Our History

The Color Run, the world’s first COLOR 5Km 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”.

 

Now the single largest event series in the United States, The Color Run has grown exponentially since our debut event. We have more than exceeded our growth expectations, now hosting events in over 200 cities and 40 countries in every year. Here is our colorful history at a glance over these past few years:

The Color Run debuts their first ever U.S. night run in Philadelphia! The Color Run Night is born.

The Color Run Launched its massively successful Kaleidoscope Tour which visited over 150 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Color Runners around the world experienced the Shine Tour which introduced a whole new element of sparkle.

The Color Run Tropicolor World Tour brought and exciting, island-style 5k vacation to cities around the world.

Tropicolor World Tour

The Color Run Tropicolor World Tour celebrates 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 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.

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:

Tropicolor Course Map

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? Join us 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?

The Color Run Tropicolor Tour is one of the funnest things my family and I have ever done. Very family friendly and super tropical.
WOW! I cannot wait until The Color Run comes back to my city. It was seriously the best day. My friends and I had a blast.
The new Tropicolor tour is even better than last year! They had a sandy beach area at the end with huge inflatable beach balls. So fun.
The Tropicolor zone had big inflatable palm trees! My friends and I had so much fun this year. We love TCR!
My favorite part was the party at the finish line that had super cool photo ops, music, and a beach area with cool vibes!