Hello!
I'm going to re-post my post I did recently on The Color Run. It was my first color fun run. I learned a ton. I'll be posting in a few days about another fun run I did this last weekend and compare the two. Visit
my craft blog for more information and projects. :)
Hello There!
I
joined thousands of fellow Iowans yesterday to run "The Color Run" in
downtown Des Moines. I did the Couch to 5K program earlier this year,
and this was my second 5K. I couldn't find a number for attendance this
year (2013) but last year (2012) it was around 30,000 thousand people,
and I don't think it got any less popular!
I
do have some hints based off my experience, but let's first talk about
the important thing, how do you keep the color on your shirt??
The
various websites for The Color Run (and other copycat races) say you
should soak your shirt in vinger, iron it (to set the color) and
then.....????. Most websites get pretty vague at this point. I read some
other blogs, and no one seemed to have an exact example of a way to
preserve color. I am lucky because I'm running another color race in two
weeks (Run or Dye in Rapid City, SD). I hadn't planned on doing two but
my high school friends were going to do it the weekend of our reunion,
so I joined in. I will probably walk that one just to enjoy the company
of people I don't get to see often. Anyways, now I two opportunities to
get this color keeping thing right.
This was me "before" the race:
This was me "after" the race (before the color cloud):
This was after the color cloud:
As you can see, you get more color in the color cloud.
So,
when I got home, I sprayed the shirt with vinegar. I didn't soak it. I
thought if I sprayed it on, it wouldn't smear. It was just as saturated
as it would be if you soaked it, but I think laying it flat kept the
colors from running together into a ugly brown.
Then I went to work ironing it. Beware. It stinks to high heaven. I opened two windows and worked quickly.
(Side note, you can kinda see that I modified the shirt sleeves to be a girl fit. See my hints below)
So,
I decided that I wanted to ensure that my shirt had color. I had some
spray fabric paint. I decided to do a couple of drops/sprays on the
shirt to make sure I had some color.
So
now I've done the two steps The Color Run suggests. I have no idea
where to go with it now. Line dry? Wash? Dryer. I decided that since the
iron "set the color" I would put it in the dryer. I put it in the dryer
with a old towel with the theory that it would absorb excess color (not
sure if that worked, but I haven't seen any color in my dryer.).
Color
is still good. I decided now it was a good time to wash it. I did a
very very small amount of detergent and washed on cold.
Uh Oh. Most of my color was gone. ARGH.
Thankfully I added some color so it's not completely white. Some of the blue stayed and a spot of orange and yellow.
So I'll try something different in my next race (maybe doing the 'soaking' that is suggested rather than spraying)
Observations and Hints for The Color Run.
1)
I was told that there would be so many people that I wouldn't be able
to run the entire thing. I would be stuck behind people walking or
running slower than me (although I'm pretty sure that's not possible). I
was pleasantly surprised. First of all, the majority of people walk it
(at least in my wave they did). If you stay to the outside, you
generally don't have to stop at all for walkers. Plus, you want to be on
the outside to get some color! I walked through the color zones because
what's the point of the race if you don't get some color! Plus you want
to make sure
2)
How do you get the most color? That probably is the most popular
question. I did some research prior to the race. First, you will see
some water being sprayed down from the arch when you first walk through
the arch. Don't hustle through it. The water doushing helps the color
stick to you. Move slowly through the color zones on the edges. If you
can, you may think about alternating what side you are on. Don't forget
to turn your back to the color sprayers every once in a while. Some
people did "color angels" right after the color zone. If you don't mind
laying in the street, you can get some extra color that way. And the
most important part of all....go to the color cloud after the race!!!!
Not only is it really fun and cool to experience, you'll be covered in
color!
3)
It might be worth it to have a bandana or mask to cover your face. I
don't usually have problems with smells or textures. However, it was
pretty intense...especially during the color cloud. I can see why people
do it.
4)
Bring a change of clothes, a garbage bag and something to cover the car
seats. I didn't because I have leather seats...I thought it would clean
easy. It did come off, but I had to use a ton of wipes to get it clean.
It would have been so much easier if I would have just covered the
seats in the first place!
5)
You will have to wait if you aren't waiting in line early. So this is
what you can choose between. Either you join in the pre-party (there was
some 'warm-up' Zumba at ours) and have fun that way. Or you can stand
in line so you're one of the first waves. I had a ton of fun at the
warm-up Zumba. So we weren't in line early and ended up waiting an hour
for our wave to start. That kinda sucked. But, I think if i had the
choice to do it again, I would still do the warm-up. It was fun to spend
that time dancing.
6)
We got to the race about an hour early. We got a close parking spot,
and we easily got out of town too. It was nice change from most large
events!
7)
We did the 9 am start time instead of the 1 pm. It was crowded, but by
the time we finished at noon, it was already getting warm. We were super
lucky because it was a cool day to start out with!
8)
You know all those cool Color Run pictures? If you do a little
research, you would realize that purple is the magic color.
Unfortunately, it's not a color zone. So if you can trade someone for
that color (it does appear in some people's race packets), you might
want to use it on yourself (and friends). Someone pointed out on the
blog that orange doesn't tend to mix well with other colors (it tends to
create brown). So you might want to avoid orange (or just get a little
dusting). Blue and Green seem to have the most saying power. Green is
also not available as a color zone.
9)
The Color Run is fun with friends! Who else is going to take a picture
of you feeling up the unicorn? Not that anyone did that...
10)
If your friends don't bring their phones (and if you do, you will
probably want to use a sleeve or a plastic sandwich bag), you will want
to plan a place to meet up. Not only is there a ton of people, but at
the end of the race everyone looks the same.
11)
It's totally family friendly. I saw tons and tons of families doing the
race. Two great ideas if you have kiddos that are too little be
colored. 1) Use one of those convertible bike trailer/strollers. They
have a plastic cover that can fold down, and 2) If you cover the
stroller, use a white muslin blanket soaking in water. It will keep the
dye from getting in the stroller, and it will great a cool dyed blanket!
(alas, it might not stay that way).
12. The shirt is a unisex shirt, so it's not a woman's cut. I used
this tutorial
and made my sleeves a girl fit. The material of the shirt is pretty
soft, so it didn't sew well. I ended up having to use a bit of tissue
paper to sew through the shirt without skipping stitches.
That's
all I can think of right now, but I'll post other things if I remember
them! :) Hopefully there will be some cool pictures from the event I can
share with you once they upload the official pictures.
