I am a RunDisney girl. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself because I sign up for events and then never train for them. I always regret it later when I’m limping around the next day, but for some reason the next time there’s a sign up I start the process all over again. Assuming they don’t change the weekend that the Disneyland Half Marathon is held, in 2021 it should fall on my 30th birthday. My goal is to have that be my 30th race. Originally it was going to be my 30th half marathon, but I would have to start running at younger age for that to happen. Since I don’t have a time machine, I decided to start counting 5ks and 10ks. As of this morning, I put my tenth notch in the belt and added my first non-Disney race to the list, the ColorRun 5k.
At the end of January, a running buddy of mine mentioned a race with a unicorn on the medal but I forgot about it until about a month ago. That was when my mom forwarded me an advertisement she saw on Facebook for Early Bird Registration for the ColorRun 5k, “The Happiest Race on the Planet”, and the medal had a unicorn on it! This year is the sixth year they’ve held it in different cities across the country and marks the “Dream Tour”. It was one of the least expensive races I’ve ever seen and an even better deal if you signed up with a team of four or more. I remembered my brother doing a ColorRun a few years ago in Tennessee. They were the “Seven Deadly Sins”, and he made shirts for everyone with a sin listed across the back like a jersey. Well, if he could do it, I could do it! Mostly because I could get him to give me the instructions of how he made them. Now we just needed a name. I started scrolling through the names of teams already registered. There were about twelve variations of “50 Shades of _________” and lots of “Dreams” and “Unicorns”. I wanted to be original but I needed better inspiration. Then it hit me! Team Rocket! Pokémon is basically my favorite non-Duffy thing these days. Then every member of the team could have a different Pokémon on the back of their shirt. So I signed up immediately and created my team. I even put the Team Rocket motto in the official team description, “Prepare for Trouble/Make it Double…” and the password to join us was “ichooseyou”. I am still ridiculously proud of myself for the whole idea. I set up a Facebook event and sent it to all my friends who I thought might be interested. Jay signed up immediately, and the site’s photographer, AJ, was interested but wound up having other commitments. My friend who told me about the race in the first place was sadly going to be out of town. I immediately claimed Pikachu and Jay took Charizard. We wound up being the only two members of Team Rocket, and I was a little sad. A big group seemed so fun, but most my friends are so busy it’s hard for us to coordinate to do things that don’t involve running at nine am.
Then a few weeks went by and then I realized I had less than a week until the race. I had shirts to make! Robby, my older brother, had talked me through it and it was an easy process. It was just a matter if I wanted to cut my own stencils or use precut ones. Given I left it until the last minute, I bought the precut letters from Hobby Lobby when I picked up the rest of the supplies: a t-shirt, a tank top, and spray on fabric paint. I don’t wear sleeves generally speaking, so I happily paid the extra three dollars to make mine into a tank top I could wear again.
I sat down to make the shirts Friday afternoon. It’s a very simple process 
but it is time consuming, mostly because you have to let one side dry before you can do the other. I meant to take pictures of the progress but my hands were covered in paint and I couldn’t really touch my phone. I did two “Team Rocket”s on the fronts, which was easy except I only had one of each letter so I had to shuffle the stencils around a little bit. They were clingy so it helped them stay in place as I sprayed. Then I went back to watching Netflix to let the shirts dry.
Two hours later, I flipped the shirts over to put the Pokémon on the back. 
I did mine first because Pikachu involved the smallest amount of letters. Jay had been helping earlier, and by helping I mean, “You missed a spot!” so I put him to work cutting out silhouettes of the Pokémon. I had the option of spraying paint around the Pikachu shape, or painting a Pikachu on the shirt. I opted for the first option so I wouldn’t have to worry about the edges of the stencil showing. I’m glad I started with Pikachu, doing Charizard was much more difficult because I kept having to move the letters around.
I never regret signing up for a race more than the moment the alarm goes off in the morning. I never sleep well the night before because I’m so concerned about over-sleeping, and the last thing I want to do is get out of bed. But I did it! I put on my awesome shirt and headed out the door.
Color Run’s event emails recommended carpooling due to limited parking at Osceola Heritage Park and the parking had to be paid in cash, but that did not prepare us for the backup down 192. Three quarters of a mile away the traffic was stopped. It was already eight am, the race started at nine and we still needed our packets! After about twenty minutes of stop and go traffic, I got out and started walking while Jay waited to park the car. I made it to the line for packet pick up about 8:40 or so. There was a DJ playing music and Zumba going on by the stage. I wish we’d been earlier! Jay got there right as I was handing them my phone for registration. Check in was a two part process like it is at the RunDisney races, you get your bib and then show your bib to get your shirt and goodie bag. It was almost 9:15 by the time we had our shirts and we still had to dig out the safety pins to fasten the bibs on. The bibs were actually coloring sheets that you were supposed to fill in before the race, but we obviously didn’t have time for that. We also didn’t have time to take our shirts back to the 
car so we combined everything in one bag and ditched the free bags of chips. I had the phones and car keys, so Jay got to carry the bag of loot. We headed for the starting line and waited another ten to fifteen minutes before they let us go. There were no true corrals, but they were sending runners in waves. The DJ/announcer had a booth about ten feet above our heads, and he kept throwing swag to the crowd. A magnet landed just on the other side of the 
barricade and Jay reached underneath to grab it and I managed to snatch a pair of arm warmers out of the air. Thank you, Ultimate Frisbee skills. The “Runicorn”, a unicorn wearing a track suit, stood to the left high-fiving people.
