Color Me Rad 2012

9 weeks ago a good friend of mine mentioned to me a 5K that she was interested in running called Color Me Rad. If you've never heard of it, it's a 3.12 mile run where everyone starts out wearing perfectly white shirts and throughout the race you pass through color stations where the "bomb squad" throws/shoots you with colored corn starch and water. By the end you're covered in color!  

Or as the website puts it "You'll start off with a shirt as pure and white as your grandpa's dentures and you'll soak up enough color while running to change your skin tone forever.  You'll wind up looking like a pack of skittles - just make sure not to "taste the rainbow."

So I decided to take on my very first 5K ever!  It's not timed so no pressure there, the benefits were to go to the Cal State Bakersfield Foundation and it sounded like a blast!  But of course it wouldn't be all that fun alone so seeing as my mom climbed Mt. Whitney with me a few years back she was my first obvious accomplice followed closely by my older sister, Nichole. Together we'd make it a fun Mother/Daughter run!  

  We signed up with the team name of "GOING THE DISTANCE" and set out to do just that. I immediately started the couch to 5K running program. I even ran over my time and did 3 full 5K's a week in order to get ready.  By the end of my training I had run over 70 miles and could run it in less than 30 minutes! It took lots of hard work, determination, encouragement and babysitting.  I couldn't have done any of it without the help of my very good friend, Bre who watched the kids every time I ran.  From the bottom of my heart I thank her.

Then came the day of the run.

Here's our Color Me Rad BEFORE picture.  Notice how perfectly white we are! 

Me, Nichole & Tammy (my mom)

 Waiting with the crowd at the starting line. We ran in the 3rd heap of the 8:20 time.

 Nichole and Mom at the starting line. Also notice the tutu behind them. There were lots of those.

Mom showing off her backwards running abilities. Have I mentioned she's awesome! :)

Meanwhile my dad and brother-in-law watched the kids at a park that was just along the route so they could watch, cheer us on, and even run with us a bit. A major highlight of my day was getting to run alongside my kids.

And we all made it across the finish line! 

Here's our Color Me Rad AFTER picture to prove it.

 Afterwards we took the color back to the park and color bombed all the kids.

 The kids all throwing color. I love the excitement in this picture!

Preston, my #2 child, looking as cute as ever. This boy is super photogenic!

Me with my 2 oldest, Evelyn & Preston. Evelyn's showing off our color packets.

My Dad, Mike, with 5 of his 7 grand kids. He was looking too clean afterwards so I did him a favor a gave him a nice big hug afterwards. He got me back pretty good with some water and gave my mom a big hug too. It was fun and sweet.

It was awesome and I LOVED every minute of it!  I would definitely do it again and might even consider letting the kids do it too. Thank you to everyone who supported and encouraged me during my training. Thanks for the numerous facebook "likes" and comments. Thank you so much Bre, my dad, and James for helping with the kids and most importantly thank you to my mom and sister for sharing this fun experience with me.  I'm looking forward to next years adventure... Half dome!