I've never done a Colour Run before and to be honest, it wasn't something that I wanted to do in the past, however this year I signed up to help my younger sister, Laura, who is on a mission to get fitter.
I arrived at the beautifully scenic Danson Park, walked alongside the famous boating lake, past the boathouse and along by the gorgeous Danson House. I was following the sounds and music playing from the registration tent and was met by a lot of people, excitedly chatting about what the race had in store. A very talented young lady was singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables on a makeshift stage. Not exactly Heroes by Bowie or Keep on Running but a very good performance nevertheless.
Registration was easy and seemless, dropped off my number in the box, picked up my Ray Bain quality, complementary green framed shades and made my way to the start line with my very nervous sister, who too was rocking these sunglasses, but the red variant and had also bought a colour run tshirt. "I'm being charitable innit? Wanted to get one as a souvenir." In reality, she didn't have time to get down to Asda or Primani for a white tshirt.
We were in the jogging section, sandwiched between the runners on our right and the walkers on our left. "I need a wee!" Screamed Laura as we were about to start. I pointed at the mile long queue at the portaloos and politely replied "no you don't. If you want to go to the loo, run faster so we're back here quicker and the queue would have gone down."
The runners went first and was showered by paint as they went. Then it was us. 3......2......1..... GO! Laura and I both started gently jogging and then BANG! Right in the chest a big handful of blue and red paint. I genuinely couldn't see a thing. The cloud all the powdered paint made was so dense that I had no idea what direction I was running in. I managed to make my way out of the cloud where I could see Laura jogging at a really good pace. The plan was to walk for two minutes, jog for two minutes and then repeat that over the course of the 5k. However, they must have put something in that paint, or Laura must have really needed a wee as she was running for a good 5 minutes at least. The pace was steady and we only started to slow down where we got to a purple arch of balloons and then BANG! Another whack from more paint and temporary blindness. This race was great fun and I was enjoying every minute of it.
We kept walking and running back around the boating lake and being pelted with different paints before we got back to the start line which also served as the half way mark. By this time, Laura was struggling but was still doing her best to finish the race well. "Don't worry, just through halfway. Just over a mile and a half left to go" I said, trying to be encouraging. "A mile and a half?!?!" Laura replied, before continuing to talk and shout with language that was turning the air bluer than the powdered paint we had just run through.
The second lap was as the first lap was, beautiful scenery that was interrupted by the occasional BANG from a handful of powdered paint. Laura really needed to dig deep, was starting to get a tight chest due to her astmha and also her muscles in her legs were staring to seize up. We looped back around the far end of Danson Park, high fived, cheered and hugged the excellent marshals who happily joined in and made our way back up towards the finish line. "Please let me beat you?" Laura asked. "Go on then, you've deserved it" I said and as she approached the finish line we got a big cheer and the final BANG from seemingly dozens of people who had jugs full of paint to throw at us.
She had done it! A distance that was three times the length of the one she did in 2014 (Westminster Mile) and brilliantly she had run most of it. "That was bloody hard, but I reckon I'd give it another go or do something like that again" she said, as we tucked into cheese and tomato toasties and other bits from the huge food tent that was provided by the Greenwich and Bexley Hospice. Fantine from Les Miserables was replaced by a live band who were rocking and this little 5k around a boating lake had turned into a wonderful day out for the whole family.
Conclusion: nice day, nice race. Not to be taken too seriously - more to turn up and enjoy; and do you know what? Everybody there did.