Flavor Run

He’s been all about these tattoos lately.  A few years ago he hated temporary tattoos, so I’m not sure what exactly sprouted this change.  

We drove about an hour to the location of this race.  My mom’s friend came too.  She’s been doing a lot of races with us lately, and Tanner has started to call her his girlfriend. ADORABLE.

We each got a flavor packet when we picked up our bibs.  Tanner decided we needed color immediately, so we decided to start having some fun before the race.

The packets appear to be a lot like the stuff from Color Run, but these colors SMELL delicious.  They all have a very fruit smell.  I’m not sure about the “flavor” aspect…. definitely wasn’t about to dye my whole mouth various colors to get a taste.

We headed over to the start line pretty early.  It was a small race, but we wanted to make sure we were in the first wave of people.  They started throwing around a  beach ball at the start, so of course Tanner needed a lift to get a better view.  

There was A LOT of color at the start line.  They had big blasters coming around getting everyone.  They also had this contraption that poured color on you as you went through the start line.  Very cool.

Tanner decided early on he wanted to run with his Uncle Kevin.  I absolutely love how close Tanner is with his uncles.  Thankfully Kevin wasn’t out to score any PRs this race, and was glad to run with his little nephew. 

I promise you they did run a bit.  I actually think Tanner did more running in this race, than any other race.  At the last Color Run I got in the habit of jogging/walking with them, then sprinting when we got to color.  I would go through then wait for them to try to get that “perfect” photograph of Tanner coming through.  I’m most definitely not a pro photographer.

This course was a bit different, as it was actually a two loop course.  I’m not sure how much I loved this idea.  The first loop was great.  There were three color stops and each stop did a great job pounding on the color.  

Unfortunately, every color stop was out of color for our 2nd loop.  One stop had a a small amount left and was hard core rationing it, but the other two were clearly completely out.  This was a bummer.  

Tanner found a donkey on the 2nd loop, and had to stop to say hello.  He petted it and thought he was the coolest thing.  He was telling everyone how he “petted the animal,” because he was convinced it was not a donkey…. but he had no idea what it was.  Kids are funny.

The end of the race was a bit uneventful, but I loved the medal.

How fun is this medal!?  Tanner’s favorite part of races is getting a banana, so he was excited to see this medal.  I’m not kidding about the banana either.  I’ve seen runners say this and clearly they are joking – but clearly Tanner is not.  He got ridiculously upset at one race because there wasn’t a banana.  It was just a tiny bit embarrassing….

After the race we had fun with some more color.  Uncle Kevin was sneaky and caught a pack at the start line, and he hid it to the very end.  He surprised Tanner, then gave it to him to play with.

All in all, it was a great race.  I enjoyed the smaller atmosphere of this race, and thought they did a great job with the race swag.  The race shirt was yellow, not white, which was a plus.  The course was pretty, but I do wish it could have been made into one loop somehow.  It’s always a bit of a bummer to have to pass through a finish line in the middle of a course.  My fist full marathon was like this and it was not very motivating.

I also was very impressed with the strong scent of the different colors.  I was not expecting it to be so powerful, but there was no denying that the color had some scent. 

My mom is having surgery on Monday, so she won’t be able to do any races for awhile.  She’s really bummed, but I know this extended recovery will be good for her.  She’s been power walking daily for over a year now, and usually does 5-7 miles a day.  I don’t think she has EVER taken more than a day off each week.  Rock star status, for sure.   I’m glad I was able to complete this race with her and can’t wait to complete her 1st post-surgery race with her in a few months!

We also ran a Valentine’s Day 5k this morning.  It was not all “lovey dovey” though. Tanner through a fit about a mile in and sat on the curb crying.  He was very frustrated and didn’t want to finish.  I told my mom to keep going and Tanner and I walked back to the finish line and waited for everyone. Kevin placed 2nd in his age group and won a fancy medal and free girl scout cookies.  Tanner would have placed in his age group for the first time ever if he finished, but he did not.  It was beyond frustrating and I don’t even have the patience to blog about.

Have you ever done a Flavor Run?  What did you think?