Bluebell Wood 5km Colour Dash

Last year my younger sister decided that running would be a good idea and that as a runner I would be a good person to run a race with. The race was selected and entered and a coach to 5km programme was embarked upon. This was backed up with a pre-event training session in March (See: Running Sisters).

The event was upon up, it seemed that the pre event "propaganda" had indicated we should arrive from 8am even though the event did not start until 10:30am. But being strict rule followers we departed my dad's house, collected my sister and her support Crew then headed to Rother Valley Country Park where the event would be held. 

Sat in the car at approximately 8:03am as the rained started we wondered if we might have been a little keen!! It did give us time to scavenge some safety pins from Dad's first aid kit though to attached our race numbers. Rebecca had taken shoe protection precautions by covering here shoes with tape so the coloured paint would not ruin them (it seem to work pretty well!!)

After much waiting around and many sad faced looks from the dog (poor Beau) and the two man support crew it was finally approaching race time, not before we were treated to entertainment in the form of belly dancers, dancing along to 'Follow da Leader: Jump and Wave' - not a family friendly dance!

We were self-timing the event as it was more of a fun run so there was no official clock... our plan was one of run / walk combination and after running through the first two colour showers we opted to walk through the next 3 as we barely looked as though we had picked up any colour. This backfired slightly when we both got an ear full of yellow paint powder... at least it matched my sunglasses!.The course was run around the perimeter of the lake on a nice path with only slight undulations. We had started towards the front and think we placed ourselves well as we seemed at a good pace with those around us.

Pacing was good and we saw our supporters after 3.5km where they cheered and we waved as we continued on our way. as we rounded the end of the lake we could see the finish line in sight and to our rear still hundreds of runners. 

The pace stepped up as the finish line was in sight and we crossed the line together not quite in a shower of coloured paint but some clammy handfuls from a few excitable children! The time was good with more than 2 minutes taken off our time back in march when training. 

We regrouped and headed back to the car, a very short walk thanks to our early arrival, we quickly removed the worst of the paint. Rebecca de-taped her shoes and we were heading out of the park laughing at all those fools who had arrived late and had to walk over a mile from their cars to the start line!!! 

Later on the bath turned a terrible colour and left a decidedly bright yellow rim around the waterline.... This was duly scrubbed although I feel it won't be the last I see of the colour yellow!