Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer
Budding flowers won’t be the only splashes of color ushering in spring this year. Vibrant clouds of colorful chalk will fill the air and cover the faces and bodies of runners and walkers in the South St. Paul Color Run 3K/5K, held Saturday, April 27 at Kaposia Landing.
The Color Run is all about fun. The event has been held across the world since 2012 and was originally inspired by the Hindu festival of Holi. This is the first time one has been held in South St. Paul. It is being organized by South St. Paul Parks and Recreation and the cost to participate is $10 for individuals or $25 for families of six or less. Proceeds will support the city’s youth sports programming. All participants will receive a white “South St. Paul Color Run” t-shirt to wear during the race, which kicks off at 9 a.m. Both the 3K and 5K routes are a loop.
Here’s how it works. Volunteers and chosen spectators are equipped with bottles of chalk that they liberally spray at the runners and walkers so by the end of the run everybody is coated in a rainbow of colors.
“We’re going to spray color at the beginning and end [of the route],” said South St. Paul recreation specialist Heather Flock, who noted that safety glasses will be available. “We’re also going to spray color throughout it if I can get groups of volunteers to stand at different corners of the route…. Most of the color will wash out of your shirt so we’re going to be offering a little station where you can spray your shirt down with a special formula so it will stay.” Participants may want to bring a towel to dust off with after the event because there will be no stations to rinse off.
Online registration is encouraged but people can sign up onsite from 7:30-8:30 a.m. A Nautical Bowls food truck and an ice cream truck will be present during the event.
One of the programs that will benefit from the proceeds is the South St. Paul Speedsters in Training, a 4-week program that trains youth ages 8-13 through games and team activities to complete a 5K. The Color Run is, in fact, the grand finale to this year’s program.
The event was spearheaded by Flock, who was hired last September. She has a bachelor’s in exercise and sports science and a master’s in sports administration from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and brings a wealth of experience as a former director of athletics, activities and fitness. Previously, she was campus recreation director at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and before that spent about 20 years as the aquatic director at the Red Wing YMCA. An avid runner, she said she’d like to hold a 3K/5K of some sort each year, likely in the spring.
“I’m a huge runner and I absolutely love doing this stuff,” she said. “I used to direct races in Red Wing, and I noticed they didn’t have one [here in South St. Paul] and I thought this is perfect timing because we have a little break between Flannel Fest and our summer kick-off…. Students that don’t normally like to run will get out and run and be active just ’cause it’s such a fun day.”
To register or for more information, visit webtrac.southstpaul.org and search “color run.”
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