Color Me Rad

I went to this event 3 days ago. I purchased tickets on a buy one get one free special that ran in February, and the deal was fantastic. However, the event itself was a little lackluster. I loved the premise and enjoyed the experience immensely, but overall I felt that it was ran terribly. First, the waves of runners were enormous. I would probably say about 75 – 100 people per wave. This caused runners to be in close proximity to each other the entire run and I felt like cattle being herded the whole race. How they started the race was boring too. You waited for about ten minutes, then the guy on the stage 200 feet away says literally, «Hey you guys! We’re running the race in 3,2,1 go!» No hyping the crowd up, getting people excited, overview of the course, rules or courtesy (get to that point later). Really just impersonal.
Once the race started the course was extremely narrow the entire way through. Coupled with the large waves of people, the feeling of claustrophobia was a bit overwhelming at times. One (long) portion of the track was only about four people shoulder to shoulder in width.
Both of these issues were cause to another problem: there was no enforcement (or even notice of the courtesy) of walkers staying to the right of the course so running was impossible. I would probably say a good 90% of participants walked most of the way, and not by choice. I don’t think people should be forced to walk the entire way, but the runners were forced to walk due to the slower participants clogging the course. If you wanted to run it was 3.1 miles of dodging, jumping, and skipping around people, which was dangerous given the muddy conditions.
A personal gripe was with the photographers as well. Instead of taking fun, candid photos of runners just having a good time, they just had lines of people throughout the course to take cheesy posed pictures. No pictures of getting color bombed, or laughter caught by mistake, cheers of the crowd. This one is more of a personal preference though.
Finally, my biggest issue came with the lack of water. I began the race at 945, which would have been the midpoint of the day, and by 1015 all of the water on the course was gone. I didn’t bring any water because in the brief it said water would be provided, but they ran out before half of the runners even came through the stations. We weren’t provided water until the very end of the race.
Overall, I think it was a great experience and I am so glad I got the chance to do it. However, it was a poorly organized race and would think twice before doing another. It… Just could have been so much better.

My husband and I attended our first Color Me Rad 5k with our friend Mary and loved it! You can walk or run it’s up to you. We saw people there with baby strollers doing the event. It’s one big colorful party! You go on the course and there are different color stations where people are either throwing color, spraying you with color in water guns, and at one station a girl was color drenched hugging everyone. At the end of the course it’s one huge after party! They’ll have contests, they’ll throw color packets at you to throw on your friends, and tons of music to dance your heart out. We ended up with color in my mouth, and up my nose. We got there 20 minutes before our 10 heat, but we went ahead with everyone else. The event seemed a bit disorganized.
When we got to where the crowd was nobody could tell us where we were supposed to go for the main event and it was the first time my husband and I participated. During the race they ran out of water bottles on the course and the course was scattered with plastic bottles. It was a bit disappointing considering the price that we paid for our tickets, but we took it in stride. If you want water along the course please being your own just to be safe.
During the after party they were dumping gel buckets on people and we wanted to participate. We stood in line for awhile, but nobody told people that we needed tickets for it. At the after party they gave us a granola bar and bottled water. It was a lot of fun with people throwing color packets everywhere, loud music, contests, and dancing. I’d love to attend an event again, but at the moment I’m unsure.

ERMAGAWD.
This. Was. Awesome.
I had been telling myself I’d go to one of these for years and finally registered online a couple of weeks ago. I was excited, but also nervous because I am out-​of-​shape. I decided to visit the oh-​so-​wonderful Talk section here on Unilocal and ask about the CMR (i.e. what to expect as far as the jogging to walking ratio). Thanks to some awesome Unilocalers, my mind was put at ease.
I had registered for the 10:00 wave, but we were running a little late, so we ended up getting there just at 9:25 or so. I was nervous about driving to the Sportsplex because I’d read a few reviews/​tips about how bad the parking was. However, the event was planned out very nicely and there were traffic directors to help us find parking spots. It wasn’t overly packed like I imagined it to be either.
We parked and got in line at the registration tent. There was a long table at the front of the tent with volunteers who were checking people in, in addition to a woman at the front of the line directing guests to volunteers who were available. There was also a woman ensuring that people were keeping the line moving. My friends were directed to volunteers at the front table while the woman standing to the left of the line asked me if I had my tickets pulled up on my phone. I showed it to her and she scanned my phone. Piece of cake!
After we had registered, we went over to the second tent near us and picked up our packets. The packets contained «Color Me Rad 2015 Tour» shirts, tattoos, knee-​high socks, in addition to safety pins and race bibs.
Later, we went to purchase some color bombs at a nearby tent. The signs had multiple prices (i.e. one color bomb for $ 5, etc.). I walked up to the tent to purchase some and I asked the woman who was helping me for one. I had enough money for one color bomb, and while I thought I had enough cash for three, I was mistaken. The woman handed me my change (two dollars) in addition to two free color bombs. I thanked her and told her that I felt like I should at least give her the money I had left despite the fact that it wasn’t enough to cover three color bombs, but she told me it was fine. I thanked her again and went to give the other two to my friends. I looked back to see if she had a name tag on, but unfortunately she didn’t have one.
After that, my friends and I opened our packets and put our race bibs on, then went to take photos and «bomb» one another with the color bombs we had received. While we were throwing the color bombs all over the place, a gentleman walked by and gave us one of his. Super cool!
We headed over to the starting line to wait for our wave to begin. We weren’t there for ten minutes before it started. We pretty much walked the entire thing and chatted a bit, got hit with some more colors and sprayed with water/​gel guns. I wish I could tell you all how long it took us to finish the race, but it didn’t feel like a long time at all because we were having so much fun. I loved the fact that there was no pressure to run the entire thing. We went at our own pace.
The race itself was awesome, and the path we took was interesting. I had never been to the Sportsplex before so I didn’t know what to expect. I made a couple of jokes about feeling as if I was going to sink into the earth because the mud was wet and had been trudged through by so many people. I didn’t mind though.
The checkpoints were great. One of them collapsed and the volunteers said «It’s a hurdle now!» I loved the positivity of it all. The only complaint or issue I had was towards the end. The volunteers were passing out color bombs to all of the racers. I was walking by one and he had two in his hand. As he handed it to me, I grabbed one (I guess he thought I was trying grab the other one as well) and he sort of yelled (not rudely, but so everyone could hear) «One color bomb per racer!» That’s cool with me. I wasn’t expecting to receive another one so I was appreciative for the one he gave me.
We were hit again at the finish line, walked over to the side and took a couple of photos, and went over to a nearby table offering free water and snacks. Afterwards, we went to the stage where there were people dancing, throwing out color bombs, and playing games. They were dumping gel on people from a huge bucket, so we got in line, but it seemed like it was taking a while (and the line was slightly unorganized) so we decided to pass and try to get closer to the stage.
We were able to see at least two color countdowns (people on stage throw color bombs into the crowd, tell us to get the packets open and ready, and at the end of the countdown, we all throw them in the air and create a beautiful, rainbow-​hued cloud in the sky).
This was such a positive, fun, and freeing experience. I definitely want to do it again, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a crazy, rockin’ time!