color me rad 5k

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a quick but HUGE thank you to everyone who voted/shared/retweeted/etc. about this weekends contest to win a $250 grant from Operation Jack. to quote sam from his website:

Operation Jack is my never-ending quest to help causes in need, one charitable act at a time. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But I have faith I’ll get it done. That’s what Operation Jack is.

OJ was willing to give back and support a great charitable cause, and our 5k in September- 65 Roses 5k - to benefit Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is very thankful.

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back in june when i won the COLOR *  ME *  RAD  * 5k giveaway from janine i was very excited! i had seen a few people on twitter/bloggy world that had done this race in various cities across the US and it looked like a ton of fun! after a few texts back and forth, a few friends decided to do the race with me and we became team "color us maybe".

as race day approached, we started trying to figure out the logistics. since there was apparently no race day packet pick up (which there really was), we needed to figure out how to get everyones bibs and shirts prior to race morning. no one actually lived close to where the race was going to be held, but luckily SB was heading down there for a family get together so she was able to get everything for us!

pre race texts (i really wish android had screen shots...)

me: i feel like crap-o-la. exhausted. so sick of running.

SB: taperitis... so gross. running makes me want to kick people in the face right now. namely myself.

me: the world is so happy to have us right now. at least were headed to the happiest 5k on the planet or some dumb shit like that.

SB: yes. fact. we are awesome. this 5k is going to be like disney...but in braintree. in a parking lot.

me: OMG WERE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!! and fun fact, my dumb phone just tried to auto correct disney to diabetes haha

SB: HAHAHA!

me: diabetes is a likely outcome from all this GU. yay running.

the pre race instructions warned us all about morning traffic chaos and insisted people arrive at 7am regardless of when your race wave was supposed to start (we were in the 8:45am wave). i left my house at 5am in order to make it down by 7ish and i was still stuck in traffic on the highway about a mile from the exit. they werent kidding when they said "traffic chaos". people were getting out of their cars and walking to the race, abandoning their driver on the highway. in true bigpimpin style, i saw a prime opportunity to be a huge jerk and cut off about 3000 people lined up on the highway and edged my way into the front of the line right before the exit. win!

just off the exit was the mall where the race was being held, and everyone was trying to get into the parking lot (read: HUGE mess). so i kept driving about a quarter mile down the road, found a small side street with this cute old man outside in his lawn and asked him if i could park in front of his house. he said that was fine and we talked for a few minutes about what was going on for the race. seemed like a nice guy but i still wasnt sure if my car was going to be there when i got back (dont worry, it was).

SB had been there for a few minutes and texted me to tell me where she was. i told her i was wearing all white, i should be easy to spot (hehe, i crack myself up). we sat around and complained a lot (were so good at that) and waited for jessie and danielle m. to show up. everything seemed pretty poorly organized and people were just walking around looking like confused (us included)... and after taking a few "before" pics, we decided we should just go to the start and get this show on the road. it didnt appear they were checking to see who was in what "wave", so off we went!

from the start line, we weaved back and forth through the mall parking lot. so scenic (really did remind me of disney actually, with all the highway running, HA!). i think we might have run a mile before ever reaching a color stop. we had caught a few color bags before the start and colored us up a bit, and took this pic after the first color stop.

then on to more parking lot weaving/running. actually, we werent really running. well, danielle was apparently trying to win the race so she kept taking off, would accidentally run into someone/try run them over, and then trot back to us. there was no shade and we were sweating like pigs in the 90 degree sun, covered in neon corn starch. i mean really, wouldnt this be your ideal sunday morning too?

i think there were 4 color stations along the way, one of which had run out of color by the time we got there and they were just dumping green water on people. there were at least 4 more waves that were sent off after us, so we were glad we snuck in when we did. at the last color stop the volunteers were pretty much handing the boxes of color to people and having the runners do it themselves, while instructing us to "roll around on the ground". which we did, duh.

purple color stop where we rolled on the ground

and then we saw the finish up ahead. huh?! danielle's garmin read 2.5 miles, which is not a 5k. sorry folks. the ending was very lame, just running under the finish line blow up arch. a few people had color bags that were thrown in the air, but i think our expectations were a bit different than what actually happened.

after going through the finish line, there was a crowd of thousands of people just standing there not moving. we figured out that there were 3 tents that people were "in line" for to get their professional pics taken. we decided to wait, but it took at least 45 minutes. and it was hot. and we continued to complain a lot. haha, even at the "happiest 5k on the planet" we can complain. who would have thought!?

so we just took a lot of pics while we waited.

i snapped this cool pic at the final color throw... i think this was kinda what we were expecting for the finish line, but it was something completely separate. there was a guy up on the platform in the upper right of the pic with a bullhorn yelling down what to do, throwing out prizes and color bags.

the final color throw

i know i said we complained a lot, but it was a fun/unique "race". for the first time having it in boston, id say they have some work to do but it could have been a lot worse. there was far too much "running" and not enough "color" along the way. it was a family friendly activity which was cool. and i wouldnt classify it as a 5k... and i know a lot of people had mishaps with the packet pick up/tshirts... but on the upside, the tshirts are AWESOME (sooooooooo soft and comfy), and there were NO lines for the port-a-pottys. FTW.

right before heading home, i texted crystal to try and find her in the color mess. it wasnt hard to find her prancing around in her tu-tu :) so happy to finally meet up with her, she rocks!! hoping to run more races with this chica in the future!



on the way home i stopped by the site of next weekends marathon to check out the course and run a few more miles. after getting lost (twice) on the run (going down two dead end streets) and getting many weird looks (yes i color myself in neon for fun, what about it....) i feel much more comfortable knowing what the course is like. also helps seeing this for the elevation (knowing ill be running it 8 times around and around and around....)

46 feet elevation gain

41 feet elevation loss (and i think that was from one of the side streets i went down on accident)

also thought this sign was pretty funny where i parked at the lake... that helps with my whole sub 4 goal i guess.

11 days!