Run 2 miles, try to eat a dozen doughnuts, run 2 more miles with 3000 of my closest friends. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do on a cold (for NC) Saturday morning.
While it seemed like a good idea when I signed up, my total lack of preparation came back to bite me in the ass. Sadly, I haven’t run 2 miles consecutively in a LOOOOONG time and those days of Cross Country running have been long since forgotten by my body. Going into the event I decided I would only try and eat 6 (1000 calories was enough for me based on my current fitness level), but while the doughnuts were fresh, they were not warm and easy to eat, so only pounded 5 of them. (If you have ever had the joy of eating a hot Krispy Kreme doughnut you know what I’m talking about — if you haven’t you are really missing out.) Running the 2 miles back to the Belltower was pretty bad, but I think my physical condition had more to do with my slow time (around 50 minutes) than the doughnuts sitting in my gut.
The whole event was a struggle, but I’m glad I did it. Not only did I help raise $20,000 for the NC Children’s Hospital, but I got to experience the scene at the downtown Kristpy Kreme where 3000 people are all trying to grab their dozen doughnuts and eat them as quickly as possible. It was quite a spectacle and I hope more people sign up next year than did this year.
The NandO published this article which I thought had a few worthwhile quotes regarding the impact that the KKC can have on the NC State community and Raleigh in general.
“We’ve been losing our traditions,” said runner Andy Gospodarek, a 2001 State grad who works as a software developer at Red Hat. In short succession students have seen school administration put the kibosh on the beginning-of-school block party on Brent Road, an annual frat-fest called Lawn Party, tailgating before football games, camping out for tickets before big basketball games.
“It’s something students can rally around,” said Gospodarek. “I’d love to one day see 10 or 15,000 people running in this. It could put Raleigh on the map as one of those quirky things that would make people think of Raleigh as a cool place.”
Of course they didn’t publish the quote I really wanted him to use:
As long as the streets aren’t covered in puke this race will be a huge success.
I’d say it was a successful event.
