Color Run and the Veggie bar

Seems like all I’ve done lately is post about food! That’s because I haven’t been running.

By the way, I ended up having a bone scan and a stress fracture has been confirmed. I’m seeing the physio again tomorrow morning to discuss a return to running plan.

Anyhow, I hadn’t run. But as you can guess from my title, I did run a bit yesterday.

waiting for the tram

Way back in June I signed myself, Gary, and my sisters up for the Melbourne color run.

We drove to Melbourne on Saturday and picked up our race packets from the stalls in Southbank. The weather was drizzly and we had to walk from the parking spot to the stalls in the rain but I didn’t mind – sisters weren’t too happy though! Once we grabbed our gear we did a little shopping (I visited Lush and brought a few needs) and then headed to our hotel to check in and change.

We then headed out to veggie bar in Fitzroy. Oh my gosh. It was exciting to go to a restaurant that only makes vegetarian or vegan food. Having so much choice was great. Lisa took a little encouragement to try something but she was a good sport and ordered the mee goreng under the promise that we would eat her tofu if she didn’t want it.

I had a raw pad Thai and it was amazing!

A great big plate of rice noodles, zucchini “noodles”, carrot, snow peas, a bazillion sprouts, cashews, spring onion, mint, coriander, with a bit of lime-y sauce. The sauce wasn’t quite what I expected (pretty much nothing like the cooked version that I make with tamarind paste) but it was delicious, fresh, and I felt amazing after having it.

I also had kombucha with it – I’ve never had kombucha before but I liked it. Fizzy, with a bit of tang, and definitely not what if call sweet. It was great.

Then came dessert. Oh my. Lisa and I split two desserts so we could both try them. I forgot to take photos until after we split and started eating them.

vegan strawberry and mango cheesecake

And…

vegan chocolate royale

They were both so amazing. I can’t even describe. The chocolate cake was so rich and moist, and the cheesecake was smooth, with a coconut flake base.

Mmmmmm…

After dinner we all conked out early due to the long day of driving and wandering about Melbourne. Then it was up early Sunday to get ready and leave the motel at 7:30. Luckily they let me leave my car there so we were taking the free public transport offer that came with our entry to the color run.

We have trams in Melbourne, and I quite enjoy them. They’re easy to navigate and I find then pleasant to ride in.

So we turn up, collecting more and more people along the route till there’s no room left in the tram. Turns out there’s 22000 people at this years colour run, and there was a strong encouragement to take public transport. All in all I think it worked out well.

So we rock up, have a wander about then join the 30 minute queue for the toilets (not even joking).

Then we join the people in the starting chute and make our way up to the start.

We all began jogging slowly when we could as it was crowded. All in all we probably ran about half of the 5km distance. I had planned to walk it anyway with my non-running sister but we managed to encourage her to run small sections, walk for rest, then run again. I was also pretty aware of my ankle so took it easy.

looking back to the orange station

They had a few new features this year. The first station was actually blue liquid, being thrown from cups and shot out of water pistols.

There was also a bubble section.

you can’t see the bubbles well but they are there!

My sisters and I wore white capes for the run. I stopped for a “heroic pose” moment after the blue station and a few randoms photo bombed me. I think it turned out great!

Kate, Lisa and I linked arms and skipped over the finish line. Gary couldn’t help himself and sprinted ahead of us at about the halfway point – but hey, the Color run is all about fun and sprinting around flemington racetrack is his kind of fun.

He also took his shoes off pretty quickly and ran most of it barefoot.

All in all it was fun, and messy. When we went into the finish festival area and got our colour packets, we made it even messier.

The thing I love about the color run is that it’s not about competing. You can run it. You can walk it. You can dance, crawl, or wheelchair it. Elderly people and 3 year olds do it. For everyone, it’s just a fun time. And it’s a good excuse to make your sisters entire face purple.

There’s been a local run announced for next year (no date confirmed yet) and I really hope I can drum up a good few people from work to do it because it’s probably the most fun big event I’ve been to.

If you ever get the opportunity to do one, get onto it!

before

after