Colour Fun

I had my first Cadbury's Creme Egg of the year today.

This particular creme egg was included in the goodie bag for a Colour Run organised by one of the sixth formers at my children's school to raise money for the charity Sarcoma UK. I waited until after I completed the run before indulging in the sweet chocolatey goodness and I did enjoy it - everything tastes better when you feel that you have earned it.

The race was two laps of a course through the school grounds (about 5K in total) and included colour stations with teenagers pelting runners with a range of colourful powders as well as a wet, soapy, long sheet of plastic for sliding on.

I was running with two of my grown up daughters, my future son in law and my little ones: Addy (7 years) and Dylan (5 years).

I fully expected to have to stop after one lap because 5K is a long way for little legs. However, such was the excitement about turning clean white T shirts into a multicoloured mess (not to mention skin and hair) that they both happily opted to complete both laps. Dylan, who is a big fan of the TV show Power Rangers, declared himself to be a "Rainbow Ranger".

One of my daughters took a rather unfortunate hit of bright red powder right to the face. It was in her eyes and mouth and and did require a good rinsing with a water bottle I had taken with me to stay hydrated. I'd had quite a lot of wine the previous evening and thought it wise to have some water to hand. I'm glad that I did.

We did our best with the slide but I don't think any one of us quite had the technique despite some sterling efforts.

We had a wonderful time.

Our Color Transformation

Last weekend, my husband and I joined 6000 other people in pure white Tshirts to take part in a Color Run event in Brighton. The basic idea of the event is to run a 5K course and have paint thrown at you. The more serious side is that it is in partnership with the Stand Up to Cancer Charity - a cause close to my heart since losing my sister to cancer 18years ago.

We started the morning with a cup of coffee (and a big hug) at my father-in-law's house, then headed down to the seafront. 

My husband knows Brighton well having grown up there and his dad had some advice about the route to take and where to park. We arrived in good time and joined in the warm up. Any melancholy that had been affecting me thinking about my sister and the more recent tragedy in the family was relieved by the sight of my husband trying to master the zumba style exercise routine. 

There was a wonderful party atmosphere and it was an amazing feeling to be running with such a huge group of people. The real fun started when we reached the first Color station. There were four Color stations along the course. At each, a different vibrantly hued powdered Color was liberally sprinkled, squirted, thrown and generally 'applied' in explosive plumes. It was a glorious sight. And messy. Very colourfully messy!

It was the easiest 5K I've ever run. We stopped for photographs along the way. Everything slowed down at the Color stations. There was a huge amount of joviality and the camaraderie of sharing a common experience. I loved it.

Our Color Transformation was all over too quickly but the party went on as finishers were given sachets of the Color to create their own chaotic rainbow clouds.

I will definitely be back again next year to do it all over again.