Color Run returns to Oak Mountain High

The students of Oak Mountain High School will host the third annual Color Run 5K at Oak Mountain State Park on March 12, raising money for cancer research at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The race was started in 2014 by Mollie Shealy and Mandy Kelly, who were seniors at Oak Mountain, to honor grandparents who had died of cancer. But the student-managed run – despite its serious purpose – is “fun, community-oriented and family-friendly,” said Claire Kendrick, the event coordinator.

By the end of the run, each participant is covered with powdered paint, a “fun element” that Shealy and Kelly added to the race, Kendrick said. “The powder actually symbolically represents different types of cancers that we are fighting to find a cure for,” she said.

About 200 people took part in the event last year, and organizers hope to draw about 400 this year, Kendrick said. Those attendees will include Shealy and Kelly, who are now in college. “They always come back to participate and start off the race,” Kendrick said.

Being a volunteer at the event is “incredibly meaningful,” Kendrick said. “It allows us to make a difference in the fight against cancer as well as honoring the survivors as well as all our loved ones whom we have lost their lives to this horrible disease,” she said.

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., and the race begins between 8:45 and 9 a.m. The $40 entry fee includes a shirt and runner’s bag. Oak Mountain State Park is at 200 Terrace Drive in Pelham. 

For more information or to sign up for the run, go to oakmountaincolorrun.com.