Krispy Kreme Challenge Race Report

Yesterday, I ran FSU's first Krispy Kreme Challenge to benefit the Student United Way. It started at 1pm at Westcott, ran around campus to the stadium where challengers consumed 12 doughnuts ("slackers" only had to eat one), then around campus again to finish at Westcott. The course was supposed to be 2 miles to doughnuts, then 2 miles back, but it was definitely short. I led the race for the first 3/4 mile and I was 5th into the doughnut area. My plan was to run 6 minute miles to get doughnuts and 10 minute miles back, leaving me 28 minutes to eat doughnuts because there was a 1 hour time limit on the course. My personal goals were to break 1 hour and not puke (both goals were met!).

I ran to doughnuts in 9:12, ate them in 20:08, and ran back in 15:07 (overall time 44:28). I thought I was going to puke about 1/4 mile from the doughnut area and actually stood over a trash can for a few seconds waiting for it to happen. Only one person passed me running on the way back to the finish. I passed lots of people. The course was well marked, but there was a little confusion because there had been another race on campus that morning. I heard a few people made wrong turns because there weren't volunteers at the intersections with poor marking (hmm...that sounds familiar).

In the morning I ate a banana, hoping to be hungry for the doughnut eating. That kinda worked...I ate the first 9 doughnuts without much of a problem, but it was terrible trying to get the next 3 down. I was able to keep them down during the race, but I started to feel like puking again after the race. I ended up going to my office and using some mouth wash to get the sugary feeling out of my mouth. That helped a lot. I didn't eat much the rest of the day...just a bag of popcorn around 6pm because I wanted something salty and didn't have pretzels, and a really tiny plate of whatever Andrew made for dinner.

Ironman Matt Miller won 2nd overall in the challenger division, finishing under 30 minutes! To give him even more credit, he was really close behind the 1st place guy, but that guy puked, making Matt the overall-non-puking winner!

Overall, I'd have to say that it was very well organized for a first year event. There were about 250 people this year and they want to double that for next year.

p.s. there's a great writeup about the race as a whole (in other words, not just my race) on Trouble Afoot.