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Families and friends flocked to Amwaj Marina on Friday to promote healthy living and to participate in the popular Colour ME Bahrain Run by VIVIA.
Around 1,700 participants were showered in colours of the rainbow as they jogged and ran around a road route on the man-made island. The third annual event, organised by the Bahrain Road Runners (BRR) and sponsored by the telecom’s corporate social responsibility arm, VIVA Jusoor, featured a 1km run for children aged between four and 13 and a 5km marathon for participants aged 14 and up.
BRR representative Suad Almoayed said: “When we first created this eent three years ago, it was to promote healthy living and running in the kingdom. We simply wanted to get people out-andabout and to become more active. “We heard about different countries conducting a colour run and spotted it online. We wanted to do something similar but on a more local community scale. “We ordered some colours and started promoting the run. In the first year, we had more than 500 people participating. After seeing how successful it was we had to stage another one.
“In the second year, we attracted around 1,500 people running in our colourful parade. This year it has grown even further. We are so proud of the people that keep coming out to support the cause and are excited to see the event growing in popularity. “We simply wanted to create a fun day out for families and friends and we truly believe that we have accomplished that.”
The day kicked off at 11am with a food festival featuring various stalls for everyone to enjoy. By 2pm, the children started on their run and a halfan-hour later teens and adults joined in on the colourful comradery.
After every kilometre, runners were doused by orgainsers with a different colour. Soon clouds of pink, green, red, purple, blue and yellow covered the Marina as well as the onceupon-a-time white-shirted participants.
At the end of it all, each individual looked like a walking work of art and wore their shades of support proudly. Karla Solano, who works in marketing at VIVA, takes part in the event every year and this time, she shared her love for running with her husband, Badih Kazma, who works in investment.
She said: “This event gets bigger and better every year. There are more participants, more sponsorship and better awareness about the run, as well as having a healthy lifestyle. It is such a great experience and event because it involves the entire community regardless of one’s running ability.
It encourages people to be active and it promotes a good relationship amongst everyone.” It was the Al Khalo family’s first time partaking in the event and they can’t wait to join the run next year as well.
English mum Michaela attended the outing with her Bahraini husband Hussain, a jewellery shop owner, and their children, Faris, 13, and Maya, 12. She said: “It was such a wonderful day for all of us. It was well-organised and a lot of fun. “It was especially great to see locals and expats coming together to raise awareness about sport and keeping fit. Hussain and I loved seeing parents encouraging their youngsters to keep fit instead of sitting in front of the TV or computer all day. “Our children, who attend St Christopher’s School, ran both the 1km and 5km. They are quite active themselves. “The food was also great and after the event we were entertained by a local cover band called BG Harmony. It was an amazing day for the whole family. We are 100 per cent ready to take part again next year!”
Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, representative of His Majesty for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, chairman of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and president of Bahrain Olympic Committee, also participated with his children, Shaikh Hamad, Shaikh Mohammed and Shaikha Sheema.
The Colour Run initiative, also known as ‘The Happiest 5K on the Planet’, was founded by Utah native and event producer Travis Snyder in March 2011, in an effort to encourage professionals and novices to run together for fun and to promote healthiness and happiness.
The first event took place in March 2011 in Phoenix in the US state of Arizona, with 6,000 participants. In 2012, events were staged in more than 50 cities, with more than 600,000 joining in. In 2013, events were planned for more than 130 cities in the US, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.
In February 2013, IMG Worldwide announced a multi-year partnership with The Colour Run, with plans to expand the event series into dozens of countries in Europe and Asia. Many similar colour-themed running events have since been launched internationally.
More than 300 events were hosted in more than 50 countries in 2014. In 2015, The Colour Run featured 112 events held in the US, seven in the UK, six in Australia and four in China. With the increasing popularity of the event, organisers have also introduced ‘The Colour Run Night’ which features a 5K run after dark with glow-in-thedark chalk!
