This 5K taking country by storm will raise funds for Deaf Community Services

By Kai Oliver-Kurtin | Downtown News

with Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor

For those who don’t 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.

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.

“Every Color Me Rad race has a fun, party atmosphere, with music throughout the entire course,” said Gretchen Willard, director of public relations.

“This is the race you’ll remember with fondness instead of soreness,” she said.

Runners of all ages are told to wear “white, all white, but off-white would be ok,” and encouraged to run in groups, but walkers are also welcome.

In most host cities, a “color bomb squad” is positioned at four different color stations throughout the race, one at each kilometer. “Rad” 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.

In San Diego, however, organizers were forced to comply with the city’s strict storm drain regulations, precluding them from setting up color stations along the city’s streets.

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, “a color bomb festival” 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’s rear parking areas located at Imperial and Park avenues. Every 15 minutes at the finish line, runners will participate in another explosion of color.

“I guess we will build anticipation and have lots of color at the end,” Hall said. “We 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’s trust so next year we can map out a regular route.”

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.

Attempting to make running “fun,” race founders Matt Ward and Scott Crandall came up with the idea of “color-bombing” runners, kicking off the first race in their home state of Utah this past April.

“The magic formula seems to be working,” Ward said. “There are 5,000 to 10,000 runners per race and more happy faces than you can count.”

Although San Diego is already known as a “running city,” 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.

“There are lots of different types of people in San Diego,” she said, “and Color Me Rad is for every one of them – the novice and the expert, the young and the old, the rad and the not-so-rad – though everyone will be rad by the end.”

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.

The race will start earlier than most other locations, at with the first starting “wave” 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 – a boom-lift located 20-30 feet above the finish line.

Willard says their “Food and Drug Administration-approved,” 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’re told).  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.

This fun run is what Willard hopes will be the first annual event in America’s Finest City. “We love to see people being happy while they are being physical and donating to a good cause,” she said. “We’ll be back next year as long as San Diego will have us.”

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.

Although organizers prefer to have all registrations conducted online by August 8 – so they know how much “swag” to bring – a small number of on-site registrations will be allowed if the event has not already sold out.  Willard requests that those wishing to register on race day first check the website, then arrive onsite extra early.

For more information or to register online, visit www.colormerad.com and click on the San Diego location for a link to the day’s route and its start and stop locations.