Running with Donuts

t was during a temporary moment of insanity that I signed up to run the Krispy Kreme Challenge with my sister Kellie, aka "The Runner in the Family."

For those not in the know, the Krispy Kreme Challenge is a race held annually in Raleigh where people try to combine the mutually exclusive tasks of eating and running. There is a lot of puke involved. It's fun.

Kellie signed up as a Challenger, meaning that she would run 2.5 miles, eat a dozen donuts, and run 2.5 miles back in under an hour. The question everyone kept asking her: How do you train for that kind of race? Unless you enjoy throwing up donuts, you don't.

Kellie finished the race in an hour and 10 seconds and managed to keep down all of her donuts. Here she is with her donut sandwich:


I signed up as a Casual Runner, meaning that I would run all 5 miles, but the donut eating was optional. In the end, I ate two donuts, and gave the rest to my cheer section (Michael, Miriam, my parents, and my boys). Even with just two donuts in my belly, I was feeling it toward the end - mostly because the combination of water, donuts, and running was really making me need to pee.

Since I've only been running since last August and don't even like donuts, I am quite pleased that I completed all 5 miles in just over an hour. If you're wondering if this means I've caught the running bug, you can rest easy. I still think running is torture and runners are masochists.


(If you're looking at these photos and thinking to yourself, "Why????", I wondered that myself. It's like Michael waited for the exact moment when Kellie and I looked our worst to snap a photo. But at least I have photographic proof that I really did do it.)