I should have shown off some of my Cize moves." It's been a while since I have completed Cize but I do remember some of the moves. At the end of the dance off, we were told we could pick our own colour run swag (something I didn't expect). I was super excited to find out we were able to pick our own swag - WORTH IT! I picked out a t-shirt.
Photo credit: Nicholas Lowe Photography
I wish I would have brought some money with me (it was all left in the car) because there was a lot of cool Colour Run clothes that I would have loved. I think I will add them to my Pinterest 'Wish List' board. It's my board that I have for birthdays and Christmas when people ask me what I want. I always refer them to the pins on my board. It's perfect because I was always the one that would forget what I wanted when the holidays would come around. I highly recommend making a 'Wish List' board if you are like me. It is such a help! As much as I would have loved to have the fun go on all day the event ended around noon. On the way out of the event, we all got the excess powder cleaned off of us with leaf blowers but we still had a lot of colour that stuck on us thanks to all those colour throws!
We were all shuttled back to Harbour Station and in a way I was happy because I knew my lunch was waiting for me in the car. On the way back, I napped on and off. It's so difficult for me to stay awake in the car plus this time I was probably a bit exhausted since I had been up at 5:00 am. All the dancing, cheering and excitement played me out.
Once back home, we prepared some BBQ and had invited our color run people (and some other friends) to the house for a BBQ. I made some of my favourite veggie burgers and a salad made with spelt noodles. I also prepared some taco seasoned hamburgers for the others and one of the girls brought over a tossed salad with camu-camu berries. I loved this because camu-camu is actually in Shakeology but I had never tasted it before. They are a sour berry but I actually really really liked them and plan on getting some as well.
Most people left shortly after the BBQ but Joe decided to stay and play Munchkin The Nightmare Before Christmas version until 11:30 pm which was A-OKAY with me because I love that game. Until next year, I will continue to live me life as colourfully as I can. And just like Mud Hero we are planning on participating in this event again next year and would love to have others join us. I will post the registration when it's available!
