Runners Get a Splash of Color

The Color Fun Fest 5k is a national event bringing together the Holi festival and the electric dance movement with a day and night glowing color 5K runs. The event travels to various cities and brings together communities and families to take part in a 3.1 mile course with high energy music playing along the course to keep participants pumped and 5 color stations along the course to shower the runners with color. The color is made of vibrant food-grade cornstarch that is safe and natural. At each event, there is over 10,000 pounds of color ensuring each person will become a spectrum of color according to the Color Fun Fest 5K website. On Saturday May 10th, the Color Fun Fest 5K made its way to San Bernardino where the event was held at the National Orange Show Event Center, drawing in over 7,500 local runners. Participants came with their running attire: long socks, tutus, and white Color Fun Fest 5k t-shirts ready to have color thrown on them. Cody Leibert is the Event Director and has been working with the company for the past two years, Cody works alongside his two brothers, Jaime and Wiley making it a family affair. Leibert shared, “It’s epic, it’s the most colorful fun run around. It's family-friendly and we are here to bring communities together; we want everyone to have fun.” The Castro family, Paul, Melany, Marcy and Emily ran as a family, and mother, Marcy, said of daughter, Emily, who turns 13 this year, “We wanted our daughter to go into her teen years with a physical challenge, so what better way than a color run? It’s kind of like a rite of passage to experience perseverance and training that goes into the training required to take part in a run.” There were students from Loma Linda University, and Cal Poly Pomona who came to San Bernardino along with families, and groups of friends to take part in the colorful course. Lillian Starr was in front of the DJ enjoying the music and her hula hoop in the afternoon and said, “I can’t wait for nighttime when my hula hoop lights up. I did it last year and I had a blast.” Twenty-five students from Mt. San Jacinto community college came to volunteer for the event. They are members of the community organization Alpha Gamma Sigma, which is a California Community College Scholastic Honor Society. Valerie He said, “The music is cool, and the t-shirts are cute.” There were vendors set up around the National Orange Show selling food and drinks, and a booth for participants to check in and received their t-shirt and pouch of color, they spent time sampling the fried foods, listening to the dance music in front of the stage, running the 5K course, and ended the day with splashes of color and some new friends.