So this was the first time I ran an officially organized 5K, not just running on my own. Let me tell you when I first signed up for this run after the suggestion from my sister and seeing her post about her run in Atlanta, I was so excited. Flash forward almost three months later to the Friday morning before the race, I got nervous. I had been training for this run but definitely not as serious as I was hoping to. After what seemed like a crazy summer the day was finally here.
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| Pre-Race/Color |
After celebrating NYCSSC's birthday Saturday afternoon/evening, all I wanted to do was get my stuff and sleep at Ann Marie's house. Although I did not sleep as well as I hoped, I was excited for the race. Waking up a little too early (3am) I tried to go back to sleep until we were suppose to get up and leave around 6am. Kerri, Ann Marie and I made our way to grab a quick breakfast and head out to Aviator Sports Complex near the Far Rockaways in Brooklyn. Note: wish the race was a bit closer to Manhattan but with all the color and clean up involved and after seeing the location they choose, it just made sense. The run was located in the middle of a National Recreation Area which I thought would be a bit more dirt roads/greenery. Turned out we were running on blacktop which actually helped me out a bit more since that is what I am used to running on. Beautiful building in the background and greenery on either side made it for a nice run although a bit warm when the sun poked through towards the end.
Parked, decked out in our Color Run shirts, headbands, temporary tattoos and fanny packs, we proceeded to the starting area. After a few pre-race pictures, getting sunglasses and dropping off our bag, we walked over to the starting area. I'd rather call this a corral because that's how it made me feel lol. We lucked out and ended up being at the front of group 6 to let into the run. There were so many people, I think they ended up letting off at least 12 different groups. Music going and hearts pumping, we took off.
Zone 1: yellow. Awesome color throwers although you had to pace yourself to run by to get enough color on you.
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| Yellow |
Zone 2: orange. Definitely better by this point as people started to pace themselves, walk or run ahead. By this point Kerri, Ann Marie and I had a jog going and would go just slow enough to get covered in orange, although not the best.
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| Orange |
Zone 3: blue. After a quick stop at the water station, we made it our point to attempt to walk though the blue zone as to get as much color on us without getting run into/yelled at for walking. I'd say it was a success and probably the most color zone.
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| If you couldn't tell it's blue |
Zone 4: pink. Last zone and definitely the easiest to get through between all the people. We even double backed to get splashed with more pink and parts of yellow as the yellow zone was near the pink zone. See the map of the race in last Monday's post. With satisfaction of the race, we ran through the finish line and stopped for finish line photos. We did it!
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| I finished! |
All in all was an amazing time with friends, color and for being my first 5K not bad time although it wasn't officially recorded because I was having too much fun. Once we got blown clean by lawn blowers after an hour in the midst of the color festival with DJ's, free color packets to throw and just a blast dancing, it was time to see the color-ific damage that was done. With a bit of a detour home through parts of Brooklyn I've never seen, the three of us heading to get a much needed brunch and laugh/talk about what an amazing time we had and the goals for next years' run. Here's to next year New York!
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