You Gotta Have A Gimmick!

Maybe you remember that I ran a 5K about 2 years ago in the snow? You can read about that here. Funny how I was so excited to sign up for another race...ummm...that didn't happen! I caught the bug and recovered quickly.


Then this past February I saw photos for The Color Run on pinterest. I immediately thought "wow, that looks like a ton of fun! I could start running to do that." Now why couldn't I start running just for fitness? I'm not sure. I emailed a few friends telling them I found a gimmick that could get me running again. I know  people in marketing dislike the word "gimmick," but isn't that what it is? We tend to say things like " we need to come up with a creative strategy to gain people's attention and stand out among all the clutter"... or we can just say "gimmick." And, boy, those Color Run folks sure found a great one! Unfortunately my more serious running friends did not get as excited as I did.

But I did find out my friend Jenny was running the race with her family. She's the same friend who drove me to the 5K in the snow 2 years ago. Even though I couldn't convince my other friends that this would be a lot of fun, it turns out over 18,000 Minnesotans thought this was worth running on a 90 degree day.

Chris, Penny and I got up at 5 am to drive up to the state fairgrounds. It was crazy! Over a half hour to get a parking spot. But we were ready for fun!

Penny and I in our bright whites...a required element according to The Color Run  officials. I got the rockin sunglasses at Target.  They ended up working out really well since I could flip them down while running through the color and then flip them up and be able to see.

There were a sea of runners ahead of us and behind us. The race wasn't timed (love that! No pressure at all!). At 8:00 they started the race. Every 5 minutes they'd let about 1000 racers through the start line. 



When we took this photo the race has already started, but it took 20 minutes before we actually got through the starting line.

I ran the first part with Jenny, her sister Kristi (flew in from Chicago to do the race) and her daughter Marissa. We didn't run the whole way, but that was fine with me. It was more like a big party. And really with all these people it was more of "crowd weaving" than running. See what I mean?

So the whole concept is pretty simple. At every kilometer you run through a cloud of color being thrown by an army of crazy volunteers. The color is made up of cornstarch and some sort of not toxic coloring.

After the first color: Orange!!

I ran the first two colors with Jenny, Kristie and Marissa and then ran on my own when they stopped at the water break.

I've got to admit, it would make a huge difference in my enjoyment of running if I could look forward to a celebration every time I finish a kilometer. Maybe not color being thrown at me every time I run, but maybe confetti?

After the yellow! The color stuck where I was sweating. Disgusting and fun all at once!

Gotta love these signs 

I almost started walking, but I could see the blue cloud where Chris and Penny were waiting for me. We decided Penny was going to run the last 1K with me. You can kind of see me coming through the cloud. Penny is holding my hand.

Can you imagine being a volunteer and standing in that cloud throwing powder at people for hours? 

I know I look totally manic here. I was yelling "someone dumped a blue bucket on me!"

Penny did great on the last 1K. Lots of people cheered her on. 

Here we are headed into the cloudy Finish Line. No way were we running through. It was way too crowded

Lots of after race pictures

Then the moment I was waiting for...The Color Celebration! Every 15 minutes at the end of the race all the runners open up a packet of  color and throw it in the air. Penny and I were in the middle of that!

As we were leaving I snapped a photo of Chris. In case you were wondering, it is very easy to be a spectator and stay clean! He said next year he is going to do it too.

Then we headed over to the Birchwood. I wasn't going to be that close and not have their savory waffle! About 20 other Color Runners had the same idea.

Yeah,  really bad to have her feet on the table, but look at how much blue got through her shoes and into her socks!

Kind of sad to be 2 blocks from our old house. I admit I miss Minneapolis a lot, but it is only an hour and a half away for us to visit and do crazy shennanigans like this!

When I got back to work on Monday I found out there was a whole group from my department that went so we all shared our stories. Other people kept saying "but I don't get it. What's it for?" Well, they do give some money to local charities, but really it's just a ridiculously fun gimmick. If a Color Run is coming to your city sign up fast because they sell out within a couple days!

My boss asked me "so are you going to keep running now that it's over?" 

I said "hmmm...I don't know. There is a glow in the dark race 2 months from now. Maybe I'll keep running so I can do that one" Whatever it takes, right?

(And just in case you weren't like me in the 4th grade and in love with all musicals originally made famous by Ethel Merman, here's the song that first taught me the importance of a gimmick. Nothing like burlesque strippers to teach a 10 year old important marketing lessons... I can't tell you how badly I wanted to be Natalie Wood as Gypsy!)

