Color Run Singapore 2013

Yellow again, peeps! 😀

As I mentioned previously, I signed up to join the Color Run in Singapore for the Sunday schedule, August 18. It was totes fun and exhausting, too, which made me realize just how incredibly out of shape I am. I mean it was just a 5K run! My gosh. Must work on improving that.

Before all else, I need to take you back to the Sunday before the actual run, when I had to collect my race pack in Scape mall. I arrived at 6 pm and the queue was super long! I got my stuff after 4 hours. Can you imagine. O_o  The race pack included a really cute tote bag with a white Color Run printed shirt, headband, wristband, race number, temporary tattoo, and a plastic foldable water bottle inside. They also sold some merchandise, so I bought a scarf, sunglasses, and a tutu. I have a thing for sunglasses. I have lots of them already but still keep on buying more! This one was irresistible with its nice hot pink handles with the words “COLOR RUN” printed on one side. I wasn’t sure about the tutu at first because it costs S$15, but then I thought, hey, when else will I get to wear a tutu in a race, or any other time ever, for that matter? Ballerina hangups? LOL. So I grabbed the chance, because that’s just how I roll. 😛

On the day of, I met my friend Nantoy in Vivo City. We placed our tattoos on our cheeks by rubbing them in with a water-soaked scarf, pinned our numbers to the front of our shirts, and taped on our wristbands which will allow us free entrance to Sentosa. Then we joined the queue to get into the Sentosa monorail, and we saw this unicorn mascot in a rainbow colored tutu, and I just had to have a photo op! 😀

Because rainbows and unicorns go together, duh?

We rode the monorail and got off at Beach station. We had absolutely no idea where to go, we just followed everyone wearing the Color Run shirt, haha! There were also very helpful guides and signs pointing us towards the starting area, and eventually, we found ourselves facing a stage. Some guys gave instructions on how to warm up and while doing so, I noticed Maej, an ex colleague, jumping up and down right next to Nantoy. What an awesome coincidence! We joined her and her friend Gigi.

There were thousands of people, so they had to stagger releasing the runner in waves. Right before being released, we got doused with our first dashes of color, and then we were off! After a kilometer or so, we reached the pink station, where we were sprinkled with pink powder by volunteers. The next stations were blue, then yellow, then red.

I wore sunglasses so the powder wouldn’t hurt my eyes. But at one point while we run yelling “Wooooo!!!!” and slapping high fives to random strangers running towards us, someone threw a fistful of yellow powder onto my face and into my mouth, and I ended up coughing. It’s a good thing they use food grade color for this!

The Color Run advertises itself as the happiest 5K on the planet, and I have to agree! Everyone was having fun yelling and slapping high fives (I yelled “COLOR FIVE!!” at everyone I slapped high fives with; I’m sure Barney of HIMYM would’ve been proud of me) and scooping up colored powder from the ground and throwing them at each other. We even saw a bunch of strangers randomly group hugging! This is not a normal Singapore phenomenon, folks.

By the time we got to red, we looked more like a zombie run instead of a color run. Nantoy yelled, “I see dead people!” and we raised our arms forward and started acting like zombies.

When we got to the finish line, we were each handed a banana, a sports drink, and a color packet. We immediately bit into our bananas and guzzled down our drinks.

Then we headed towards the stage to get ready for the finale. At the emcee’s go, everyone threw the contents of their color packets into the air. It was a spectacular sight! 😀

Image source: Color Run Singapore Facebook page

It’s definitely the craziest, most fun marathon ever! Here are some before and after shots:

Okay that last pic actually reminded me of a line from my favorite show Sherlock, when John asked a blood-spattered Sherlock, “You went on the tube like that?!?” YES I DID! But I wasn’t the only one! There were a few others who did the same thing. I actually brought a change of clothes with me, but Nantoy didn’t, so he asked me not to as well so he wouldn’t be the only one. Yeesh. I ended up liking the idea though, coz how many people do you know who can say that they have gone on the MRT looking like a unicorn had just upchucked on them? LOL! I am all for new experiences, folks! Anyone else with me?

We had cleaned our faces and hands using some wet wipes handed out by the Color Run guys, but it wasn’t enough to get cleaned up proper, as you can see below.

After I scrubbed myself raw in the shower, though, I had gotten rid of that tattoo and most of the paint except for the red speckles on my face! I looked like I had measles or something! 😮  I used soap, facial scrub, facial brush, bath glove, makeup remover… nothing worked. I was too exhausted to keep trying, though, so I thought, hey, at least it’s a natural-ish looking color. Imagine if it had been blue that was hard to remove! I thought I could cover it up with foundation anyway, so I just slapped on moisturizer and climbed into bed to sleep. I woke up at midnight because Nantoy had texted:

Nantoy: I can’t remove the red from my face. Did yours get removed?
Me: Same prob. Grrr. Maybe this will disappear tomorrow.
Nantoy: Hahaha. Ok at least I’m not the only one.
Me: I look like I have rashes or measles.
Nantoy: You can go on sick leave. Measles is contagious.
Me: LOL.

I didn’t have problems getting the color off my clothes, however. They easily got washed off my clothes in the washing machine (except the shirt) and I didn’t have to scrub my shoes to get them off, I just squirted them with water from a bidet. A good thing, because my shoes was what I was worried about the most.

When I woke up the next day, I was prepared to scrub and conceal my face, but to my surprise, all the red had gone! Was it the moisturizer? Maybe I move too much during sleep and all the paint rubbed off on my sheets? I texted Nantoy to tell him this and to ask if the same thing had happened to him, but he said no! Oops. I guess my face is too oily??

So I guess, if you plan on going on the Color Run (which I highly recommend!!!), I’d advise on being easy on the red, but bring all your friends, take a crap ton of pictures and give lots of color fives!* 😀

*patent pending