Not only was this my first non-RunDisney race, this was my first race with another person. I’ve run all my events by myself up until now. Pacing with someone else is a very different experience, and not having my usual adrenaline spike from the fireworks didn’t help either. I never noticed how much longer Jay’s legs are than mine until today, and that boy does not know how to jog! First we were too fast, then we were too slow, and it took almost until the first mile marker to get our groove, about the time we hit our first color stop. I didn’t know what to expect, I knew it was powder and not paint like the race Robby did but I also didn’t know how getting hit with powder would work. I had read up on all the color tips so we were equipped with safety goggles to keep the powder out of our eyes at the very least. We stopped just outside to put the goggles on. Jay had been wearing his around his neck and mine were on top of the headband that came with registration. There were four or five volunteers on either side with what looked like big condiment bottles filled with yellow powder, thicker and heavier than baby powder but pretty darn similar. When you ran in front of them, they squirted you with both bottles, and sometimes you got hit more than once! We made it out of the yellow zone and looked at each other, giggling and seeing where we got it the worst. My back got missed so Pikachu wasn’t very yellow, but Charizard sure was.
The first mile marker was just around the next bend and we stopped for a photo. A group of four was in front of us and I offered to take their picture if they took ours, which was fine until the guy’s mom called while I was trying to take it. Purple was the next color zone, followed by the course’s only water stop. It’s also weird running a course you don’t know when you’re so used to Disney. Not only do I see the maps ahead of time, I know that property backwards and forwards. I was just happy there was a water stop, I didn’t know if there would be one. As we were leaving it, a group of three came running by at a much faster pace. The leader started to tell us how cool our shirts were, until he passed us to see Team Rocket on the front, and he started booing playfully.
We hit the second mile marker just before the Orange Zone. For those who aren’t super familiar, a 5k is 3.1 miles. The Orange Zone had more volunteers than the previous two zones, and they were hammering people with the powder. When they saw our goggles, they hit us with everything they had. It was like running into an orange cloud, and I refused to try to breathe until we were out of it. Even then I could taste it on my lips. I assume that stuff is non-toxic, or I certainly hope it is.
Just past the Orange Zone was a giant inflatable wall with markers for people to write
their dreams on. Jay stopped to write something, but I was too busy catching a Tododile on Pokémon Go. I’m Pikachu, it’s not like I was going to stop playing! (I actually usually just leave it open while I run so I get credit towards hatching eggs.)
At this point, I’ve been awake for fourteen hours today on very little sleep and I honestly don’t remember if the foam pit came before or after the final mile marker. There were bubble wands shooting soap suds into the sky and bubbles all over the ground. It surprisingly wasn’t slippery, and we hurried past the younger runners who were playing in it.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]
Mile Marker 3.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”] The last mile marker was two giant inflatable blue unicorns and we stopped for a quick photo, where we got more compliments on our shirts. Then we started booking it towards the last Color Zone, Pink, and we stopped so we could get coated before we started the sprint for the finish line. Except our sprint was short lived because we stopped for photos under the archway.[/lgc_column]
We made it to the finish line and were handed our Unicorn medals and a packet of green powder. I took Jay’s from him and put it around his neck like they do at RunDisney races. Medals should always be presented, not handed to you. (Even though that’s what happened when I ran the Princess Half earlier this year.) I then headed straight for the water stop to procure two bottles; all I could taste was powder! They were actually cold which surprised me. We made our way to the giant pink unicorns for post race photos, especially of Jay and his first medal. While we were taking photos, we heard the DJ count down something and we looked up just in time for everyone standing around to throw their color packets in the air. It was so pretty and I was sad I missed it.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]We started heading towards the car, but I got distracted and stopped by a tent where they were giving away prizes if you spun the wheel. Then the DJ announced they were going to do another color toss in two minutes so I got my camera set while Jay stayed in line. I’m so glad I thought to put my goggles on first even though it was foggy and hard to see from all the sweat. The color toss was such a cool thing to watch, but it turned into a thick cloud so fast and I was grateful for my goggles. So many people told me what a good idea they were, but all I did was read the tip sheet on the ColorRun website.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
Finish line!
Medal photo!
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Then it was our turn to spin the wheel, where we both won pairs of sunglasses, and we booked it towards the cars. We did not want to get stuck in the same mess trying to leave! Thankfully enough people were still milling around it was a smooth drive out.
The ColorRun was a fantastic experience. We had so much fun, especially for my first non-Disney race and Jay’s first race ever. I do wish we’d had a bigger group. Everyone was so happy and colorful and in such a good mood. Not that everyone isn’t in a good mood at Disney, but there’s such a price tag attached to those races I feel like it puts everyone on edge. It was also much less crowded than the courses I’m used to! No pushing or shoving, no one ever really got near me. We had such a good time and I seriously hope the 2018 ColorRun Tour includes Orlando again.
Cost: ColorRun Early bird race registration was $34.98 after tax. Parking was $7.00.
Duration: About 2-3 hours for the whole event, the run itself was about 30-40 minutes.
Value: Totally worth it, hope to do it again next year.
Add On Options: The shirts cost about $25 to make, but to do it again would be less than $10 because I have plenty of paint leftover and the stencils can be reused.
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