Yesterday Little Chick and I participated in our first color event! We did a Color Dash which is different than some of the other events in that 50% of the proceeds go towards a local charity. For this event, the recipient was a local facility for adults with disabilities.
I’ve wanted to do a walk/run event with Little Chick for a while because I know she loves to run – although I know she has trouble pacing herself for long distances (much like I was as a child).
Still, I thought she might be able to handle mostly walking the 5K if there were fun colors along the way. Well, the walk went about as I imagined. She thought it was too long for her little legs. I ended up carrying her 4 times, but each time wasn’t for long. I’d tell her I’d carry her to the next color station and then she had to get down so we could get more color.
It was a beautiful day for walking, although I would have liked it cooler. We had sunshine (I’m sporting a bit of a red face today) and 80°F temps. Eventually we had a nice breeze to help keep the sweat away, but that also meant it blew away the color on our shirts (it’s just colored cornstarch).
I learned a few things on our walk to remember if we ever do it again. Things like:
- If it’s more than an hour or two between breakfast and the race, eat at a little something more before you start (especially true for certain bottomless pits who seem to be hungry eat every hour!)
- Bring your own water! They only had one water station at the half-way point and they were running out. We definitely could have used more.
- Blue seemed to be the best color for sticking around – as you can see on our hands (someone may also have a permanently blue-color bra now too … just how did all that powder get down my shirt anyhow?!)
- When all else fails, bribery for a lunch at a favorite local hamburger place is a good motivator for young people 🙂
I’m also now convinced that my daughter is an Extroverted Introvert. The big celebration that went on at the start/finish line was more than a little overwhelming to her. I was afraid she might want to go home before the walk even started! Afterwards she wanted to leave right away but I made her stick around to at least see the big color explosion they do at the end, even though we stayed back away from the craziness.
Overall, we had a fun, tiring, hot (for October) day – but it was well worth it. I’m trying some experiments to see if I can get the color to stick on our shirts so I’ll try and remember to post an update if they worked (or not).