The Krispy Kreme Challenge

On Saturday I participated in a really fun race to benefit a local family adopting a special needs child from China.  Dr. Bennington and his wife Rachel are expanding their family through adoption.  Dr. Bennington is one of our local chiropractors and resident ART expert. 

The race was The Krispy Kreme Challenge and they offered multiple options for people to participate.  The Ultimate Challenge was to complete the full run course plus eat a dozen donuts.  The run portion was a two-mile route to the local Krispy Kreme and then back.  At the donut shop, participants would be given one dozen donuts to eat before they could leave for the return trip to finish.  They also offered runner only and relay options to encourage more participation.

Something that I haven't shared in much detail on the blog is that I have been working to lose weight over the last month or so.  While I was really excited about this race I knew that taking part in the eating portion would be counter active to my weight loss goals.  I debated for quite some time on whether to participate because of this but in the end decided to go with the runner only race option. 

Saturday morning I woke up several times which is very strange for me.  I normally sleep well and wake up a little before my alarm.  Well, that morning I woke up several times and just didn't get a good night's sleep.  I ended up resetting my alarm to try and get a little more sleep.  Unfortunately, I turned that alarm off and then went back to sleep.  Luckily I woke up at 7AM and was able to hustle and get out of the house within 15 minutes to head to the race site. 

I arrived around 7:30 with plenty of time for packet pickup.  I was really surprised to see that the race was chip timed.  I have enjoyed seeing more and more of our local races utilize chip timing over the past two years.  It is a great benefit for race directors to provide and this race had a great race director, my friend and ultrarunner Jeff Genova.  Jeff helped me get back into longer distance running 4 years ago.  I was coming back from an injury hiatus and Jeff would run with me on my weekend long runs.  He also helped pace me to a great Route 66 Half Marathon in 2008.  He would entertain me with tales of ultrarunning during our runs and some of those tales included stories of him stopping for donuts mid-run at Krispy Kreme. 

Jeff - an awesome Race Director!

Back to the race...there was a slight delay because unfortunately the title sponsor Krispy Kreme had a smaller fryer problem on race morning and couldn't produce enough donuts for the event.  Thankfully another local shop Olde Tyme donuts came through and donated 40 dozen donuts for the event.  With the extra time for the delay, my friend Cathy and I were able to run to Dr. Bennington's office nearby for a potty stop.  That was one of my only criticisms for the race venue...no bathrooms onsite.  It worked out okay because that was a good little warmup. 

The race got started with a bang and runners took off along the trail system to race towards the donuts! The trail was beautiful and I enjoyed the run.  This is only the 2nd time that I have run on this trail system and I really like it except for a couple steep hills as the trail transitions to streets or across intersections.  I made it to Krispy Kreme with perfect splits...both mile 1 and 2 were 9:46.  I don't think that has ever happened for me before and I was really surprised to see that when I reviewed my Garmin data file. 

Here's Drew, manager of Rush Running, finishing up his donuts with Mike encouraging him along. 
Drew would go on to win the race!

Tony used a smashing method to consume multiple donuts at once. 
He started the race with 10 miles already under his belt for the day. 

I had fun checking on the eaters and taking some pictures.  I was talking to Ali Rush when she realized that I wasn't eating donuts.  I explained that I was just doing the run option and she told me to get my butt moving and run.  Apparently I was mistaken in thinking that it was okay to socialize while others were eating! All together I think I spent about 2 minutes watching the donut eating. 

Quick picture with AJ and then back to the run for me.

I headed back to the finish and kept myself focused by trying to chase down some of the people ahead of me.  I thought back to a tip my friend AJ had given me once before...there's no need to rush to overtake someone, just take your time and slowly reel them in.  I ended the course with just over 4 miles on my Garmin and a time of 39:56.  My official race time was 41:54 including my time stopped at the half way point.  I have my Garmin set to auto-pause when I'm stopped which explains the difference.  My running average was around 9:40 miles and that really made me happy.  I'm working on running more steadily and reducing walk breaks and the mental weakness that makes me want to resign to walking during races.  I'm proud that I didn't walk during the race except for when I was hanging out mid-way watching the donut eating!

Post race with Cathy, Maja, Me, and AJ
Maja and AJ were volunteers at the donut station and Maja ran back
a couple of our friends who did the donut challenge. 
She might have been a little too chipper for them!

I had a great time doing the race and am thankful that I didn't see anyone puke.  I hear that it might have happened but I didn't witness it! I was really surprised to see so many friends from the running team participating and cheering everyone on and it made me so thankful for this great running community.  It is amazing how much the running community has developed over the last few years and Rush Running has been a big part of why that has happened.  I hope to see this race continue next year because it was so much fun.