The Color Run

   This morning was The Color Run, another in the line of popular "adventure races", and the first of its kind in Kansas City. I was up bright and early (5:15 am... shudder) to head out to the sports complex where the Chiefs and the Royals play—with 15,000 of my closest friends—to join the fun. The event was so popular that they expanded it to Saturday AND Sunday, and had 30,000 registrants. They said this is the highest registration anywhere in the country for the Color Run so far. Yay, KC! Hopefully they will make a ton of money to benefit the Ronald McDonald house! This is also one of the biggest runs in KC that I'm aware of (Trolley Run has been hovering around 12,000; the October KC Marathon may be the only race which eclipses it?). 

   The process is pretty simple: show up in a plain, white shirt. Line up in 1,000-person waves, which launch every 5 minutes, beginning at 7:30 am. Here we are lining up in a huge chute... in our nice, clean, white (but not for long!) t-shirts:

   Clouds of color marked the race in four "color stations", where volunteers douse you with giant squeeze bottles full of intensely-colored paint powder: yellow, orange, blue and pink! (This is pink, but it's so dense and hazy that you almost can't tell!)

The runners gathered to cheer on the others as they came in to the finish line:

Here's a montage of the color dust all over the road:

   So why is this run so happy?  Maybe it's the charity. Maybe it's the color. Or maybe because this event isn't timed? As we ran, we each carried along our personal color packet, given to each registrant (mine was super-intense-purple—but I never threw it. I saw a little boy without any and gave mine to him. He was thrilled!). At the finish line, everyone danced to the DJ and when he told us to throw our colors up in the air, we created a technicolor cloud over the mosh pit.
   It was awesome living it up with all the other Color People, including the sumo wrestler (how he didn't incinerate while running in that suit, I will never know!)

Oops, I used the same photo twice. No more wine while blogging!

   This race was all ages, all skill levels. Many people ran with their kids in strollers. (I swear, next year, I'm taking Taylor!) A few people decided to get extra color for the ride home by rolling on the ground. Color craziness, I tell you! It was a total blast & I would for sure do this run again!!!

Random Hallmark moments: The Chief

 

   I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a talk with Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley yesterday; he came to Hallmark to share stories from his career and talk about leadership. What a treat! He offered some great principles and reminders. Namely, that you should expect a lot from people and push hard. And how important it is for the people you lead to know how much you care about them.

   It made me reflect on how fortunate I am to work for such a caring company full of truly unique and talented people. Caring for those around me is easy: everyone is so fun and interesting, with great senses of humor, cool families, interesting hobbies and great stories.

   This week was one of the most challenging I can remember in quite a while. (And not just because I had 2 flat tires, Taylor hurt his paw, and Gypsy peed all over me and made me late to work.) We were in jeopardy of losing the opportunity to have our product placed for Christmas with a major retailer. And in part due to mistakes I had made. I had to consciously move past my fears about potential consequences for myself and figure out how to rally the whole team to overcome the situation. And as I'm sitting here at work tonight with my core team, adding support where I can and making sure the work gets done, I'm reflecting on the experience.

   I am very proud of the work at the end of the week. I'm even more proud of how everyone banded together and pitched in, and had fun together despite working so hard. We won't know for a few days what the retailer's response will be, but in one sense, we've already won.

   Today was actually a very fun day (despite being at work for 14+ hours). I asked the other managers to help me bring breakfast treats for the whole crowd, and then I ran out to Costco at lunchtime to renew my membership and pick up pizzas. Little did I know what a great idea THAT was... I didn't expect to be at work until 10 pm, and the leftover pizza made a pretty good dinner.

Joan, Sara, Jerry & I head to the parking garage; the last ones in the building, other than the cleaning staff!

   Although we devoured almost all of the food, there were some choice items left. Olivia just MMS'd these photos of her adorable boys enjoying the last of the cream cheese/wild blueberry danish. Looks like it was a good end to the day for everyone!

You're going down, KC Wolf!!!

...at least, that's what Aki says. The Chiefs' mascot kept coming in & out of that door and taunting all the dogs, who clearly wanted a piece of him. Not sure if it was his googly eyes or his pointy nose, his clown pants or the faint smell of vomit that riled them up. It was so incredibly, miserably, freaking hot, that guy must have been dying in there.

"That's the biggest dog I've ever seen!"

Okay, now he's just asking for it:

The showdown:

Success! She chased him off!

Pack of wild shibas in action: