Skirtchaser 5k is coming back to Raleigh

All the votes I sent in worked, and the Skirtchaser 5k will be coming back to Raleigh on Saturday, May 22. Keep an eye on the Skirtchaser 5k race date page for information as it becomes available.

2010 Krispy Kreme Challenge -- Eat, Run, Repeat

Last Saturday was the 2010 Krispy Kreme Challenge, the NC State benefit for the North Carolina Children's Hospital where you run 2.4 miles from the NC State belltower to the Peace Street Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen donuts, and then run back to the belltower. If you do all that in under an hour, then you have completed the Challenge. This year the race was capped at 6,000 entrants, and that cap was reached with about two weeks to go before the race.

The weather this year was much more cold and gray than the superb weather we had in 2009; the temps this year never left the low-to-mid 30s, and there were a few snowflakes flurrying around just before the race start. That may have kept the crowd down a little bit, but according to the official results, there were still 4,228 official finishers on race day. 309 women and 1,679 men finished in the Challenger division, and 1,305 women and 935 men (including me) completed in the Casual (run, no donuts) division. (I want to burn off calories, not put 2,400 of them in at one shot!) So the donut part of the Challenge is definitely male-dominated.

However, the weather didn't seem to discourage the spirit of the crowd or the number and creativity of the costumes. There was one guy, the "official mascot" of the race, who wore some kind of huge engineered donut on top of his head the whole way. There were seven or eight guys running together dressed in those head-to-toe spandex bodysuits. There were lots of Indianapolis Colts jerseys and even some Packers and Vikings, but no New Orleans Saints to be seen. There were Supermen, guys in Speedos with Fuel Belts (more), masked superheroes, two guys from Pennsylvania who were dressed as tacos, Death (probably from a heart attack), guys with strange hats and hair, Justin Timberlake, pirates, Elmo and Cookie Monster, guys with huge afro wigs, Forrest Gump, guys in long johns and full-body pajamas, ninjas (ninjae?) -- one running barefoot, a gorilla chasing a huge banana, just plain weird outfits, clergymen and choir members, students that spelled out "KKC 2010" on their chests, and -- of course -- Elvis. I guess the costumes were male-dominated, too.

There were some real athletes out there, too. The first-place Challenger finished the race, including the donuts, in less than a half-hour.

It was kind of tight at the beginning when all 6,000 runners had to feed through a small gate to be read by the timing equipment, but most of the runners were in too big a hurry or having too much fun to be slowed down by that. And it will be nice when all the construction on Hillsborough Street is completed and we don't have to dodge half-completed roundabouts on the race course. Most importantly, though, more than $40,000 was raised for the North Carolina Children's Hospital, and that's what the event is really all about. Kudos to the KKC organizers, staff and volunteers for putting on another great event! Hopefully the warm weather will return next year!

WTVD has a report with some video.

More local race updates

Wow, things are really picking up for the "spring" racing season. A couple of quick updates:

The Krispy Kreme Challenge on February 6 has already registered over 3,900 runners towards their expected cap of 6,000. About 60% of the registrants have signed up for the full Challenge. If you want to be a part of the KKC, you need to register now. Don't dawdle or you may find the race already full.

The St. Paddy's Run Green 8k, which had a great inaugural run in 2009, is offering a special pint glass with one complimentary free beer after the race to the first 1,500 race registrants. This race, which will be on Sunday, March 7, also adjusted the race course and will hopefully take some of the hills out of it. Last year I categorized it as "tough course, great party."

The Race of Grace 5k (expected to be on Sunday, April 25) also changed its course a little bit to get out of the back-and-forth-on-Hillsborough-Street rut. Instead, some of the route will include the nicer neighborhoods behind Hillsborough Street. The uphill to the finish line will remain, however.

New Charlotte Trail Races

The National Whitewater Center outside Charlotte, where you can raft the rapids down several man-made channels of water, is making use of the surrounding trails with a new set of trail races under the Charlotte Running Company Trail Race title. Three races will be run on Saturday, January 23 at distances of 3.8, 8.2 and 13 miles. The routes are promised to be mostly single-track. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (Team in Training) will benefit from the races.

Krispy Kreme Challenge Halfway Full!

I went by to register today for the Krispy Kreme Challenge in the NC State Brickyard and was told that they are already halfway to the 6,000-runner expected limit. So if you're considering the Challenge, don't dawdle -- get registered now!

Undy 5,000 coming to Raleigh?

Word on the street is that the Undy 5,000 race, a charity 5k to raise money for the Colon Cancer Alliance that is held each year in various cities around the county, may be coming to Raleigh this year. The Undy 5,000 is promoted as "a brief run to fight colon cancer." Stay tuned for updates.

You Can Vote to Bring Skirtchaser 5k Back to Raleigh

The last two years, the Skirtchaser 5k has put on two of the best parties in downtown Raleigh. The folks who came up with the running skirt put on these series of 5Ks around the country where the women start first --preferably after buying one of the running skirt packages -- and are followed by the men 3 minutes later. The first person to cross the finish line wins a sweet $500. In 2008 one of the men caught up to and passed the women to win, in 2009 one of the women held on to win.

They haven't officially announced all the cities in the 2010 series yet (Tempe will host the 2010 kickoff on February 13), and they've put up a vote page where you can vote to have them come back to Raleigh. Of course, they just want your e-mail address to take your vote, but heck, you can make up a temporary e-mail address, right? :-)

Yes, I did vote, and I'm hoping they come back in 2010.