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Thoughts from A Color Run Volunteer

Well, we did it!  It's over and I'm back to my regular color.  All it took was some scrubbing in the shower and a big load of laundry!

So, how was it?  Well, we began looking like this:


and ended looking like this:


Yes - VERY pink!!!  It was awesome!

Now, the thoughts (play-by-play) of the day:

We began at 7am (actually an hour later than first expected).  When we arrived a few minutes early we went over to the Volunteer Registration tent (even though we were told to go to the color station first) and they were super disorganized.  Although they had a lot of volunteers, the check-in process was not amazing.  It's a place for some definite improvement on their part!  However, it was the first time in Charlotte and the only expectations were from the volunteer coordinators who hadn't experienced the run yet, so understandable.

We got to our PINK station - the first color station, where we were assigned and found out it was BLUE!  We were given instructions (only dip into the barrels with the orange buckets, you have twice as much color as you need, clean-up by rolling all of the color into the plastic tarps) and then left to our own devices.  But you're thinking - you look pretty pink in that photo, not blue!

When our captain came by with her very good looking Color Run Expert she told us the blue kids already had their shirts and she was moving us down to pink where we really belong.  Excellent, we are definitely pink people not smurfs!



So we moved and then waiting until it was time to throw color!

We waited and waited - about an hour, but it was fun (& cold).  The first wave (of 15) came in about 9:10am and the throwing began.  Most of it looked like this:


It was a ton of fun!  And EXTRA-ORDINARILY PINK!!!

After we were all done, some of our teens had a little nap on the ground.


Clean-Up went super quickly.  A few of those original instructions were blatantly disobeyed.  The orange buckets didn't fit into the barrels and therefore the original idea didn't go very well.  Next time I will bring a bowl or a cup to help move the colored cornstarch from the barrel to the buckets.  As far as having twice as much color? The only reason we had enough was because we swept & shoveled our plastic coverings to reuse.  And in regards to clean-up, we moved all of the color to the middle of the road then rolled up the plastic and shoved it into the cans - SO much better than the original assessment.  Then street cleaners followed up and did the cleaning for us!

Overall, it was a excellent service project, I'll definitely do it again; but probably not run it - although I wish it was a little earlier in the season so it was a tad warmer.  After one year, I'm sure the volunteer process will be smoothed out and it will be better run (because everyone knows what to expect) and more efficient!

Excellent t-shirt colors!
My super pink shoes!

Lastly, the one thing I was super curious about before doing the run that I couldn't find information on anywhere was clean-up.  First for the runners (not I wasn't one, but they were WAY less covered that we were) - super easy, wash your clothes, get a shower, put your clothes away - and your white shirt that you decorated with color is be just slightly dyed after the washing.  Second for the color throwing volunteers - with pink (I would presume easiest to hardest would be: yellow, orange, pink, blue) - was all over, anything gray or white kind of has that pinkish hue to it.  Maybe with more washing, concentrated Shouting Out, or bleach, all of the pink would come out - I didn't both with that since the sweatshirt I wore was old anyway.  Shoes went in the washer (don't put these in the dryer people, funky things happen with shoes then) and came out looking great.  Shower took a little longer than usual - just scrubbed lightly with a washcloth & soap and all was taken care of easily.  The hardest thing was the hair - entirely free of color (praise God since I have to serve at Mass tomorrow!), but it's super dry.  Probably from all of the cornstarch - so hopefully in a few days after more conditioning (just two rounds in the shower today) it will be back to normal.  Might have been better to have it in a tight bun or even a hat, I had it down without a hat.  So, conclusion - super easy to clean-up!  Easier for the runners than the volunteers, and I'm presuming that the blue people are still just a tad bit 'smurf-like' after their showers, but all will be well by work and school on Monday, and if not - definitely by Thanksgiving dinner!  Your turkey won't go running in the other direction when it thinks it's going to be eaten by a smurf!

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