ST. GEORGE – Southern Utah runners are prepping to be hit with a tsunami of color on November 10, 2012 as they take on Color Me Rad 5K. As white-clad participants wind through Old St. George Airport, they’ll be bombarded with color throughout the course until their face, shirt and body cross the finish line looking like a silkscreened tie-dyed hippie. Finishers, coated from head to toe in blue, green, pink, purple and yellow, will then toss individual bags of color in the air every fifteen minutes — not to summon rain from heaven — but to create a final explosion of color in celebration of their accomplishment.
As race organizer Scott Crandall said, “You’ll start off with a shirt as pure and white as your grandpa’s dentures and you’ll wind up looking like a pack of Skittles.”
The color dust dowsing each participant is made of Food and Drug Administration-approved colored cornstarch, and they use almost 5,000 pounds of it for each race.
The St. George race is the 31st stop on Color Me Rad’s nationwide tour, which was created by four friends who wanted to make colored tears of joy run down the faces of the masses.
“We just want to brighten your day, your life … but probably not your teeth,” Crandall said. “We also hope to get a lot of people involved in fitness who maybe otherwise wouldn’t come out for your typical 5K. If you make it about fun instead of about shin splints, you’re more likely to want to give running a shot.”
A portion of the proceeds of the race goes to Habitat for Humanity of Southwest Utah. “There’s only one thing we like more than throwing color at people, and that’s throwing our support behind great charities. Long after you’ve washed the last bit of color out of your ears, your donations will be making a difference in your community,” Crandall said.
Waves of 1,000 people will take off every five minutes beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, November 10, 2012. Participants of all ages are welcome to run or walk. Registration is available at colormerad.com.
Color Me Rad™ holds races across the U.S. and Canada in more than 40 cities. For more information on this event and to see additional race locations, visit www.colormerad.com or check out what fans have to share on Facebook at www.facebook.com/colormerad.
Now this looks way funner than the Ironman or Marathon!