The Happiest 5km on the Planet

After yesterday’s antics at Kew Gardens my legs were seriously hoping for a day of R&R today but then I remembered it was the day of the Color Run (apologies for the spelling error but that is its official spelling!).

Bethany and I signed up to this in an impulse moment a few months back when we saw it was coming to the UK for the first time. The Color Run, aka the Happiest 5km on the Planet, started in 2012 in the States and has grown from over 50 events and 600,000 participants to over 100 events and over 1 million participants this year. The big day really crept up on us but luckily the un-timed run is more about having a great time than getting your personal best time.

We also recruited Christina and Lizzie to join us and Jon volunteered to come along and take some pics of the atmosphere. So in the mid-afternoon we all jumped on the tube to Wembley Stadium. 

We all thought this would be a relatively small event but we got off the tube and were suddenly lost in a sea of white Color Run t-shirts and headbands. 

We joined the masses and were herded off to the starting area where we got involved in some warm-up entertainment. The sun beat down on us for a good hour while we waited to be let off but luckily the atmosphere was great so it didn’t seem too long.
 

And then we were off!!

We jogged (or walked due to the bottle neck) on greatly anticipating the first colour section. In no time at all we headed round a corner and saw the pink arch (and Jon!). We rushed in and started to cover each other with the pink powder…

Having enough pink on our t-shirts and ourselves we jogged on towards the blue section. Yellow came at 3km and the last colour section of orange came at 4km. 

By this point the sun was so hot that I think we were all fairly happy to be reaching the end. We sped up for the last kilometre and raced towards the finish line covered head to toe in a rainbow of colours. 

Crossing the finish line we could already see the post run festival. Each participant was given one last paint packet to use in a mass powder throwing session. The DJ counted down and suddenly the whole sky was filled with paint powder.

The event atmosphere was fantastic, everyone was so happy and there is something so fun about getting covered in brightly covered paint powder. I would definitely recommend it as a fun day out and, given the popularity of the first event in London, I’m sure it’ll be coming back in 2014. The Color Run is also taking place in Brighton, Belfast and Manchester over the next few months (more info can be found here). Book your place now!