Approximately 200 runners and walkers took to the paths of Lake Mendota Park to be doused in color at the first 5K Color Fun Run in Mendota.

In partnership with Live Well Mendota, the Next Gen Leaders and Mendota YMCA hosted the event for the first time on Sunday afternoon.

“I want to thank everyone for coming out and participating today,” Mendota Project Director Annie Short said. “I also want to thank our sponsors for helping us make this possible.”

The 5K run started at the Fish Park pavilion and took participants around Lake Mendota and the baseball/softball fields of Lake Mendota Park while getting splashed with colors at eight different stations along the route.

“We saw that they had been doing these types of events all over and wanted to give it a try,” Short said.

Mendota YMCA Director Steve Donnell said that the Next Gen Leaders pushed for the color run as its third event of the year.

“They did the Powder Puff football and the Powder Tuff volleyball, and then wanted to do something like this,” he said. “This is definitely the most complex of them all.”

In addition to the 5K, the afternoon event featured music, color stations, an ice cream sundae bar, a photo booth and yard games like horseshoes, cornhole and ladder toss.

Once participants crossed the finish line, covered in a potpourri of vibrant colors, they were congratulated and given water and a ticket for ice cream.

Despite this being the first time the collaborative efforts of organizations put together a color fun run in Mendota, the buzz for the event was felt by many.

Violet Lopez and Antonio Aldana came to see what some other communities in the area have experienced in the past.

“My friends invited me to come out for this and I just decided to go because, why not,” Lopez said.

Neither Lopez nor Aldana had participated in an event like this before Sunday afternoon.

“Honestly, I was expecting way fewer people than what is here right now,” Aldana said.

While there was plenty to enjoy outside of the run, some hardcore runners took their performance seriously.

Kai Berry, a freshman from Ottawa, finished in first place and said the 5K Color Run was a unique experience for her.

“I just love to run,” she said. “I’ve never done anything like this before. It was really fun.”

Ruti Arteaga was the first man to cross the finish line and, while certainly exhausting, said the color run was a worthwhile exercise.

“This is my first fun run,” he said. “It was fun to participate in something unique and be able to see what the nature of Mendota has to offer while you’re doing it.”

All proceeds from the 5K Color Fun Run benefit youth and family activities hosted by Live Well Mendota and Next Gen Leaders.

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Ruti Artaega of Mendota, gets covered in pink powder as he crosses the finish line during the Color Fun Run on Sunday, April 26, 2026 at Lake Mendota. Artaega got third place at the Color Fun Fun. (Scott Anderson)