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Well, That’s One Way To Embrace Color

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July 25, 2012

Feel free to file this under “a small house-related project that we did while enjoying a little – well it was actually pretty big – local event.” You already know Sherry and I are trying to embrace color more in this house, but this weekend I might have taken things a bit too far…

That’s my “after” Instagram photo following a 5K race that my younger sister and I did this weekend called Color Me Rad. I’m not sure what maniacal genius came up with the concept, but it was awesome. Basically you and your white t-shirt run 3.1 miles while people periodically douse you in technicolor cornstarch. They’re being held all over the country (along with a similar even called The Color Run) and it was – well, I’ll let our matching temporary tattoos explain:

Here’s my sister Carrie and I before the race. So clean. So naive.

Sherry was on cheering/Clara duty, but decided to get in on the action in her own colorful way. She grabbed a blank canvas and brought it along in the hopes of capturing a little abstract art while she spectated.

And just so you believe that she was actually there (we realized that when she carries the camera she’s never in photos), here’s a shot of us meeting a blog reader named Katherine, who was kind enough to snap this photo and share it with us on Facebook. Sherry wants me to note that she’s not too cool for school in her shades, she’s just a weirdo who didn’t realize that it wasn’t that sunny – and only later looked at this picture and blushed for wearing them before the sun started pounding down on us…

… which eventually did happen around 9am. And despite it being pretty early in the morning, the place felt like Mardi Gras. Well, except instead of beads it was packets of cornstarch being thrown around. Before we even left the start line our shirts (and faces) were already sporting some color.

Oh yeah, and those sunglasses were part of the race packet we got when we registered. You know, so we can all look more like a weird band of brothers (and sisters) running through colored powder. Ok, they were really to help keep said powder out of our eyes.

Fun fact: the guy in green shorts below is the guy at The Tile Shop who sold us our kitchen penny tile. He’s also the person that doused my stomach in orange before the start. I guess I should be glad it wasn’t grout or something.

Here we are actually coming in for our big finish… and getting sprayed with a packet of yellow powder that my dad tossed at us.

And here we are learning our lesson to keep our mouths closed.

Carrie and I actually remained pretty clean (relatively speaking) up to this point. Lots of people were practically rolling in powder by the end (we saw one guy literally rolling in it at one checkpoint). But the cleanliness all changed right after Sherry snapped the photo above. Because that’s when we ran through the finish line. The photo below isn’t mine, it’s my friend Lauren’s (thanks Lauren!) but it perfectly captures what finishing the race felt like.

Which is why we ended the race looking like this. Well, this is after we rinsed it out of our teeth.

Despite the complete and utter mess-fest that was the racecourse, Sherry and Clara managed to stay pretty darn clean. Clara’s stroller did get doused with a dusting of orange, but that’s about it.

Well, that and there were a few cookie crumbs on her face – though we can’t blame the race for that (it was all my mom, showing up at 9am with fresh baked cookies). Although if there were a race where they threw cookies at you, I’d totally be game.

And since Sherry’s canvas also stayed pretty clean, we took matters into her own hands (and by matters I mean powder on the ground) and pelted it with all the colors we could find. Not exactly a masterpiece, but making it was pretty fun.

We actually preferred the look of it more once Sherry shook some of the excess powder off of it.

Then it started to rain a bit on our way back to the car, so some of the lighter colors washed off the canvas. And by the time we got home and hung it up it was looking completely different once again.

Overall we thought it was a fun little project with a cool story behind it. We’ll need to seal it with some sort of sealant spray to keep it for the long run, so we’ll share that update if and when we get ‘er done.

Actually, if there were any keepsake from the day that was truly representative of the madness (radness?), it’d be my shirt.

I mean, wouldn’t this look pretty cool behind a frame? Sherry insisted on snapping this photo because if nothing else we could get this printed and frame it to remember the whole color-riffic morning.

And I’m so glad she took that photo because between the light rain on our way out and me taking it off before sitting in the car, the nice speckled pattern started to turn into more of a streaky blob. And that blobbiness was only made worse when I attempted to preserve the color using Color Me Rad’s suggestion: soak in vinegar and then iron (since normal washing and drying would  supposedly remove, rather than seal in the color). By the end of it all, the shirt was looking more like this:

Still colorful? Yes. But it’s looking more like a poor tie-dye attempt, which isn’t really the look we’re going for around here (blacklight anyone?). So I’ll probably hang on to the shirt as a spare work shirt, but don’t expect to see it in a frame anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean some of our photos won’t make it behind frames. Like this one perhaps…

Or maybe this one of the villainous variety. This is the shot that Sherry took after telling me it looked like I had a mustache.

I was totally channeling Littlefinger from Game of Thrones.

Anyone else do a Color Me Rad or Color Run in their town? Or have one on the calendar still to come? Or perhaps you’ve participated in some other crazy event like this? We’re always looking for rad new things to do so please share! Update: Since folks have been asking how I started running, how I train, what races I do, and all of that stuff I’m planning a running post about that sometime soon (sure we like to stick to home stuff, but every once in a while we go off the beaten path like: DIY haircuts? check. the best spam comment ever? check. a weird dream Sherry had? check.)

Psst- Who watched the Design Star finale? Did you think the right person won? Are you going to watch their show? Did you love Hilari as much as we did? Any and all TV thoughts are welcome (you know we love to park it on the couch and watch other people paint/decorate while we sit on our buns and blog the night away).

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