Our History
The Color Run, the world’s first COLOR 5k™ event, was founded in March 2011 as an event to promote healthiness and happiness by bringing the community together to participate in the “Happiest 5k on the Planet”. We are the original paint race and have created a completely new genre of COLOR DASH™ running events that continues to grow exponentially.
Now the single largest event series in the world, The Color Run has exploded since our debut event. We have more than exceeded our growth expectations, now hosting events in over 200 cities and 40 countries every year. Here is our colorful history at a glance over these past few years:
2014
The Color Run debuts their first ever U.S. night run in Philadelphia! The Color Run Night is born.
2014
The Color Run Launched its massively successful Kaleidoscope Tour which visited over 150 cities in the U.S. and Canada.
2015
Color Runners around the world experienced the Shine Tour which introduced a whole new element of sparkle.
2016
The Color Run Tropicolor World Tour is bringing an exciting, island-style 5k vacation to your city around the world!
Tropicolor World Tour 2016
The Color Run Tropicolor World Tour 2016 marks the fifth anniversary of The Color Run. Get ready to celebrate with more fun, more sun, and even more colors for you and your friends to experience together. Want to see Tropicolor in action? Watch our New Video Here!
Participants will experience an all-new Tropicolor Zone™ on course, where they will be bathed in a tropical array of colors and delicious island scents as they pass through the shade of palm trees, arches, and island-style music. At the Finish Festival, Color Runners will enjoy even more fun at Rainbow Beach, an interactive island featuring music, dancing, unique photo opportunities, and massive color throws.
Each Color Runner will also receive a limited-edition Tropicolor race shirt, finisher’s medal on a floral-printed ribbon, embroidered headband, and fun temporary tattoos. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first experience with The Color Run or you’ve been joining in for years, the Tropicolor World Tour will be the most memorable 5k of your life.
The Color Run Night
There is an enchanting energy when the sun goes down, so come join us for this star-lit party. Glowtastic color zones, illuminating bubble zones, sweet photo opps, glowing color shows and bumping music will give runners an experience to remember forever. All participants also receive a limited edition Night Race kit, including: glowing tee, black light headlamp, and one of a kind glow color packet to help you get your glow.
How The Event Works
Less about your 10-minute-mile and more about having the time of your life, The Color Run is a five-kilometer, un-timed event in which thousands of participants, or “Color Runners”, are doused from head to toe in different colors at each kilometer. With only two rules, the idea is easy to follow:
- 1Wear white at the starting line!
- 2Finish plastered in color!
After Color Runners complete the race, the fun continues with an unforgettable Finish Festival. This larger than life party is equipped with music, dancing and massive color throws, which create millions of vivid color combinations. Trust us, this is the best post-5k party on the planet! The map below outlines The Color Run 5k at a glance:
Healthiness
While our 5k event is all about having fun, we also focus on promoting a healthy lifestyle. More than half of our participants are first-time 5k runners and the event is making headway on the national focus of improving health and wellness. We hope that The Color Run 5k event will be able to act as a catalyst for our participants to live an active, healthy lifestyle.
Happiness
Seeing how happy The Color Run has made people has been tremendously rewarding for us. It is an event for all fitness levels, ages and backgrounds. Our tag line, “The Happiest 5k on the planet”, was created after seeing the expressions of pure joy from participants. Want to add some happiness to your life? Find Your City Here
Individuality
Color Runners vary in demographics and reasons for running. With no winners or official times, The Color Run caters to everyone –first time runners to seasoned athletes. Some Color Runners participate as a celebration and capstone of their healthy living accomplishments, while others participate for reasons unique to them. What are you running for?
Giving Back
As a for-profit event management company, we love the opportunity we have to partner with charities to help shine a light on their amazing work within society and highlight the causes they stand for. We have raised donations for more than 80 local and national charities since 2012. To date, The Color Run has donated more than $4 million to charity. For more information on how The Color Run works with charities, visit our Charity Page. Interested in nominating your charity for the event in your community?