When the Color Run’s Through the Kingdom

The date October 26, 2019 - aka, my first marathon in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! I ran several marathons before namely Mumbai Green Half Marathon, The Tribute Run, Western Hero’s half Marathon, Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and so on & so forth, however the experience of my recent one i.e. The Color Run (Riyadh) - "The Happiest 5k on the Planet" organized by General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, was one of the most distinct & kinda fun-to-run as it was more of an initiative to bring people together & spread the joy than a traditional competitive Marathon race event. Another thing which made it special is, running this one alongside my Better Half, my wife Astha Singh. Yes, a Lady Running the Marathon which simply showcases a major transformation the Kingdom is striving towards.

I collected the participants pack a couple of days prior to the event as didn’t wanted to goof-up things. The accessories within the pack were quite state of the art and we both went even more excited having a look onto the same.

As the race time was at 07:40 GMT, (However the first wave was suppose to start by 08:30 GMT) we started early & drove to the event location i.e. Riyadh Season Boulevard zone. As expected, it was altogether a different picture out there with people from several other nationalities such as Philippines, India, Egypt, United Kingdom along with a huge number of participants from the Saudi Arabia - the host country.

Though the weather was a bit numb, the sunrise looked quite promising & friendly, alongside the energy amongst the people was electric at the venue resulting us both being excited and ready to go.

Finally, we crossed the start line! At this point, we both were just looking forward to warming up. The fun started with the first checkpoint i.e. blue color zone at around a mile away from the start point. The spectators around the run were so enlivening! One of my personal favorite parts of races is reading the hilarious signage, high-fiving random strangers and hearing motivational cheering in which we both were quite indulged into. We kept on crossing every checkpoint mile after mile crossing Yellow, green, red and pink color zones. Its turn out to be a Holi festival (Traditional color festival in India) and the moment was even more special because It was Saudi Arabia, and this was the first time we encountered with the Local Saudi Nationals & trust me there were amazing in terms of socializing & Celebrations.

As soon as we crossed the Pink Color Zone i.e. the last check point, we were running towards our final mile, and can’t really await to have the Finishers Medal around ourselves. We touched down the finish line, and off course awarded with the Finishers Medal soon after we completed the Run.

My wife, Astha who was indeed running her first Marathon ever was not quite sure on finishing up the race at since the beginning but the way we all went she found a true winner within herself. She believed on the philosophy of Henry Fort,” Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.” Which eventually turned out to be in her favor.

I could probably write about this all day, but I’ll leave this recap at that. If it wasn’t so obvious already specially for my wife Astha, but she eventually took this message away,

” You can do it! You can! You can! You can!”

I am sure you must be excited to watch the actual visuals of the event, and to serve the same please refer to the video below to witness the "The Happiest 5k on the Planet"

I hope you would have enjoyed the reading out, right from the top. I would really love to see your views / comments onto the same.

At the end, we both (Myself & my wife Mrs. Astha Singh) are thankful to the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia for organizing such a state-of-the-art event through there Riyadh Season initiative towards the Vision 2030.