Cozumel, Mexico

Add a little color to your day

Anna Miller Post a comment
Add a little color to your day

A good day for a run!

Carnaval parades in Cozumel run for three nights, but there is a break after the first two. That’s a good thing—the parades can be exhausting with all the waving, dancing, and tossing. The performers need a day to recover before the last grand parade.  

Group of paint & run participants as they begin their route passing under a white inflatable archway. They are all wearing their new white race t-shirts, before any color powder is thrown on tthem.
View from behind a group of paint runners as they make their way along the street route. Anna is visible in the middle of the screen rolling her wheelchair.
Anna and her mom take a picture before the race. Their fair skin is clean, along with their Paint and Run shirts.
A large group of people have their backs facing the camera as they walk along the Cozumel streets for the Paint and Run. Their white t-shirts are clean and neat. In the distance Anna rolls ahead in her wheelchair.
A landscape photo shows a large group of people donning white t-shirts that say Paint and Run. Some push strollers while one person pushes their friend in a wheelchair. Anna is not in this photo.
A large group of Cozumel residents wearing Paint and Run's white shirts stand close together as they wait for the race to begin.

This is where the Paint ‘N Run community event comes in. It’s a fundraiser for island charities and encourages both fitness and family bonding. The race starts at the Malecon just in front of Benito Juarez park. You can’t possibly miss the loud pumping music and crowds. I have participated in this event twice and absolutely loved it.

Pro Tip #1: You know there will be color powder everywhere. That’s the fun of it. So remove your wheelchair seat cushion and any other fabric on your chair, and wrap it in a plastic bag. Single-use plastics are restricted on Cozumel so use what you can. This will make hosing off your chair so much easier at the end and you won’t be left with a soggy seat.  

  • A closeup photo of Anna, a teenaged girl in a wheelchair. She has colorful paint spattered across her face.
  • A caucasian teenage girl in a wheelchair strikes a pose, pretending to be shocked at how messy she has gotten from all the green and blue paint that was thrown during the Paint and Run.
  • A photo looking down at two pairs of colorful shoes is seen. They are covered with paint of all colors. Anna, a teenage girl with a wheelchair is wearing purple shoes. Her blue wheelchair has the paint everywhere on it.
  • Anna and her mom make silly expressions with their paint-covered faces. Anna uses her uninjured arm to raise it as part of her funny pose. Her wheelchair wheel is stained with paint.
  • Anna, a caucasian wheelchair-using teenager smiles at the camera. Her skin is stained with blue and green paint, as well as her Aviator glasses.
  • Anna and her mom smile and raise their hands to wave "hi" at the camera. They are both covered head to toe with dusty paint. Anna's wheelchair and FreeWheel is equally messy.

Pro Tip #2: Before you start cleaning up, throw your shirt into a bag and wait until you’re home to throw it into the dryer. This will partially set the colors and you’ll be able to enjoy your color run memories even longer!

Is the race accessible?

This was such a fun experience and one that was easy to adapt for a wheelchair user like me. The course runs along the Malecon, the stone wall that runs along the shoreline, of Cozumel. So rolling along is nice and easy, and you get to enjoy a stunning view of the water the entire time. You also have the option to run half the race, as the course makes a giant figure 8. First, you head south down the island and then loop up towards the north. If halfway through you have had enough colorful fun, you can easily end your race then. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to keep going for even more colorful blasts of powder!

Pro Tip #3: As you can see, I actually had a broken arm when the time came for the race this past year. As you can imagine, a broken arm and pushing a wheelchair don’t mix, but I didn’t want to miss out on the fun! So we hit the local grocery store the night before the race looking for solutions. Luckily, we found a kid-sized soccer goal that was made up of plastic pipes and brackets. Those pieces, some cable ties, duct tape, and a little luck were all we needed to rig a temporary push bar so my mom could give me hand on the side with my injury when I needed it.

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