If someone had told me 5 years ago that I would run a 5K in my life time I would have told them they were insane. Running has always been something that was very hard for me. I never did sports as a kid and I shied away from activities that included running. I have short legs and was never in the best physical shape. About a year ago I decided I wanted to change it. I tried running outside and it was terrible. I felt ridiculous and embarrassed. My mom had a treadmill she wasn't using so I asked my dad if he could bring it up to me in Chicago. He did, and I tried running on that. I felt much more comfortable and did that on and off for about 6 months. I usually only ran a mile but that was huge progress for me.
In February I saw that registration for the color run was open for the St. Louis date. Its a fun run which means it is not timed and it welcomes both runners and walkers. I thought that maybe this was something I should try. I talked to my family and we got a team together and registered. Then it was time to get training. I wasn't really sure where to start so I just started running/walking for as long as I could on the tread mill. This was usually about 1.5- 2 miles. About a month before the race I got serious. I ran everyday. I would follow the pattern of 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 miles. I also started running outside so I could see the difference between that and the treadmill. Luckily the difference wasn't as extreme as I thought it would be. When I did my first 3.1 mile run outside I was so proud. I walked a fair amount of it but I did it. From there I tried to decrease the amount of time I walked and get my time down from the initial 43 minutes.
On the day of the race I started my morning with healthy breakfast. I then put on my clean white shirt, running parts, and my favorite Nike running shoes. Sadly the weather wasn't looking too good, but nothing was stopping us from doing this run. My mom, sister, two of my sister's friends, and I hopped in the car and headed to St. Louis.
When we arrived at the starting area the weather was about 50 degrees and rainy. They had many areas to take pictures as well as a stage featuring Zumba for a warm up. We took some pictures and jumped around a bit in efforts to stay warm.
Finally it was time to start the race. The course was basically a large rectangle with a color station set up at each kilometer. The color stations have music and people who spray colored cornstarch on you from what look like ketchup bottles. You can take your time and get lots of color or just run through. I ran the majority of the course but I did take my time through the color stations.
My sisters friend and I were the first people to finish from our team. I was pretty proud of myself as I ran waaay more of the race than I expected. Since it was raining I didn't want to use my phone to time myself, but I'm pretty confident that was my best time yet.
Overall I highly recommend the color run, especially for those of you that aren't runners. It is a great way to get out there and get active. Plus it is a ton of fun!
