Three, two, one! Everyone’s hands fly up, throwing fistfulsof colorful powder into the air. A cloud of blue, pink, purple, yellow and orange covered the entire group of people. It was like a dream, all sight was lost for a bit. All you could see was colorful nonsense everywhere–happiness at its finest,” said Danielle Quinn, a volunteer color thrower at the recent Albert Lea Color Dash, described the “color explosion” that happens at the end of color dashes and color runs.

Many students have participated in color dashes and runs, including senior Rachel Kenis. The Albert Lea Color Dash was Kenis’s second Color Dash.

“I love Color Dashes,” Kenis said. “Its a fun way to get your mind off of running.”

Kenis explained how having music and color powder thrown at you distracts you from how tired you are from all the running. Kenis is looking forward to doing more runs like this in the future.

Junior Riley Schulz participated in the Color Run in St. Paul with a group of friends. Schulz said the only drawback to the Color Run was that the day she ran it was in the high temperatures. She was sweating and the colors all mixed together to form a grayish color. Schulz said having the color thrown at her wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be, but next time she’s going to wear sunglasses.

Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa, ALHS guidance counselor, has participated in several themed runs including the Color Dash, Reindeer Run and the Turkey Trot. Hugstad-Vaa said she enjoys running in these runs because they are fun and the money goes to a good cause. Half of the money from the Albert Lea Color Dash stayed local, one fourth of it went to the weight room at Albert Lea High School and one fourth of it went to the Albert Lea Youth 1st Chapter. The other half of the money goes to the Color Dash Organization.

“After the Color Run we went to Noodles and Company, it wasn’t open yet. We were all blue, just waiting outside to go in. The workers looked creeped out having blue people waiting outside the door,” Schulz said