Dear Lucia,
What’s up? Why haven’t you answered our messenger darts game?? Afraid to lose???
Today I write to you about the Color Run. The Color Run (aka “The Happiest 5k On the Planet”) started in 2011 as an effort to make exercise fun and family inclusive. It is inspired by other 5ks like the Mud Run (some day I want to do one of those, but they dont have them in Iceland) and Holi!
A few months ago, Marie and I decided that we wanted to run a 5k, and that the color run seemed like the perfect low-stakes option. She was still super stick with Covid (well, she still has long covid but has improved some) and I was in a bit of a flare and my joints were really bothering me. We agreed that this 5k was a goal for us to get better and feel better about our bodies! The week after we decided this I got super sick and so I couldn’t train lol.
The day of the run, we got a bit lost trying to find the event, but we followed the loud music in Laugardalshöll (the botanic garden area) to the prep/concert area. We were told to expect a huge line for picking up our shirts but then we waited for like 3 mins and got them, so go off. Then, we had 2 hours to kill before the actual race started, so we shivered and danced to the old pop music they were playing. Dilja performed, which was super cool! We also got to see a lot of little kids running around throwing color packets on each other which was very cute.
For the actual race, Marie and I started together, but there were so many people we quickly got lost. My goal was to finish in under 40 minutes, because that would mean I kept an ok pace the whole time, not necessarily running the whole time (fuck my knees) but not just meandering around either. And I did! I might b interested in doing another color run, but as both Justine and Charlotte say, why would we pay for doing something that we hate and can do for free?
The weather was amazing. It was clear and sunny, yes I wore sunscreen and an spf shirt, but it wasn’t terribly hot either. The 5ks I have done before have all been in the fall, so I was expecting this to be too hot, but it’s Iceland, so who am I kidding thats the same temperature.
Here’s me after the run! Absolutely covered in color powder. Sadly, I tried to treat the shirts to get the colors to stay but most of it washed off :/. Smelled like vinegar all day for naught.
Would you do a color run?
A