Hershey, Pennsylvania

First off, before we get started, I’d just like to point out the embarrassing fact that I can’t even spell Savannah, Georgia. WOW JESSICA, WOW. This isn’t Jimmy Fallon where H’s are “EW”. Sorry I spelled your name wrong, city of Savannah.

Now that THAT’S out of the way, I wanna talk about Hershey PA! It was so. Much. FUN! Suuch a great weekend. Here’s de lowdown...

This trip was from Wednesday-Monday because Hershey had a two-day race since so many people registered. I left Wednesday and made it onto my flight right as they were boarding the last people. I just have this thing where I love to see how close I can make it I guess… More like I went through security twice because the first time they thought I was a terrorist with my opened yogurt that I hadn’t started eating yet. And they wouldn’t let me eat it on the other side of security- how lame is that? Well they have every right to do that. I could have been a terrorist with that yogurt. I’m kidding by the way, NSA…

            We landed in Baltimore and drove through some iconic Baltimore streets that made me feel like I was in Hairspray, except all the windows and doors on the street were boarded up. It was a little bit eerie I must say.

            We made our way to Hershey and decided to stop at Panera Bread because IT’S NOT IN UTAH, and we somehow got roped into some random guy trying to get us to join his multi-level-marketing company for protein drinks and wouldn’t leave us alone about it. The key to getting rid of those people is to not make direct eye contact, but just look at their forehead the whole time. Drives ‘em crazy.

            Holy cow, Hershey is INSANELY beautiful!! There were so many rolling hills with cute little barns all by themselves with tons of trees everywhere. I loved it. It was decently humid but it wasn’t too bad, except the last day when it was rainy.

Car pic of the gorgeous roads. 

            I got super lucky and had my own hotel room since there were only 3 girls. It was SAWEET. The first morning we had PPU (packet pick up) for the participants at Kohl’s and then we had a meeting. Pretty chill day. The next morning, some friends and I drove to Hershey High School and did a sprint workout on their track. That high school is DANG nice, and it was really fun to drive through the neighborhoods and see how much personality all the houses have.

Gorgeous morning @ Hershey High.

            We went to the venue (Hershey Park, right next to the theme park and the Giants Stadium) and set up all day. I love watching a huge park with just grass turn into a really cool venue. I dunno, maybe it’s dumb, but I love watching everything come together; maybe that’s why I like events so much.

For this race, The Color Run partnered with the Rett Syndrome Foundation, and our friend Noelle graduated from high school! Staff pic required. 

            The next day we woke up early for the race. The first race day went really well! The race director named Wally was a TON of fun. He bought sheets of birthday cake and just threw the entire thing into the audience. It was freaking hilarious. One entire cake went right in this girl’s face who was on her dad’s shoulders. It was amazing. She was totally fine, by the way. Wally also brought a water buffalo and was drenching everybody. It was so much fun! I had to go on stage to take some pictures, and the DJ came up behind me and dropped a big bag of yellow color all over me- I was completely covered.

            Since this was a two-day race, we didn’t have to take anything down after the race the first day! It was so nice. One of the vendors sold fried chicken and burgers, and they fed of the staff free lunch. Afterward we all changed and headed to Hershey theme park for freeeeee! That was so awesome. They have a water park inside too. I was a total idiot and decided not to wash my yellow-covered hair thinking that it would wash out in the water. WRONG. It turned my hair green!! Ya know I promise I have a brain inside somewhere. Thankfully the green didn’t stay and it washed out when I came home. Hershey has some sick roller coasters too.

            Race day #2. I made the decision in my head and in my heart that I was not going to get covered in color that day like I did the day before. I was going to avoid major colorful areas and leave the venue looking pretty clean.

About 30 minutes after they sent the first wave of runners, Wally came up to me riding a gator with another staff member. He rode up to me and said, “Hey Jess can you come here for a minute? I’ve got a question about sponsorship.” And I’m thinking, ‘Oh yeah let’s do this! I gotta impress’, and I run over and Wally throws a bucket of yellow color all over me. I. Was. COVERED. Then he started laughing and they drove away. SERIOUSLY?! It was actually really funny though. I totally fell for it.

 Everyone was efficient with cleanup and we got out of there at a decent time. I totally forgot to put sunscreen on and I wore a tank top all day. I have a real good burn to prove my stupidity. Thankfully it turned into a tan. Awww yeah.

Um... OW!!!

            After we got cleaned up we all went out to dinner at a place called Houlihan’s. It reminds me of the cheesecake factory. Yum yums. It was good. Afterward I went with my two ladies Julie and Jenny (the 3 color run girls were Julie, Jess, and Jenny. Those poor boys haha) and we drove around looking for an ice cream shop open past 9pm. Turns out most stores go to bed early. We did get out and dance to some seriously good 90’s hip-hop jamz in the middle of the street in the rain. #HERSHEYEPICMOMENTS

 They are so stinkin cool.

            The next day we went back to theme park for about an hour before heading back to the airport. I got 4 bags of pretzels on the flight home and my sweet Matteo was waiting for me at the airport. It was a great great trip! Next stop, Texas.