Tonight, I did my second night run in Denver, the Neon Splash Dash 5k.
This was one of the first times I’ve done a run like this and didn’t pick up my packet in advance, the pickup hours were 9am-2pm in downtown Denver, not sure what the deal was, some of us have to work, a evident by the long, long, long line to get our packets.
The only rule…you have to wear white, all white, which I followed along with a bunch of people, to the letter, but of course, there we those who were doing their own thing. There were a lot of tutus, a bunch of neon, but overwhelmingly…white white and more white! There were even people n white plastic suits, with hoods! There were participants of all ages, it was cute to see the kids in strollers and on bicycles with training wheels.
My own outfit, since this is my blog: white long sleeve t, white skirt (that I had worn for the color run, which was still white), a white baseball cap and my XX-Hi Chuck Taylor’s (if my smart feet didn’t fit, I would have been in a lot of pain after the run!), I looked fabulous, of course! Oh man, I should have gotten some angel wings!
CKM, you were very much missed at this one, you would have loved it! My Atlanta race friends, do this, it was a blast!
There was a huge storm earlier in the day, even while waiting to leave the apartment, BIG bah-da-boom thunderclap! On the way to the run, rain, thunder, lightening and rainbows. They said the rainbows were a good sign! All the pretty colors and we were going to shine like that!
They decided to delay the start of the race because of the rain and people getting their packets. We started the run about 8:30. After the run, I looked at my watch, it was only about 2.65, not sure what happened to the 3.1 miles!
We were off! It was a lot of fun! It was very relaxed, some runners, a lot of walkers. I saw a bunch of Color Run tshirts and some of the blinky (yes, I said blinky!) things we got at the Firefly Run. Needless to say, there were a lot of blinking lights everywhere. There was music piped in throughout the run, I didn’t hear a lot of it, I had my headphones on (you know, so I can’t hear myself panting!)
Every half mile, you went through some inflated light up balloons, they looked like curved dragon teeth, very cool. After the colored lights, which indicated the color of neon paint you were about to get hit with, reminiscent of the color run. As you went by the black lights, you were sprayed with watered down colored paint (blue, then yellow, then green, then pink).
Just so you know, no matter how much they water down the paint, it still doesn’t taste good! You learn quickly to keep your eyes and mouth closed, I forgot to hold my nose too! Luckily, I had my headphones in, protected my ears from a lot more paint! (I ended up getting some clear glasses, which would have been a good thing when going through the paint spray. I’m going to use them in the convertible, when the top is down at night.)
At the finish line, I started looking for DCM, we’ve missed even other once or twice, but there he was. I found him first, it was dark and there were a lot of us! And even though we were wearing white, we were all covered head to toe in neon paint. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t want to hug me!
We walked back to the truck and it’s a good thing I brought a change of clothes, DCM said I would have had to ride back in the bed of the truck! Nah! But who wants to take a chance and find out? After I changed, I realized there was paint in my hair, ears, on my face and even my eyelashes!
My clothes are drying, might wear these for every one of these races! I need a backlight, anyone have one?
Peaches Prattlings 