A summer update

The poor blog gets so neglected in the summer. Chris commented tonight that I may have a teeny habit with overplanning . Here's a recap. You can decide if I go a little overboard...

our week day routine

Monday Gymnastics

Tuesday Swimming

Wednesday Library

Thursday Swimming

And I've kept up with my bike commuting as long as it is under 70 degrees in the morning. 

Then this is what we've squeezed into our weekends.

A month ago

The International Children's Festival in St. Paul. This Festival is totally worth the drive up to the cities. This is the third year we've gone and I love it. There are tons of free activities, art projects, butterfly tent and performances. Penny is now at an age to really enjoy it. Learning lesson for mom and dad: do face painting first because that is Penny's prime focus at this age.

 We met my friend Kelly and her baby Adam. Except he wasn't a baby any more! He was walking right along with Penny. How'd that happen?

Two weeks ago
Chris thought he was dying so we went to the ER. Here's the thing about Chris. He doesn't complain when he is sick. There have been days when he's had fevers of 101 and he cleans the house. he says "I don't like the house dirty when I'm sick. It makes me feel sick" I, on the other hand, am the most miserable person you've ever met when I've got the slightest sniffle. So anyways, when he called me at work and could barely breathe I told him to meet me at the hospital. Turns out kidney stones feel like you are dying! Thankfully it only lasted 2 hours. Hopefully that is it for kidney stones

Then two days later we drove to Chicago for a 4 day whirlwind trip. I don't have a ton of pictures because my Uncle Dan was with us the whole time. Why take pictures when you've got a professional photographer being your tour guide? Now I just need to get the photos from him.

Penny playing at Millennium Park

 She got a little wet and I forgot an extra outfit...oops...record breaking shopping trip at H&M

The Bean

I'm glad I forgot an extra change of clothes. Otherwise I wouldn't have snapped this adorable photo of my urban 3 year old.

Skipping nap time, but thankfully it didn't lead to disaster.

We did the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. Penny was disappointed that it didn't go fast.

Penny and Aunt MaryAnne reading stories

 I'll post more photos of Chicago when I get the CD from Uncle Dan.

4th of July Growing up near the equator meant that fireworks started at 8:00. Totally acceptable to keep your little ones up for that. Here they don't start until 10:00! Insane. So penny has not seen fireworks yet. Instead we celebrated for 4 hours at the pool. It was 96 degrees...what else were we going to do.

At 5:00 she was chatting my ear off and then all of a sudden leaned over and fell asleep. It was hilarious! Only photo I got of her cute 4th of July dress.

 Last week

I finally finished my fall scarf. Love it! I probably have enough yarn to do another one, but this was like the longest most boring project to make so I don't think I'll be starting again soon.

Then we headed up to Minneapolis again. This time for the kids concerts at the Basilica Block party. Now the block party is this huge event for adults with tons of music and concerts. I've never been, but when I saw the Sunday kids event had the Laurie Berkner Band and The Okee Dokee Brothers I was all over it! Penny knows their CDs by heart.

 What? you don't know who they are? Well neither did Jackie Lee or Libbi. It's much easier to enjoy a concert in 98 degree heat when you know the music. Libbi was a trooper though.

The vendors ran out of water 5 mins before the show started. We had brought 2 water bottles but it wasn't enough. So Penny got her first soda. I bought the last 2 sprites. Isn't it some kind of health hazard to have hundreds of preschoolers and no water at an event? thankfully someone made a run and I was able to buy some more an hour later.

Penny singing her heart out

Laurie Berkner...we all have her music memorized. we'll have to do a video of all of us singing  some songs.

Libbi and Jackie Lee headed out before the Okee Dokee Brothers. I was hoping to as well,. It was hot! But Penny heard Laurie announce the Okee Dokee brothers and she got all giddy

Penny was right up at the stage for their songs.

Train song

Square dancing song

Getting a little shade

And she's out again

Coming up in the next 7 days:
Farmer's weekend (we do that every Saturday morning)
color run
Libbi's b-day in Mpls
bike riding in cannon falls

Oh and one more update...Penny has had multiple "absolutely awesome" days at school. She's really connected with one of the teachers, who unfortunately is a college student and will be leaving in a few weeks.

So verdict? do I overplan summers? --pp