Radford College, meanwhile, held its own version of the colour run on Thursday, happy to go with the Australian spelling.

The company behind the American-originated Color Run, due to start from Commonwealth Park on Sunday, cancelled it due to low numbers, with only 1606 people signing up.

Comments on social media on Thursday suggested it was too expensive to enter. But some people also said the event had not been publicised well enough.

"I didn't even see it advertised, like AT ALL. Which is surprising. I would have gone had I realised," was one comment on Facebook.

Others included "I didn't see or hear any advertisement anywhere!!." and "Poorly promoted and publicised".

The Color Run's spokesman Tim Wiche said the company had advertised and "partnered" with print, radio, online and "mum's blogs".

Mr Wiche said the Color Run had been advertised in The Canberra Times. No record could be found of this,

"There has been a heavy presence since November," he said, of the advertising.

The Canberra chapter of Mums Exercise Group Australia, which has more than 10,000 members following its Facebook page, was unaware of the run.

MEGA Canberra president Jennelle McAppion said: "I didn't even know it was on. I think if they were targeting families, we would have been the first to know".

The Color Run's managing director Graeme Hannan denied the company had not properly advertised the event as part of a strategy to drop Canberra from the event schedule.

"The simple answer to your question is definitely not. Did we stop advertising when it became obvious that the event was not viable? Yes, we did but there was considerable spending on the event in the lead up to this decision," Mr Hannan said. "Putting an event on sale, not advertising the event so that we could then cancel it does not make any sense. "

Radford College students, meanwhile, got colourful on Thursday as a reward for meeting their annual reading challenge which encourages them to keep reading over the summer break.

"Every year, head of junior school, Paul Southwell, and principal, Fiona Godfrey, make a bet with students. The 2017/18 bet was that if students completed the reading challenges, Mr Southwell and Mrs Godfrey would not only put on a colour run, they would participate in it as well," a statement from the school read.

"Mr Southwell and Mrs Godfrey lost the bet and on Thursday afternoon the oval was the scene of much laughter and colourful fun."