Color Me Rad 5K Review

I did the Color Me Rad 5k in Downtown San Diego this morning. I had a great time but once was enough thank you.

 I decided to do this run because one of my friends wanted to run it, and I have always wanted to run with my friends. I was a little skeptical about the $50 dollar entrance fee for such a short race, but I understand that it is a novelty. Honestly it is a little steep for a non chipped timed race. Alex joked that I wouldn't be able to qualify for the Boston 5k. 

I didn't take the race very seriously. I am doing this a modest week after the Rock 'n' Roll marathon and I am in it just to have fun.

Packet Pickup

 I picked up my race packet at Road Runner Sports the day before. That was fun. They gave me a 10% off coupon and I totally went nuts, buying myself a new pair of shoes with custom inserts.The freebies included a blue shirt and a pair of horrible sunglasses. You can tell that you really aren't supposed to wear the shirt on race day because you are obviously supposed to wear white. The sunglasses were horrible because they kind of hurt your eyes to wear them. They fit the whole aesthetic of the run, but I couldn't tell if they were UV protected or anything. They were throw aways, but everyone diligently toted them along on race day and wore them for all the photos.

They also had a TON of race related swag for sale. I did not expect that. I mean it is great move on tier part because this is the audience that they have attracted. This is the first time I've seen people wear race shorts, socks, and bracelets in addition to the shirts. Imagine people doing that for the Carlsbad 5000. I can't.

Traffic/Parking

DO NOT PARK AT HORTON PLAZA. Their signs are all wrong if you are there before 9:30. It will cost you a pocketful to make this mistake. On that note, it wasn't nearly as bad as the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. Had I known that all the paid parking would be full, I would have taken the trolley. On that note, the traffic situation was the best I've ever seen for a downtown San Diego Event.

Start Line

The start and finish line is in tailgate park near Petco Park. Coincidentally, this was the finish line for the Rock 'n' Roll as well. There was a guy announcing that really grated my nerves. That isn't nice, I really shouldn't say that. The waves were orderly and since the course wasn't timed, there was nothing at stake. People walked across the finish line gingerly. That really stressed me out because I was hoping to RUN. I had to really dodge people. I had to walk myself then cut corners to get my race started.

The Course

Course Map from Color Me Rad website

The course was just okay. No scenery. There were no spectators. There were a few traffic guards who were very supportive. There was no paint for the first two miles. The last mile was very hard on the ankles because we kept on having to change direction. Again, this was exacerbated by the fact that a runner had to always pivot around the walkers who were ambling through the whole course. I would say only about 10% of the participants were running the whole time.

Also, it seemed that everyone there was looking for someone. I was also looking for my friends. People were either audibly wondering where people were, being happy when they finally met up with their friends, and stopping and waiting for their friends to catch up. As someone who did not yet find my friends, I felt very lonely.

You really had to work to get color bombed during the race. I ran through the first color station and realized that I was still spick and span. I walked through the second color station and noticed I was still wearing a white shirt. By the third color station I asked one of the volunteers to throw some of that corn starch at me. Mission accomplished. I wanted to run this 5k but I didn't want to miss the experience all together.

The Finish Line

There was a party at the finish line. Music was playing and people were legitimately dancing. I got in the spirit and danced too. The mood was infectious. The lines were long at the photo booth. Photo booths at regular races are vacant compared to this. They handed people individual sized packs of cornstarch paint and people were tossing them in the air and straight into their friends faces, laughing the whole time.

I can tell why there weren't many spectators. Its too much fun not to join in.

Conclusion

At the end, the annoying announcer asked who was a 5k first timer. A majority of the crowd raised thier hands. Thats amazing. The announcer said that no other 5k will compare, that other 5ks will time you and tell you didn't run as fast as you wanted. I have mixed feelings about that comment. On one hand, 5ks are about beginners trying thier hand at running and exploring recreational health and fitness. On the other hand, that can seem very stodgy compared to this early morning rave.

I see what they are getting at. Color Me Rad was just about having fun, it wasn't soley about running. The idea was that they run to have fun. The thing about that logic is people weren't running. People were surprised that they had to run. I overheard a couple of groups of people quickly calculating on the course itself how long it would take if they just walked. It would take an hour.

The long and short of it is that I had a great time. I did some light running, I saw my friends, we danced and felt really cool, ate breakfast, then I went home.That is the same as a regular 5k except I saw my friends and I danced. I don't know if I need to do this again, but I think it was definitely worth my time.