Color Runs

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Moshe and Solly are in Bondi having a man-to-man chat. Moshe says, "I’m so embarrassed to have to tell you Solly but, oy veh, I am having trouble keeping up an erection." 

"You’re in luck Moshe," says Solly, "you’re talking to the right man. I have just the solution for you - eat a lot of rye bread. It worked for me." 

After they leave, Moshe thinks about what Solly has said and although he doesn’t really believe it, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to try it out. So he goes to the Edgcliffe bakery and, as he's searching on the shelves for the rye bread, a saleslady goes over to him and politely asks, "Can I help you sir?"

"That's very nice of you," replies Moshe. "Yes, I do need some help. Do you have any rye bread?"

"Of course we do," she replies with a lovely smile. "We have a whole shelf of it. Would you like me to get you a loaf?"

"Yes," replies Moshe. "Please get me five large loaves of your best rye bread."

"Oy vey," she says. "Five loaves! By the time you get to the third loaf, it will be hard."

On hearing this, Moshe exclaims “How come everybody knows about this except me?”

My reason in posting the above joke, which has been previously posted on Bytes, is that the subject of today’s post, Color Runs, seems to be known by so many people around me that, like Moshe, I ask “How come everybody knows about this except me?”

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My acquaintance with Color Runs began when my daughter, Acacia, who is presently visiting Oz from Dubai, where she lives and works, sent the following photograph of herself:

The reason she looks so . . . pink . . . is that she had participated in a fun run where people throw coloured powder at each other.

I then heard son Thomas discussing the run with her and his surprise that they had such runs in Dubai.

Everybody knows except me, I had never even heard of them.

It prompted me to read up on the activity and some items of interest are set out below.

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The Holi Festival in India features worshippers throwing coloured powder at each other :

Taking inspiration from that festival, in 2012 American event producer Travis Snyder initiated the first Color Run, a 5 kilometre event that has no winners or prizes, but showers runners with coloured powder at stations along the run. It was his aim to encourage professionals and novices to run together, not for prizes or times but for fun.

There were events in over 50 North American cities in 2012,making it the largest five-kilometre event series in the United States.

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The event has now spread to South America, Europe, Australia, South Africa and, as noted, Dubai.

It is planned to also hold events into dozens more countries in Europe and Asia.

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Because the concept originated in the US, American spelling remains used for the word “Color”

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Participants can walk as well as run.

Runners begin dressed in clean white t-shirts, and pass through a colour station once every kilometre. Each colour station is associated with a different colour, with volunteers blasting the runners with dyed cornstarch out of spray bottles. Runners complete the course covered in the safe and colourful powder. At the finish line following the untimed run, there are typically celebrations featuring a dance party and food vendors

Runs draw up to 30,000 participants.

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Some pics:

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