This year marked the first annual Blue Sky Day Ames Live! In Color 5K Run/Walk. Participants registered near the Memorial Union Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and the race began at 10 a.m. Tom Hill, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs, gave a pep talk to the participants before starting the race.

The route of the race took participants from Central Campus to the east edge of campus near CyRide, along the north by Molecular Biology, past the College of Design and back through Central Campus before ending at Richardson Court. Four color stations were placed along the route. A powder party was held at Richardson Court in which participants could play around in even more colored powder.

Official counts of how many people registered have not been reported yet, but Jason Lee with Lutheran Services of Iowa said he believes it was close to two thousand considering they had 1,500 pre-registrants. He said last year their were only 1,100 participants in the Blue Sky Day Run/Walk. Lee estimated $50,000 raised.

Volunteers from both Lutheran Services of Iowa and Kohl’s were there to help with the registration booth. Among them was State Representative Lisa Heddens. She said there had been a steady flow of registrants all morning.