This past Saturday I got to participate in my first colour run!! Well walk actually, as I’ve got a pulled muscle in my back I didn’t dare run. The race was at Martock – so not actually in Halifax at all, which was great for us since it meant we had a shorter drive Saturday morning.
A bunch of my peeps had signed up to do it too so Friday afternoon Lisa and I went to Martock to pick up a few race kits – 18 in all!
oh and a case of Red Bull, obviously 😉 I’ve actually neve had Red Bull, but they were giving it out and gave me an entire case since I had so many kits!
and then of course we had to check out the store
new headband? don’t mind if I do :p
I was pretty excited about this run, I had made a new white tutu, bought some fancy over the knee socks and was ready to get coloured!
We headed out early Saturday morning so we would be sure to get a parking spot in the Martock parking lot and not the over flow parking lot (where you had to be bused to the site). When I picked up race kits I had also bought 7 parking permits thinking that meant we were sure to have parking at the parking lot.
Apparently not.
Friends in front of us got to go to the Martock lot, we got diverted to the overflow even though we knew the Martock lot wasn’t full and we already had a parking permit. Then to add insult to injury, Lisa who was probably 15 minutes behind us got sent up to the Martock parking lot no questions asked. What the heck? What was the point of pre-purchasing our parking permit if we were going to be treated like everyone else that DIDN’T have one?
We were fowl.
Here is Claire and I looking sad on the bus.
But go figure, once we got there and had some coloured powder thrown on us we cheered up 😀
before:
They were suppose to let 500 people at a time start but I think it was more like 100-200. We waited a good 35 minutes before we actually got to start. Here are the people behind us still waiting to go (meanwhile we had more friends still down on the road waiting to get parked and bused up!)
Before we knew it, it was over! Even walking it seemed pretty short, I heard someone say their tracker said it was only 3.3k and I believe it! BUt it was 3.3K of colourful fun!
We grabbed the next bus back to the car and arrived around 11am, and there were STILL people waiting to get bused over! They had planned for 10:30 to be the very last wave of runners/walkers. Clearly that didn’t happen.
A before and after side by side
I registered the day registration opened and had a coupon code so I only paid like $18 for the race. Had I paid full price I would have been really annoyed. If they return next year I hope they make a few changes like
1) People who pre-purchase parking permits get first dibs at the on-site parking
2) They get people to sign up in waves (like Mud Hero) so everyone (like 7000 people) aren’t all trying to get to a certain place for a certain time. It was a bit crazy, and Mud Hero seemed to run much more smoothly in that regard.
I did really enjoy it though, and was super bummed when my skin and hair didn’t get tinted even for a day! I showered when I got home and it all came right out! I’m sure most people would be glad for that, but I sorta liked my bright pink arm 😉
It was a fun event that’s for sure. I was really disappointed in the parking too, you would think if you prepaid for a pass you’d get to park AT Martock. I was also surprised when we got to the end…it did not feel like a 5k and I had it in my head that was the distance we were running.
However, I would do it again.
I would do it again too! I just hope they have better plans for the parking next time
Run or Dye was awsome, I took my too teenaged daughters and some of there friends and we had a blast. The run did seem a little short but if you stayed until the end you got more of a work out at the main stage then the run. Can’t wait for next years run.
It was fun! And I bet it would be super fun to do with your kids & their friends!!
I was just a bit miffed over the parking debacle since I was specifically told that with the pre-purchased parking permit I’d get to park on the hill. :/