Krispy Kreme Challenge 2009 -- Glaze Your Own Trail!

Today's Krispy Kreme Challenge was one of the best running-related events in a while around here. Their exponential growth continued again, with 5,200+ folks signing up and $35,000+ raised for the UNC Children's Hospital this year. The weather forecast for a sunny, warm day in early February certainly contributed to the turnout and to the fun spirit in the air. Once again, they had both the "Challenger" category (run 2 miles, eat a dozen donuts and run 2 miles back in less than an hour) and my "Casual Runner" category (run 2 miles, receive a dozen and run back; eating the donuts is optional).

The KKC organizers had to join up with Setup Events in order to manage an event this big, including timing chips and computerized results, but they managed to keep the fun, seat-of-your-pants spirit behind the race. When they ran out of the original, printed race bibs, they started making them by hand. It's great that an event this big can keep its ability to not take itself too seriously.

Costumes were back in force this year. I saw vikings, including six folks running together inside a big cardboard boat; Superman, Wonder Women, Flash and Wolverine; gals running in prom dresses and tiaras; guys running in prom dresses and tiaras; hobos; Homer Simpson; banana suits; folks with inner tubes decorated like donuts; guys running in business suits and ties; Santa Claus (Santa's girlfriend was hot); Richard Simmons; Red Running Hood; an Army guy running in full camo and a 60-pound backpack; an ROTC unit jogging and singing cadence; guys dressed as big coffee cups; three guys running in Speedos; Thing 1 and Thing 2; runners in long red flannel underwear; and one guy with his leg in a cast being pushed in a grocery cart. A guy carried a donut strung to a long pole as inspiration to keep going (there was a bite out of the donut on the way back). One group of runners had their chests painted to spell out "DO IT FOR THE KIDS" and another group, inspired by the presence of ESPN video teams, spelled out "SPORTSCENTER" and wore equipment from different NC State sports teams. (I also got a kick out of the woman asking "what time is it?" at the base of the NCSU bell tower, the biggest clock in Raleigh.)

Although a lot of my running friends were taking the morning off, I was lucky enough to see Chris, Amber, Rachel, Anne, Gary and Mark (I beat Mark on gun time but he beat me on chip time); another Chris was also there but I couldn't find him. Amber made a great picture of Chris and me pre-race that ended up on a radio station's blog about the race. I was wishing I had brought my own camera; the view looking down Hillsborough Street at 5,200+ runners was very cool.

Setup Events did a great job managing the Challenge; there was a tiny bottleneck at Krispy Kreme when we all got funneled across a timing mat, but otherwise no problems. It did eliminate some pushing at the start since the timing chips allowed for measuring individuals against the hour time limit. A great group of volunteers made the race possible, and it wasn't until I saw pictures afterward that I considered the clean-up job at Krispy Kreme after all the donuts and runners were gone. The entertainment at the turnaround, watching all the different people working on their own strategies for putting away a dozen original glazed, was great as usual. I did see one SportsCenter camera crew videotaping the eaters, but as of yet haven't seen any of it on ESPN.

It was a fun run, more for entertainment than speed. I certainly wasn't in shape to run for a course record, so I jogged along as best I could and took in all the sights and sounds and smells that I could. Carrying a box of a dozen donuts is quite a test since you can't swing your arms like you're used to! But it was a lot of fun and definitely shows quirky, fun races can still find a very willing field out there. And I did manage to beat the guy in the grocery cart. :-)

Here's a time-lapse video of Saturday morning around the bell tower. Very cool how all the people roll in, suddenly mass in the street and then take off! And another inspirational video with a lot of the costumes. The NC State student newspaper has a great slideshow of pictures and a great hi-def video (you can catch a glimpse of Gary in his NCRC shirt around the 2:43 mark).