#happiest5k

Ever since my niece, Allie, heard about The Color Run, she wanted to do it.  Like, really wanted to do it.  

So of course when I found out it was coming to KC, I did what any good aunt would do and signed us up for it.  AND Brody.  He had to do it to.  

Well, that was months ago.  Before I even scheduled my foot surgery.  As Saturday, May 31st got closer and closer, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to run it.  Or even walk it, for that matter.

Plan B:  talk my brother in to running it with Brody instead.  (Allie invited a friend of hers to do it with her.)

Sound easy enough.  I mean it's the #happiest5k.  Who wouldn't want to be part of that!?  

My brother wouldn't.  That's who.  He is NOT a runner.  Or an early riser on Saturdays --unless it's for hunting.  

But after some serious begging conversations, he reluctantly said he would do it in my place.  (But I get the t-shirt!  Why else do you do 5k's if not for the t-shirt!?)

So I drove all the way out to Arrowhead Stadium on my lunch break to pick up all of our stuff the day before the race.  Allie is a planner to the max and I knew she would freak out if she didn't have her complete outfit laid out the night before...

Checking in at Arrowhead

Bright and early Saturday morning (my alarm went off earlier Saturday than it did during the week for work), I drove out to their house to round every one up.  Hunter was in the mix now, too, so it was a full load.

While we were all getting ready and tattooed up, Brody got the idea that a HAPPY tattoo on my neck would be a good idea.  

Not so sure about that?

crooked neck tattoo + bed hair = classy

There was some confusion and down time when we got there and tried to meet up with Allie's friend.  Turns out there are lots of gates to the parking lot...and several thousand people all trying to get to the same spot at the same time.  

No worries.  We'll just take 137 pictures while we wait. (Seriously. I have a problem.)

I have the cutest nieces/nephews ever.

Allie's friend made it!  Jump for joy!

 

Once we started walking in the sea of people to the start line, we realized it was a lot farther away than we originally thought.  Tony convinced Brody to just jump in the race where we were instead of making it all the way over and waiting in line to start.  I mean, there was no way they were going to actually finish the whole 3 miles anyways, so it just made sense.

And these two "runners" are off!!

Allie and her friend, on the other hand, were dead set on running the whole thing.  Start line to finish line in under 45 minutes.  That was the goal, and no matter how hard I tried to talk them in to just jumping in, they absolutely were NOT having any of it.

They were in a hurry to get going, and I was pretty slow moving, hobbling along on my sore foot, so I reluctantly let them go on their own...with strict insturctions to not talk to anyone, take anything from anyone, look at anyone...you know, all of that.  Which was followed by eye rolls, big sighs, and "I knoooowww!" with an attitude from both of them.  Ugh.  Eleven year olds...

Anyays, I let them go and Hunter and I decided to walk over to the closest color station, which was blue.  

Walking across a black tar parking lot and pushing a stroller in the sun is not cool.  Add in a bad foot and its really not cool.

Anyways, Hunter is the type of kid who does NOT like getting anything on him.  I mean, if he has a blad of grass on his hand we will probaby come running towards you pointing to it and wait for you to wipe it off of him.  So you can understand my hesitancy to get too close to the blue color powder being thrown around.  I couldn't deal with a full on freak out on my own!

Luckily, nothing major got on him...except for what I wiped off the ground and stuck on his face.  And since he couldn't see it, he didn't mind.  

 

From there, we decided to go check out the finish line.  There was music playing, some vendors selling things, and more activity...to keep Hunter entertained.

The finish area

Oh, and more color on the ground for me to rub on his face. 

He was coming to get me with a dot of color on his finger

More color on his face!

Unfortunately, all of that wasn't quite entertaining enough for this two year old.  But the stroller sure was!  He pushed that thing from one end of the parking lot to the other, I swear.  And I was just hobbling along behind him.

 

When he eventually tried to push the stroller up the grass hill and in to the street, I asked him to turn around...numerous times.  And when he didn't listen, I took it away.

This is what happened next:

Melt. Down. Central.

I left him there and walked off like I didn't know him.  I mean, who wants to be seen with "that kid" rolling around in grass and screaming at the top of his lungs!? ;)

Worked like a charm.  He came running after me and got to push the stroller again. Within the area I told  him he could go.  (He listened this time.)

Back at the finish line, we were quickly running out of things to do.  We got a water and a couple of free Kind bars and sat down to wait.  

All of the finishers at the stage threw the color packets up in the air at once.  I thought it was pretty awesome.  Hunter couldn't have cared less.

Thankfully, we didn't have much longer to wait until Tony and Brody showed up.  They walked over to the finish area after the last color station...and they were pretty caked in that colored powder!

Here's the before and after:

While we waited for the girls to get done, Tony took Brody and Hunter out to the stage for another "color throw."  I really thought Hunter was going to flip out, but he came back squealing with excitement!

The color throw they were in

MORE COLOR!

I mean, he definitely immediately started trying to wipe it off of him (to no avail), but either way, he had fun!

 

 

The girls showed up shortly after that.  I swear, I was like a worried new mom.  Allie's friend has a cell phone and I told her to call me AS SOON AS THEY WERE DONE.  I kept my phone out and looked at it about every 30 seconds, and as soon as they called, I sternly told them exactly where I was and told them to get there NOW, haha.  Too many people around to chance anything with two kids who aren't even my own! 

They finished the race in 43 minutes.  They beat their goal by 2 minutes and were pretty proud of themselves for doing it!

Allie's firt 5k is in the books!

Their before and after:

We all went out for one more color throw (my first one) to end the day.

Man, that thing is no joke.  You literally can not see or breathe for at least 3 or 4 seconds after everyone throws the color packets up!  It kind of freaked ME out.  I don't know how those kids loved it so much!

S E L F I E ' S

Group shot!

 On the long walk - across two giant parking lots - to the car...

 

 

As we were walking along, I was complaining about how we only got one group shot of all of us and it wasn't that good of a picture.  Some guy walking by heard me and offered to take another one for us!  I happily obliged. 

Overall, it was a petty fun event.  The girls LOVED it (Allie's friend said it was a 10 out of 10 on the fun scale), and Brody thought it was pretty awesome, too.  

Hunter obviously had a good time.  It took about 30 seconds in the car for this to happen:

I personally think it would have been better if it were downtown or on the plaza or something.  Somewhere where there were things to look at and people around, etc.  I mean, you literally ran through a giant parking lot.  And it probably would have been more fun if I could have actually done it, but hey, we all had a good time. :)

Up next (according to Allie):  The Glow Run.