{"id":235676,"date":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/race-to-bring-a-blitzkrieg-of-color-to-runners-and-downtown\/"},"modified":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T07:00:00","slug":"race-to-bring-a-blitzkrieg-of-color-to-runners-and-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/race-to-bring-a-blitzkrieg-of-color-to-runners-and-downtown\/","title":{"rendered":"Race to bring a ‘blitzkrieg of color’ to runners and Downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

This 5K taking country by storm will raise funds for Deaf Community Services<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kai Oliver-Kurtin |\u00a0<\/strong>Noticias del centro<\/strong><\/p>\n

with Morgan M. Hurley |\u00a0<\/strong>Downtown Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t mind getting a little messy during their workout, the Color Me Rad 5K race event will paint a rainbow of color through the streets of Downtown on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n

\"Race<\/a>
Participants celebrate at the Philadelphia Color Me Rad’s finish line in June. (Photo courtesy Color Me Rad \/ Flo Foto)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About 5,000 pounds of colored cornstarch will fly through the air, turning runners into works of art as they make their way through the last half of the course. This untimed event has less emphasis on competition and much more focus on fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Color Me Rad race has a fun, party atmosphere, with music throughout the entire course,\u201d said Gretchen Willard, director of public relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the race you\u2019ll remember with fondness instead of soreness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Runners of all ages are told to wear \u201cwhite, all white, but off-white would be ok,\u201d and encouraged to run in groups, but walkers are also welcome.<\/p>\n

In most host cities, a \u201ccolor bomb squad\u201d is positioned at four different color stations throughout the race, one at each kilometer. \u201cRad\u201d volunteers then spew both liquid and powdered cornstarch in hues of blue, green, pink, purple and yellow on participants as they run by, from both the sidelines and above, resulting in thousands of colored physiques.<\/p>\n

In San Diego, however, organizers were forced to comply with the city\u2019s strict storm drain regulations, precluding them from setting up color stations along the city\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

An alternative plan will consist of a one-and-a-half mile route through Downtown and East Village streets without color, leading up to what local race Director Jerrica Hall called, \u201ca color bomb festival\u201d taking place in the remaining one-and-a-half miles leading up to the finish. All four separate color stations will be located on a course winding through Petco Park\u2019s rear parking areas located at Imperial and Park avenues. Every 15 minutes at the finish line, runners will participate in another explosion of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we will build anticipation and have lots of color at the end,\u201d Hall said. \u201cWe will be covering storm drains and also using lower amounts of water [during clean-up] so we can capture it all. We hope to gain the city\u2019s trust so next year we can map out a regular route.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Race<\/a>
Participant from June’s Color Me Rad race in Philadelphia. (Photo courtesy Color Me Rad \/ Flo Foto)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Color Me Rad was established earlier this year, with inaugural races taking place in over 30 cities across the U.S. and Canada. San Diego, the first coastal race location, was chosen because of its fun-loving residents, Hall said.<\/p>\n

Attempting to make running \u201cfun,\u201d race founders Matt Ward and Scott Crandall came up with the idea of \u201ccolor-bombing\u201d runners, kicking off the first race in their home state of Utah this past April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magic formula seems to be working,\u201d Ward said. \u201cThere are 5,000 to 10,000 runners per race and more happy faces than you can count.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although San Diego is already known as a \u201crunning city,\u201d organizers say Color Me Rad has drawn many first-time 5K runners in other cities, who surprised themselves when they successfully crossed the finish line. Some have even reported that they have continued to stick with running after their experience with this fun run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of different types of people in San Diego,\u201d she said, \u201cand Color Me Rad is for every one of them \u2013 the novice and the expert, the young and the old, the rad and the not-so-rad \u2013 though everyone will be rad by the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Included with registration is a race bib, Color Me Rad souvenir T-shirt, sunglasses, and a color pack to throw during the finale. A portion of the proceeds from the race will benefit after-school programs for deaf youth through Deaf Community Services (DCS) of San Diego. DCS is also coordinating many of the volunteers for the event.<\/p>\n

The race will start earlier than most other locations, at with the first starting \u201cwave\u201d of runners launching at 7 a.m. and continuing every three to five minutes thereafter. Hall said representatives from DCS will lead each wave as it steps off the starting blocks and an ASL interpreter will be joining the Color Me Rad Emcee on the main stage \u2013 a boom-lift located 20-30 feet above the finish line.<\/p>\n

Willard says their \u201cFood and Drug Administration-approved,\u201d food-grade cornstarch is non-toxic and said to easily wash off in the shower, although many race participants may wish to keep the color intact in their once-white shirt (soak in vinegar, let it dry, then iron, we\u2019re told).\u00a0 Not only have the founders thought of ways to keep the color intact in those T-shirts, but they also want to ease the minds of potential runners, by providing the exact contents of the color bomb mixture on the website.<\/p>\n

This fun run is what Willard hopes will be the first annual event in America\u2019s Finest City. \u201cWe love to see people being happy while they are being physical and donating to a good cause,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be back next year as long as San Diego will have us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every event has its own photographer, Willard said, who will be taking photos before, during and after the race, and participants will be emailed a link to photos for purchase, once the race it through.<\/p>\n

Although organizers prefer to have all registrations conducted online by August 8 \u2013 so they know how much \u201cswag\u201d to bring \u2013 a small number of on-site registrations will be allowed if the event has not already sold out.\u00a0 Willard requests that those wishing to register on race day first check the website, then arrive onsite extra early.<\/p>\n

For more information or to register online, visit www.colormerad.com<\/a> and click on the San Diego location for a link to the day\u2019s route and its start and stop locations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This 5K taking country by storm will raise funds for Deaf Community Services By Kai Oliver-Kurtin |\u00a0Downtown News with Morgan M. Hurley |\u00a0Downtown Editor For those who don\u2019t mind getting a little messy during their workout, the Color Me Rad 5K race event will paint a rainbow of color through the streets of Downtown on […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Race to bring a 'blitzkrieg of color' to runners and Downtown","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}