The happiest 5K on the planet?

That happens to be what the Color Run is billed as...and these types of 5K's seem to be all the rage these days.  So when a Groupon for this event presented itself (they are quite pricey!), we thought we'd give it a try.

It was kind of crazy getting there.  We left super early that morning but of course since it was on the east side it seemed to take forever.  And we were not prepared for the sea of humanity that greeted us.  People.  Dressed in white.  For miles.  It was insane.

We heard a countdown for the starting line, but there were so many people that there ended up being several countdowns.  We finally got across and got moving.  It was actually a pretty hard, hilly course.  Emma and Leah of course zoomed on ahead, Melissa and I stuck together in the middle, and Brooke and Jill kept pace with each other behind us.

As we ran, there were four different "color stations" where people with those little ketchup-type squirt bottles threw colored powder at you.  You could kind of choose how much or how little color got on you.  I was kind of nervous at the first station, but for the rest I thought...what am I here for but to get all colored up?  Now, I didn't get down on the ground and roll around in it like some people were doing, but Melissa and I got into it.

The cool thing is that the Color Run people are out on the course taking pictures of everybody.  After the race is over you can look yourself up by your bib number to see if there are any pictures of you.  So it was fun to find these pics of us out running.

That's Melissa and me, right there in the center...

Once everyone had crossed the finish line we were all supposed to gather and toss the little packets of powder they had given us up in the air all at once.  There were so many people that we didn't go into the madness up by the stage, but we had our own little color toss.

But our friend got an awesome picture of the main one...

I would definitely say it was the FUNNEST 5K I've ever done.  Can a 5K ever truly be happy though?  All I know is that once we got in the car to drive home and the color all over us was out of the context of the race, I was really ready to get in the shower.  I could not get home fast enough.

BUT--I am happy we did it.  I'm happy that it was a fun girls' activity that we did together.  I'm happy Glenn came and took pictures for us.  I'm happy that Brooke and our preggo Jill hung in there.  I'm happy we saw some friends (even in that huge crowd).  I'm happy we got a good workout.  I'm happy that Andrew was barely out of bed when we got home and didn't have to worry about being by himself for long.

Hmm.  Maybe there's something to that "happiest" thing after all...