Heeeyyy blog! Now we get to break up the monotony of the Kauai photos (ha ha, like there is such a thing) with pictures of THE COLOR RUN! This is our third Color Run in a row. In 2012 it was my very first 5K, ever. The Color Run started between 8 and 8:30 this morning, down at the Seattle Center.

My old old old old old old oooold friend Christy just moved to Seattle two days ago. She’s been traveling around the world for the past two years teaching ESL. She actually signed up for the Color Run from Germany (impressive!).

Also joining us was Brenna. She whipped together that tutu last night.

“You didn’t have a tutu?” I cried incredulously. “But Ronia has like…ten!”

“Yeah but they don’t fit me!” she smiled.

Slightly blurry, but I had to post it anyway because it’s the only photo that shows my full outfit: neon green and blue tie-dyed leggings, neon yellow shorts (I wish I hadn’t worn those, actually–they are stained blue now!), white tutu with rainbow trim, and a bodycon dress/sports bra from “We Love Colors” (I still love you, “We Love Colors”). Plus neon yellow socks that are now stained blue.

The headbands in previous years have always been white, but I like the tri-color ones this year. The swag bag was adorable too. They’ve stepped up their product design!

We picked up our race swag a day early, unlike previous years when we waited in line the day of the race. I opted not to wear my Color Run tee-shirt because I sweat like a maniac when I run, and previous years I would always darken the armpits of the tee-shirt with sweat and dye…GROSS. The tank top was perfect.

Going through the start line…bubbles flying through the air. This year was a little different–we didn’t get packets of colored powder until the end of the race, and the color stations didn’t throw tons of colored powder this year–they squirted it mixed with water in bottles. We were pretty disappointed by the lack of saturation until we got to the end of the race…and then it wasn’t a problem! Pummeled with dye!

No camera this year, just the iphone. I nerded out and wore my “hip pack” (fanny pack) to hold it, although I was too busy gabbing to Christy (who I hadn’t seen in two years) and Brenna (who I don’t see nearly often enough) to remember to take a lot of pictures during the race.

I will say this: all of that pre-Kauai vacation exercise Joshy and I have been doing paid off, because this 5K was a BREEZE! I didn’t walk once! Hell, bring on the 10K, baby. Let’s do this thing.

Christy looking adorable and blue at the finish line. That blue… oh that blue! I took a long, exfoliating shower this afternoon and I still have blue patches all over my body. Ah well, my patients will enjoy cackling at my Smurf skin tomorrow at work.

The finish line! We walked around to the various free swag stands, plucking up coconut water and free juice and water and cookies (well, no cookies for me with my blue hands). We debated on whether or not to join the post-run afterparty…

…but in the end, we just took our packets of dye (somehow magically all four of us chose different colors), doused each other, and bopped around to the music. A random passing stranger offered to take our photo.

Thanks, random passing stranger! These turned out cute.

Brenna is TUFF.

It’s safe to say Christy nailed me with the purple. Josh had a great orange stripe across his head. Still has it, as of the writing of this blog entry–we gardened and he went for a mountain bike ride with his uncle and hasn’t showered yet. He said he likes to “preserve” it for as long as possible. Um, no worries there, buddy. This blue dye does NOT like to come out!

A shameless man does the Running Man.

Christy’s signature pose.

After the run, Brenna went home to celebrate Mother’s Day with her fam and we took Christy out to vegan breakfast at “The Wayward Vegan” on University. Delicious! The sun has been shining almost all day, Josh and I put in our garden, so all in all it’s been a very nice Sunday indeed. Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there. Time for me to inhale some dinner.