Rain, Cold, and Donuts....Oh My!

The Krispy Kreme Challenge...it happens every January or February here in Raleigh. For so many years I have wanted to do this race, but it seems like there was always something going on that Saturday or I was not in town. This year I was finally going to be able to do it!

For those who don't know what the Krispy Kreme Challenge is, it goes a little something like this. Thousands of people gather at the Bell Tower on the campus of North Carolina State University. They run 2 miles to the Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen donuts, and then run back to the Bell Tower. The "challenge" comes in to play in that they have to do all of this in under an hour and without throwing up the donuts! Now that is a challenge!!! One that I would never even dream of trying to complete.

Luckily for those sane folks like me they have what they call a Casual Runner category. We do the race but we are not required to eat a dozen donuts, we eat as many as we want AND we don't have to do it in under an hour and it's okay if we throw them up.

Now that you have a little background on the challenge let's walk through my experience shall we. I'll start off by saying that as I looked at the weather forecast for the day of the run I kept getting more and more depressed and kept thinking, do I really want to do this? Seeing as how the race is traditionally in the winter it is always a cold race morning. That was strike number one for me.  Although I knew it would be cold when I signed up I guess I just kept hoping for one of those crazy North Carolina weather patterns that might cause it to be a warm race morning. It is not uncommon here to be in the 70s one day and then a day or so later snow be in the forecast. But...no dice. It was cold. Strike number two? It was scheduled to rain that morning and clear up that afternoon. Or course it was.

As race morning was getting closer and closer I was dreading it more and more. Mom and dad were scheduled to come down for the race so they could try and promote Run For Food International while cheering me on. I even told them at dinner the night before that if they had not planned on coming down then I probably wouldn't have gone.

But alas, they came down and I didn't want their trip to be in vain. So I unwillingly got up and got ready for the race. I bundled up in my cold weather running gear and grabbed my rain jacket to throw on top. Good thing...I never took it off.

It was raining when we got to the race, but we were lucky and found a perfect parking spot close to the start of the race so we didn't really have to stand out long in the rain before the race started. 8:30 am and we were off....all 7, 000 or so of us. I did pretty good the first 2 miles, I kept a steady pace and was proud of myself that I didn't start out too fast like I normally do. The only thing that was cold were my hands, but they quickly warmed up and I had to take off my gloves at one point. The rain was still coming down, but it had slowed to almost a sprinkle. I made it to Krispy Kreme! One thing that I do regret is not having a camera with me. To see the piles and piles of boxes of Krispy Kreme yet to be eaten...and then to turn the corner to see the HUGE pile of empty boxes that had already been eaten. It was an amazing site to see.

I grabbed my box of donuts and took one out to eat, but I needed water. I search for a while and finally found some. So I began walking trying to juggle my box of donuts, the one I had taken out to eat, and my cup of water when it starts to rain again!!! And this time it was not sprinkles. It was coming down harder. So I ate my donut, drank my water and took off for the 2 mile trek back to the Bell Tower. I started out pretty going good back, but then maybe half a mile in I sort of felt like my ONE donut wanted to come back up. So I stopped and walked for a bit. I ended up having to do this the whole way back. I'd feel better so I'd start running then I'd fell bad again so I'd stop and walk. I give props right now to all of those people out there who did the challenge and kept all twelve down. You all rock. I could barely keep one down!

So, despite the bad weather I really had a good time at the race. It was an entertaining run. Lots of people dress up for this race so there were plenty of things to look at while you ran. I definitely plan on doing it again next year....maybe I'll come up with a costume.