The Color Run, Beijing

Today was the day of the Color Run but as it did not start until 3 in the afternoon we had all morning to explore some more. The guys in the group got up early to visit the forbidden city, me and Lisa stayed behind for an extra few hours of sleep before making our way into the city to meet them.

Once we made it out we met the group who were now joined by Berlin who took us to a duck restaurant recommended to him by a friend.  It was amazing.  I know I have said plenty about the food so far on this trip but it truly has been so good throughout. This duck was no exception. Alongside the duck we had a mixture of other dishes, which although I could not name were all different and real tasty. All except the dessert dishes, which were anything but sweet. Luckily I am not a dessert person and so was plenty full by this point anyway.

Now time to head to The Color Run, joined by a friend of Berlin’s who had joined us at the meal, Sasha. The Color Run was being held at the China Garden Expo, which is not particularly central to Beijing but still not far on the subway from where we had lunch. For anybody who is not sure what The Color Run is checkout there website. A 5km run whilst gradually getting covered with paint along the way.http://www.thecolorrun.co.uk/

Starting Positions

Color Run Start

This event has to be one of greatest things I have been involved in. I was a little apprehensive when we arrived n what seemed like the hottest day of my life but almost instantly we had absorbed the buzz of the atmosphere spreading around us. We squeezed to the front of the start line and as soon as the countdown was up we ran. Right away we realized that we should not have run, but jogged. 500m down the road we were 100m ahead but we already incredibly tired and only 10% of the way. I persevered and made it to the first kilometer mark where i was greeted by a green cloud of paint. Our clean white tees were blank canvases which in moments were covered in bold green as the paint powder clung to our sweat soaked clothes.

 

Green

At each kilometer mark we were coated with a new colour from the Color Run palette eventually leading to a full red, purple, blue, yellow and green masterpiece.

Red

The atmosphere all along the run was amazing, everybody was obviously having the greatest time and so was I! There are some great photos of this day showing the transformation as we hit each section end. We picked up our pace once again when we heard the approach of the finish line. After reaching the line in our multicoloured glory we were greeted with a huge crowd surrounding a DJ performance on stage. We clambered into the crown and every 15 minutes another cloud of paint was released by the crowd as we were all given packets of paint in our entry packs. We spent a few hours here messing around and adding the final touches to the masterpieces that we had become and once the event had ended had possibly the most peculiar journey home I had ever experienced.

The Color Runners

Imagine if you can a whole group of westerners, who already draw attention based on that fact alone, covered head to toe in paint for no obvious reason. The journey home involved four line changes on the Beijing subway and each line we traveled on we had very little trouble finding a seat. On even the busiest trains we had an excessive personal space barrier between the locals and us. Since arriving in China it was clear that local people found westerners a novelty as I was constantly being asked for photos and even hearing the odd camera shutter noise from behind me but I felt like the paparazzi were following us as we made our colourful way back to the hostel.

 

Color crowd

After a fairly failed attempt to clean ourselves up in the shower we went out to a restaurant nearby to get some dinner and although we had planned to hit a bar street to maintain the Colour Run elation the rest of my group were all getting up at 6am to get a bus to the remote area of the great wall. I unfortunately had to say goodbye that night as on Sunday I was making another journey down to Hangzhou were I was to spend the next 3 weeks studying Chinese culture at Zhejiang University. Another damn train!

If the Color Run ever comes to your city, get involved! There is no way you cannot love the experience!! Enjoy the photos.