On Friday, Oct. 23, our friends gathered in one of our senior houses’ backyard, ready for a spectacular occasion in people-watching: Fun Run.
We pulled chairs from the side of the house, arranged them to face the gravel backyard and turned on a speaker. Some friends wore their best flair, complete with a SpongeBob mask, blonde wig, gear sale shorts, feather boas and neon green fishnet stockings. We passed a megaphone around, offering our support to teams passing through.
Fun Run, an unaffiliated campus tradition, occurs once a semester. Participants gather on Yampa Field and organizers split participants into 12 random teams. Newly-formed groups are then released to various senior houses, dispersing onto neighboring streets in colorful and tacky flair. Traditionally, Fun Run is followed by a group migration to Rastall’s Dining Hall, where participants and organizers enjoy a drunken feast.
The goal? Complete the various challenges at each station, consume an entire wine bag and be the first team to return to Yampa.
According to Google Maps, the course is approximately 2.6 miles long and would take 59 minutes to walk. Teams, however, often start Fun Run at a sprint, fueled by adrenaline and the promise of drinking challenges ahead. Around house five, the Mad Dog, the wine begins to hit and teams begin to slow.
Our station hosted sloshball, a softball- or wiffleball-like game with a catch: instead of running to bases, you stop where you are and try to finish two cans of beer. When the ball is returned to home base, you have to stop drinking and put the can down. Each team was split in half, and the first group to finish their two beers won the challenge.
We saw this as the perfect opportunity to document Colorado College culture in its truest form. So we created criteria to evaluate each team on: energy, flair, team dynamic, drunkenness and ability to play sloshball. While some criteria can simply be attributed to a high-quality flair collection or grouping of players, drunkenness was guaranteed to increase throughout the afternoon.
While teams do receive numbers, we identify them based on the order they came into Craig’s. The numbers do not reflect the team, nor are we sure which team was which.
Team 0: Craig’s House Viewing Party
Energy: 10/10
Flair: 2/10
Team dynamic: 10/10
Drunkenness: 3/10
Sloshball abilities: not applicable
Let’s be honest, our team chemistry was off the charts. If you had the opportunity to listen inI’m sure you knew we were having a good time. While our viewing party is the lowest-scoring group on flair, I am confident our overall score would’ve skyrocketed if we’d played sloshball. We have some talented sloshball athletes in the group.
Team 1
Energy: 10/10
Flair: 8.7/10
Team dynamic: 9/10
Drunkenness: 0/10
Sloshball abilities: 8/10
This group doesn’t seem completely random. With multiple members of a friend group, this team should be credited with how well they spaced themselves out at Yampa field to determine their team. They finished their Mad Dog with vigor and excitement, providing us with an entertaining game of leapfrog before sloshball began.
Team 2
Energy: 4/10
Flair: 7/10
Team dynamic: 5.7/10
Drunkenness: 0/10
Sloshball abilities: 7/10
This team is about the abundance of orange the runners wore. Notes became much more comprehensive after this team left.
Team 3
Energy: 6/10
Flair: 9.3/10
Team dynamic: 6/10
Drunkenness: 1/10
Sloshball abilities: 7/10
The boys wore lots of cheetah print and pashminas. One member even donned a pink morph suit.
Team 4
Energy: 7/10
Flair: 5/10
Team dynamic: 6/10
Drunkenness: 1/10
Sloshball abilities: 9/10
Team 4 had barely made a dent in their wine bag by the time they arrived at Craig’s, but began passing it around the outfield as sloshball began. One member, dressed in a bumble costume, was deemed team MVP by the peanut gallery, and we all commented on the team’s agility. They were limber and swift, and thoroughly impressed us.
Team 5
Energy: 8/10
Flair: 9.6/10
Team dynamic: 10/10
Drunkenness: 4/10
Sloshball abilities: 9/10
When Team 5 arrived, we noticed more seniors and promptly cheered them on through the megaphone. The players were determined to win sloshball, even though it meant defeating their own team. Team 5 made a large jump in drunkenness compared to their predecessors. Apparently, rotation four makes the jump from tipsy to drunk. Team 5 had a wizard in a purple cape and hat, decorated with gold stars. His pure commitment to the costume, despite knowing you would run upwards of a 5K, earned our respect.
Team 6
Energy: 6.2/10
Flair: 6/10
Team dynamic: 7/10
Drunkenness: 2/10
Sloshball abilities: 6/10
One student arrived with his team, and it was immediately clear he was some sort of team captain, with his team rallying around him. It had been a while since we’d last seen a team with a wine bag, but this team had a long way to go.
Team 7
Energy: 4/10
Flair: 6/10
Team dynamic: 5/10
Drunkenness: 5/10
Sloshball abilities: 6/10
Team 7 trickled in slowly and had limited time, followed closely by the next team. They arrived with an empty wine bag and in a sweat, clear indicators they had been doing Fun Run right.
Team 8
Energy: 10/10
Flair: 8/10
Team dynamic: 10/10
Drunkenness: 6/10
Sloshball abilities: 9/10
When we overheard one first-year say, “I already have a cramp,” the reality of Fun Run appeared to be setting in. With lots of capes and glittery wigs, Team 8 put on an incredible sloshball performance. The ball consistently went sailing over the fence and eager teammates ran to collect it.
Team 9
Energy: 9/10
Flair: 7.8/10
Team dynamic: 6.8/10
Drunkenness: 6/10
Sloshball abilities: 5/10
At this point in the day, you could smell the alcohol on the participants, immersed in their unbridled joy. Sloshball became increasingly difficult, and vodka shots were passed around for the pure love of the game.
Team 10
Energy: 9/10
Flair: 10/10
Team dynamic: 7/10
Drunkenness: 7/10
Sloshball abilities: 6/10
Ava Rizika ‘27and Caroline Davis ‘27 arrived in our favorite outfits of the day, and we greeted them with a round of applause (and a photo shoot). While a part of their group arrived from the wrong entrance, the small team brought the energy. They did, however, still have their wine bag, which, based on the remaining stops, wasn’t promising for the final results.
Team 11
Energy: 7/10
Flair: 6/10
Team dynamic: 7/10
Drunkenness: 8/10
Sloshball abilities: 5/10
A tiny and slightly mighty team that Fun Run was clearly catching up to. Sloshball became challenging enough that a few runners were wiped out and math questions were introduced instead.
Team 12
Energy 10/10
Flair: 6/10
Team dynamic: 6/10
Drunkenness: 9/10
Sloshball abilities: 4/10
Our last team of the day was tired and drunk, and ready to return to Yampa Field. They were loud and energetic, but slowly tiring. The wine bag was still partially full and the day’s excitement was turning into exhaustion. With Yampa in sight, they turned for home with joy.