The 7's: In Color

Today, a few of our Cincinnati friends joined together to form The Color Fools and run the Color Run downtown. I don't usually get too deep in the 7's, but today really taught me something special. This morning was so cold, and so early for a Saturday, and to be completely honest, I did not want to get out of bed. I was excited for the event, but totally lagging once this morning rolled around. Once we got downtown and met up with our group, we roamed through a sea of all white outfits to the start line. As I looked around, half way frozen and barely awake, all I could see was white.  From head to toe. And honestly, it didn't wake me up at all. All the white, all the boring...I was asleep, unmotivated, and just plain tired.

Once the race started, and we hit the first Color Station (orange), I looked around at our group, and we all looked SO different.  Yes, it was one color that we were covered in, but how it hit us, mixed with our skin tones and hair colors, and fell on our faces, we were each unique. The next colors kept coming every half mile or so (blue, pink, yellow, and green), and each time we waited for each other to get our color badge, and laughed at how completely covered, vibrant, and well, alive, we were.

By the end of the 3 mile race all 6 of us were completely covered in color.  Some more green, some more pink, some a complete mix of the rainbow.  But in addition to the Color Fools, they were 10,000 more runners that were also completely covered. And not two people in that crowd looked the same. We each looked different, our colors a stand out version in a sea of every aspect of the color spectrum.

The point of all of this is, is to embrace YOUR colors.  What makes you different, honestly, it makes you beautiful. Conforming, caring what other people think, criticizing yourself, it puts you right back in that sea of...white. Who ever got anywhere in life without that extra color? They didn't. We, I, we are all so hard on ourselves every single day.  Do you ever give yourself a break and just give yourself a compliment? I don't. But maybe, after today, after seeing how all of that individuality created an incredible canvas, I will.

Don't let your colors hold you back, embrace it. Because there is no one in that crowd of 10,000, and no one in the world, that is just like you. And you can do anything--even with your face covered in green paint.

(From top to bottom: Kelsey coming out of the blue Color Station; V and J in action; Pink Power; Nihkil and Alaina post green paint dump; A just married bride and groom in their wedding attire (adore this!!!); the final color toss; post color run and loving every minute of it)

If you want to check out a Color Run in your city here is the official link, www.thecolorrun.com.

And scroll back up to the top of this post and take a look at the all white picture again.  Now that you've seen the post-race look, you have to admit, it's better with color.

Check out a video that J took of the final Color Throw!