At first, I wasn't so sure how I felt about doing a color run. I don't really believe in the idea of spreading colorful powdered stuff out into the environment to be washed into the soil and water systems. "The Color Run" uses powdered paint that I'm sure is not good for the environment. But, I was pleased to discover that the USNWC , since it is an environmentally conscious place, used something with a more natural chemical makeup. Simply- corn starch dyed with food coloring. So, what is it about a color run that's so interesting? How fantastic can running through clouds of green corn starch be? Especially on a rainy day? Well, it was more interesting than I thought it would be.
They had two different shades of green a lime and a forest color. The corn starch didn't taste bad at all, it almost melted away since the powder is so fine. I also didn't experience any interference with my breathing especially as we ran through the huge cloud at the start. However, I did have slightly green boogers for the next two days. It also took two showers to wash all the green off my skin. I looked like I was turning into the hulk in tiny little splotches on the fronts of my ankles, my left collar bone, and my left wrist. I may have been stained in more places if I hadn't washed it off so soon after the race. Because of the cooler and wetter weather than expected, before the start of the race, I ran the first 300meters in my rain coat. It is still caked with green powder even though I took it in the shower with me after the race. My white t-shirt that I wore during the race is still a little tie-dyed even after washing it. You can see the nice white square where my race number was pinned, red clay mud spots on the back from my shoe,s and swirly colors of green.
This was an untimed event with prizes given to the top five male and female finishers and the cleanest and greenest runners. I tried to be one of the cleanest runners to make it to the finish line. I realize now that maybe I cheated without meaning to by wearing my jacket at the start through the largest amount of green that we encountered during the race. But I didn't have time to wait around for awards anyway because I knew the locker room showers would get swamped quickly. Luckily I was one of the first people in before the long line formed and I even had time to help with cleaning up the start/finish line before I had to clock in for work.
The race was quite light hearted because it was untimed and focused more on the colorful clouds of green. Mike Kafsky, our USNWC Guest Experience Director, dressed up as an aproximatly 6'5" tall green painted, red hair dyed, top hat and contact lens wearing leprechaun who started the race with us on a cruiser bicycle. The race also kicked off our first festival of the year- The Green River Revival. Though I have worked at the USNWC for over two years now this is the first time I've gotten to witness the water turning green. It's so brilliantly neon green your eyes can hardly believe it!
I went in undecided about how to run the race since, in the grander scheme of things I'm just starting this journey, and am technically just barely beginning to build mileage. Should I run casually just to see how my body would act in a race environment or did I really want to race and try to place in the top five ladies? I kind of settled somewhere in between. I knew that with an untimed race, and a very muddy, wet, and rainy day anything could happen. Without chip timing chances are most of the runners would be casual runners there just to have fun getting colored green. I decided I would start toward the front of the starting line but I tried to go out at my own pace and not get caught in race start adrenaline. I did run at least a few steps with my eyes closed and my breath slightly held as we passed through the foggy shower of buckets full of green just after the start. It stopped raining almost exactly when the race started and I got warm quickly so I chucked my rain coat on our land sport office deck as we ran past to begin our journey on the trails.
I am glad, and it makes sense that, the race was mostly on the service roads instead of our single track trails. The USNWC closes it's trails depending on how wet they are so that runners and bikers don't cause terrible erosion problems in muddy conditions. The service roads are much wider an allowed us to have room to pass people and hop back and forth on the trail to avoid some of the deep puddles and small rivers of water. I noticed that the powder would clump a little, perhaps because it had gotten wet In the rain, so when I got green thrown at me it was like watching a small green comet with a powdery green tail and you'd get hit with a small soft mass. I did start to wonder if my face got more serious the further along in the race I went because It seemed that the green starch throwers weren't as interested in dousing me.
We did run on small section of single track trail downhill and I got a little frustrated when I had a dad and his two smallish (early middle school age maybe) kids in front of me going slower than my long legs wanted to go. The final straw was when a gal passed me and the family by cutting across the inside of a sharp turn. The competitive side of me snapped and I kind of tried to jump over or around the little guy on the last steep part of the down hill and nearly knocked him over. I'm sorry little guy, you where doing awesome! And your dad was being an awesome parent to run with you and your sister to encourage you guys to run the whole race.
I paced behind the gal and then a guy who passed me on the next long, rocky, muddy, loose gravel downhill, that intimidated me a little- but I didn't mentally let them go. I stuck behind them for the next quarter to half mile until we got back on the main gravel loop around the white water channel to return to the Finish. I managed to gradually pick up the pace beyond what I'd physically expected to feel, and kick it in a lot harder than I'd anticipated I would. I passed the guy and gal and then several other people who tried to stick with me to the finish. When I rounded the final corner to the finish and could see a general time clock running, I notice it had just rolled over to 24 minutes and I suddenly found one more gear before crossing the finish line. As soon as I crossed the line Adam Bratton, our Sponsorship and Events race guy at the USNWC, showed up in my field of vision and handed me a certificate and medal along with a sticker that he told me to take to the sponsor tent to pick up a pair of free socks. I thought he was just being nice since I know him and work there because, before the start of the race they made an announcement that if your race bib had a sponsor logo sticker on it you could go get a free piece of merchandise.
I gave Adam a high five and then turned around and gave the guy that finished behind me, and had tried to stay with me, a high five too. He asked what my finish time was and said he saw maybe 25min15sec on the clock when he finished. I began to clean off a small spot on the bottom of my bib number and stuck on the sticker Adam had given me, when the gal I had paced in the race came up to me to say good job as well. When she did, I congratulated her too and noticed she was also carrying a paper certificate. When she walked away I looked down at the things I was holding in my hands and read the paper which to my complete surprise read second female over all! Yay! I had no idea! I was just climbing people during the whole race and I felt pretty comfortable and relaxed. Not my usual stressed-outness that I get. I am rather proud of myself that I didn't allow anyone to out pace and pass me over the net distance.
I forgot to stop my watch after the race but, my race time was something under 25min I think. Not fast but ok for where I am in my training now. The purpose of running the race in my training plan is to get used to the racing mindset again and to establish a baseline race time to gauge future training runs on. I found myself thinking about the fact that there wasn't much difference in my race practice training run and the actual race. This makes me think I would definitely benefit from doing a little speed work. But, at the same time, with my ultimate marathon goal being to break 3hours35minutes in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon, the race pace for that is 8min miles- which I'm not too far off of now. There is a big difference between 3.1 and 26.2 miles but I will build endurance over my time training.
Here's some footage on the USNWC's YouTube channel from last years Green River Revival
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