Dubbed as the happiest five kilometre race on earth, the Color Run is returning to Qatar for another year. Presented by the health initiative of Sahtak Awalan, Your Health First, the race is participated by hundreds and focuses on wellness and health besides providing a fun opportunity.
Returning to the Qatar National Convention Centre on January 9 this year, the Color Run is a unique paint race that celebrates healthiness, happiness, individuality, and giving back to the community.
It is less about your 10-minute-mile and more about having the time of your life, say the organisers. The Color Run is a five-kilometre, un-timed race in which thousands of participants are doused from head to toe in different colours at each kilometre.
The fun continues at the finish line with a gigantic Color Festival, using more coloured powder to create happiness and lasting memories, not to mention millions of vivid colour combinations.
“We call The Color Run the ‘Happiest 5K on the Planet’ because our events bring together friends and family in a unique, healthy, and fun environment,” says Travis Snyder, founder of The Color Run. And after hundreds of thousands of participants have crossed the finish line, the name has stuck.
Color Runners vary in demographics and reasons for running. With no winners or official times, The Color Run caters to anyone, 1 year olds to 100 year olds, first time runners to professional athletes. Over 60 percent of Color Runners are first-time 5k runners and participate as a celebration and capstone of their healthy living accomplishments. Others participate to honour loved ones who have passed or are fighting diseases.
“At The Color Run, we are passionate about giving back to the community, so 1 US dollar of each entry will be donated to charity through JustGiving, the world’s largest fundraising platform. We also encourage our Color Runners to raise even more money for the charity that is important to you personally,” says the organisers.
Since JustGiving’s launch in 2001, they have enabled over 21 million people raise over $2 billion for charities around the world. Each Color Runner will have the option to choose from one of 8,000 charities registered with JustGiving.
Now touted as the single largest event series on the planet, The Color Run is exploding since its debut in January of 2012 and grew from 50 events and 600,000 participants in 2012, to over 100 events and over a million participants in 2013.
While The Color Run is all about fun and positive energy, the 5k also focuses on promoting healthy living. Over 60% of Color Runners are first-time 5k runners and the event is making headway on the growing national focus of improving health and wellness.
In October, The Color Run event was featured on Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play, an initiative to motivate youth to get out and be active. The segment showed how kids celebrated around the country, featuring Nickelodeon stars and celebrities.
The Color Run event was a major highlight of the segment, and showed kids’ participation and thoughts on the 5k.
The registration for the race remains open usually until a day before the race day, however, the slots are quickly taken. For this year, the organisers are giving two options for registration, the team and individual registration.
If you are signing up as a team of four or more friends, regular registration will cost QR160 per runner. Team captains can set up their teams and share a password with their friends to allow them to join. A minimum of four people have to register in a team.
However, if you are signing up by yourself, regular registration will cost QR170. All the fun will be kicking off from 7:15 am on the morning of Saturday, January 9.
After the gates open, the participants will be able to follow the music to get to the start area. Reebok’s Les Mills team will get all of Color Runners warmed up with their energetic routines before the Color Runners make their way into the Start Chute.
At 8:30am, the first wave of Color Runners will set off with successive waves setting off every 5mins. The Start Chute closes at 9:15am and “the biggest and best post-5k party kicks off in the Finish Festival.” At 12 noon, The Finish Festival will close.