My friend Jane and I participated in the Color Me Rad 5K. Our plan was to drive up Friday night, get our packets, stay at a hotel, wake up early and do the race. We expected race obstacles, but not road obstacles! We started our journey right after work on Friday and about half way there hit traffic that had us moving at a turtle’s pace. The packet pick up location was closing at 7 p.m. We made it there at 7:15 p.m. and the crew was packing up, but they kindly allowed us to check-in and get our bag of goodies. We grabbed some dinner and then headed to the hotel. It was in a shady area, but we were tired and ready for a good night’s sleep. When we entered our room we were horrified … it was dirty, smelled and there were mystery stains all over everything — the counters, dressers and bed. Super gross! We bolted out of there and made calls from the car to find another hotel, which turned out to be a nice place. We woke up excited for the race and headed out. A half mile in we discovered the ramp to the highway was closed. We tried to use GPS to go another way, but it kept taking us in circles. We started to stress then noticed a cop car in a parking lot, so we stopped to ask him for alternate directions. He put us back on track and told us the ramp/highway was shut down due to a fatality. We drove on, arriving at the race 10 minutes after the last wave time. No time to waste, we took a quick before photo and then hit the trail running — miraculously catching up and surpassing some participants. Along the route there were five stations where we got pelted with different “color cannons” in purple, yellow, pink, blue, and orange. We started out as blank canvases, but at the end we looked like walking pieces of abstract art. I’ve wanted to participate in this run for years. I’m happy I finally did it because despite the road blocks getting there, it was a BLAST!

(Side Note: The proceeds from the Color Me Rad race go to a different charity in each city where the race is held. The charity recipient of our race was Special Olympics Maryland, Prince George’s County.)