Young and old, couch potatoes and athletes alike joined together at Mackenzie Park in Lubbock, TX on March 23 for the Color Run. Approximately 14,000 people lined up at the starting line, anxiously awaiting their turn to start the 5K.

“It was a great experience,” Rachel Hedtke, sophomore Sports and Exercise Science major, said. “It was definitely worth waking up at 5 a.m. to run.”

Known as the “Happiest 5K on the Planet”, The Color Run is a racing experience that promotes health, happiness and individuality as well as giving back to local charities. The un-timed race has color stations set up at each kilometer where participants are saturated with colored powder from head to toe.

“My favorite part was being surrounded by people having a great time doing something that wouldn’t normally be fun at all,” Avery Miller, freshman Mass Communications major, said. “The atmosphere was awesome.”

The Color run made it’s debut in 2012 in 50 cities and roughly 600,00 participants. The race has grown in popularity and is scheduled to stop in over 100 cities with over a million participants.

Since there were approximately 14,000 participants lined up at the starting line in Lubbock, people had to wait their turn in line, up to an hour, before they could begin the run.

After reaching the finish line though, participants went to the “Color Festival” where they simultaneously threw up colored power to create vivid color combinations.

“Don’t think about the running part,” Miller said. “Just try to get as much color on you as possible.”

The Color Run race will be coming to Amarillo on June 15 and will be partnering with the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health.

You can find more information online at thecolorrun.com/amarillo/.