Color Run Hershey

Today I got my butt up early and headed off to Hershey, PA to run The Color Run. There were two days for packet pick-up, but they were Thursday and Friday from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. For me, that didn't work. I worked both days, so I couldn't get to Hershey by 6:00 p.m.

I was up at 5:30 a.m. so I could get to Hershey to get my bib and such before the race. We got there and had no idea where to go. It was very confusing. We walked past the Giant Center and kept going. Finally a staff person asked if we needed check-in and directed us. We walked through another parking lot, then had to wait for traffic to allow us to cross the road.

We crossed and walked more because we had no idea where we were going. There were no real signs, but tons of people. We finally caught sight of a check-in table and got in line. Unlike most races, they do not assign their bib numbers ahead of time. They confirmed we were registered and just grabbed the next bib on the pile. We were then directed to the next area where we got our bag, shirt, headband, bracelet, and a couple temporary tattoos. Before heading back to the car to drop the stuff off, I hit the port-a-potty. I'll give them this, there were a TON of them. I didn't have to wait at all to use one.

We recrossed the parking lots to the car. I changed shirts and put on the bracelet and headband. We then went back across the parking to the start line. But, at this point there were tons of cars coming through, so they kept stopping runners from getting to the start. We made it across the street in time for the National Anthem. I realized I had no before photo, so I ran back to hubby to get one. He had signed up to run this, but couldn't due to his surgery.

From here, I went to the starting chutes. They were insane! I wanted to catch up with my friend Marci, who I ran the last 4 miles of The Love Run with, but there was no way we could find each other. I made my way into the line and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. The waves were awful. I figured out why after I started, they had to let people cross the street to get to the race, hence why the waves were so slow getting started.

I finally got moving, ran by hubby, and went off. We ran around the parking lot of the Giant Center, then went off-road. I had no idea this race was going to be mostly trail running. If I had known I would have worn my trail shoes.

At this point, my ankle hurt, but I just wanted to be done. I honestly had no desire to run this particular race. I signed up because a friend wanted to do it. You'll notice throughout all of this I speak of me running alone. I ran alone because he did not go to the race and never told me he wasn't going. Needless to say, I was upset and just wanted this over.

The first color up was yellow. It was pretty soon after we went off road. It was crazy! We ran through the color and wow, it gets everywhere! I was pretty good about keeping my mouth shut in the hopes of not getting it on my teeth or swallowing too much of it. Once through the yellow, we went a bit uphill.

It was a bit before we hit the next color. I believe the water stop was next. Which I was happy to get to because apparently I wasn't as good keeping that yellow corn starch out of my mouth because I just kept coughing! I grabbed my cup, drank some, then used water to get what I could out of my mouth. It was about then I heard my name called. I turned around and it was a co-worker! How odd is that?!?

So, from there on out we walked the race together, talking about all sorts of stuff, and getting colored. It really made a big difference in the race. It made it a ton more enjoyable and having someone to walk with made the time fly by! We got through the blue and pink stations, then we came up to the purple one. We knew we were just about to the finish because you see the purple station as you head onto the trail.

Purple was insane! People were coming out of that literally covered in all purple. It was so bad I actually walked behind the people throwing color because I couldn't breath it in anymore! We got through purple, came up to the area where we started and got nailed by green. LOL! At this point, we thought we were done and started looking for people we knew. Uhhhh...nope. We still had a bit to go.

As I came to the finish line, hubby was on the sidelines. It was good to see him. I finished, grabbed my color packet and water, then went looking for him. Unfortunately, he left the area I saw him and it took about 15 minutes to find him. The problem? We all look the same after the race! I got some photos and then got blown off by the leaf blowers.

Have you run a Color Run? Have you run a fun run? Do you like them or do you like timed races more?
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