2015 changed my life in many ways. Most were in a positive form. Cat had decided to start the Couch to 5k with her friends on our estate. To which I thought about rounding up the husbands to do the same. I’ve never ran properly in my life. I was always the kid at school with a note from his mam. However, anything Cat can do I was sure I could do. After a few weeks of getting through the 5k program, Cat saw the Color Obstacle Rush Newcastle advertised on Facebook.
“Alan? Can you watch the kids on Saturday, July 18th?”
“Yeah. Why what you doing?”
“Some obstacle course at Newcastle Race course”
I’d agreed to being the responsible adult and watch our kids. No big deal really, thats why I’m a Dad.
That isn’t a big deal until it sinks in a few days later that Cat’s off to do an Obstacle Course, that also covers a 5Km course and covers you in powder paint. If she can do it, so can I! Except I’ve agreed to look after the kids. So it was time to rope in more friends and see if we could include someone else so I could shirk off my fatherly responsibilities.
This is where Adam and Zoe come in. Adam and I host a Disney podcast called Disney Brit. Adam started the podcast around 2009 and I joined it around 2013. By total coincidence, we’d both started running at the beginning of 2015, but after a few months Disneyland Paris announced that they were to host a half Marathon in 2016. So both our hobbies were converging on one event. So, as part of our training we added a goal of completing the Color Obstacle Rush at Gosforth Park Race Course
Color Obstacle Rush Newcastle
Cat’s team of runners was four strong. My team consisted of Adam (Disney Brit), Stephen (friend on our estate) and me. We also thought it’s be fun to film it. Below you can see Adam (left) and Me (right) with our GoPro style head cams. Adam is wearing the Xaomi Yi, while Alan is sporting the SJ4000 sports Cam, both are in waterproof cases, just incase!
The event started off with a warm up and explanation of the event. The rules and top tips.
The area we grouped in was also the area the previous group was finishing off their run in, with a colour party. This is where you get a coloured pouch of powder and throw it in the air and get covered, just incase, the previous 5 km of run didn’t get you enough.
The compare made sure everyone was well aware that the pretty coloured powder looks tasty, but it isn’t. It’s coloured corn starch and if you get it in your mouth it’s like licking a bowl of flour.
As we put on our head cams it became more and more obvious that the girls didn’t want anything to do with us. To the point of slowing down to join the back of the crowd. As we’d trained we chose the front as we’d get through the course quicker.
The course consisted of obstacles based upon inflatable “bouncy castles”. Probably not the best description, but you will get the idea. We ran out of the holding pen down hill through a foam machine, that was spilling out at head height, around the corner and up hill. I totally didn’t realise that there were hills at Gosforth Park Race Course, but then again we weren’t where the horses ran, we were nearer the Golf Course.
As we approached the next obstacle we were instructed to spin around and roll over on the ground. While we were down we’d get a spirt of powder paint… all over. It was clear we’d get covered. One area was a marque that had strings passing through it like a spiders web. The color such crew said “it’s easier if your crawl”. So we got on our bellies and crawled, as we got covered in orange powder. We looked like giant wotsits!
We got around the course and kept hearing that we were the first from our wave of runners. In fact we were over lapping the previous waves of runners. Our race ended with a climb up a giant inflatable climbing wall with rope to help pull yourself up. We slid down the other side, the doused with powder. Quickly handed our medals and a packet of coloured powder. This is when we were supposed to wait for the rest of the waves runners, but as we were first to finish we knew we had a little wait. So instead free styled with the powder. As I opened the packet the wind caught it and… sorry Adam.
I’d thrown it towards the camera, but the paint ended up to the side and behind!
As you can see below we got a good colour in our cheeks and the beige shorts were chosen for colour application, not fashion,
However, I think the best way to experience the Color Obstacle Rush is to either run it for yourself or view our head cam footage.
Oh and Yes Cat did get to the finish line and seemed to enjoy the rush. Although her shower cap seemed to prevent the color from sticking to her all over!
The Colour Obstacle Rush is on again in 2016 at Newcastle, Gosforth Park Race Course. I can totally recommend it and I’m tempted to do it again.
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