Last weekend was the Lausanne Colour Run in which I participated. Maybe you ran it too, or you heard about it , or maybe you simply have no idea what I’m talking about.
Let me help you out.
The Colour Run™ is an international 5k run that created in 2011. There are thousands of participants, “Colour Runners,” who are showered in a different colour at every kilometer mark. The Colour Run hosts annual events in over 200 cities and 40 countries. It comes to Lausanne every September.
While being great fun, the event also raises money for charity, partnering with the ‘Make A Wish Foundation‘.
It is untimed and completing the race is not required. It’s a lot of fun. So much fun that the organization prides itself with the slogan, “The Happiest 5K on the planet.”
This year’s colour run took place on a Sunday the 25th at 9, 10 and 11am. From Coppet, it takes half an hour to get to Lausanne with an extra 15 minute long metro ride to the event. I recommend arriving an hour early – for the 11am start people begin getting ready at 10:40.
Before the event, you pick up a sports bag from a Coop in Lausanne. It will contain all the necessities for the run, including your ticket, a white colour run shirt, a headband, some stick-on tattoos, your number for the run, some pins, and a packet of colour powder just for you (mine was an ugly green).
Anyway, once you’re there, you get in place with hundreds of other geared up Colour Runners.
You’re closed in with the other runners, awaiting your turn; since there are so many people, the participants start in groups at a specific time. While you wait, you open your colour packets, blind your friends and, yes, take about a hundred of picture.
But suddenly it’s your turn and you’re free.
There are so many people that you only start at a walking pace, although you are later able to pass people walking.
You can walk, run, jog, roll, anything you want on the 5K, though it’s hard with such huge crowds. I remember passing a blue powder checkpoint, a purple one, and a red one through the course. You run through a park and along the lake as a loop back to where you began, where in the final stretch volunteers completely cover you with every colour. They spare no expense. It’s awesome 🙂
At the end, when you and fellow Color Runners have completed the race and received a medal, you can grab lunch at the stalls set up just next to the finish line (pasta, churros, sandwiches, etc.). There is also a stage blasting past hits and throwing even more colour when the beat drops.
And that’s it. You can stay as long as you like, though there’s only so much powder that your eyes can take :)).
I highly recommend it. It’s just a fun experience. Something to do with your friends.
*The colour powder is made out of corn starch, safe and eco-friendly.
Price of it all? 45CHF for the ticket, plus around 21CHF for a two way ticket from Coppet or Nyon. A little pricey, so it’s up to you.
If you don’t want to go all the way to Lausanne, there is another colour run that takes place in Carouge, and it happens on the same weekend as the Lausanne one. It’s on a smaller scale with more running involved, but still 5K with a lot of colour and a good time.
So just a hint at what the Colour Run is about :)) Hope you go next year! (Counts for CAS if you have someone over 18 or if there is someone you know who knows you went).
The Update 