The Krispy Kreme Challenge

Here's a charity event I can certainly get behind:

The Krispy Kreme Challenge, a road race to test both your cardiovascular and gastrointestinal fitness.

Here's how it works:

In 2004, NC State Sophomore Chris McCoy came up with a challenge. He would gather some friends at the NC State belltower and begin a run toward downtown Raleigh. His jog would take him two miles downhill to the Raleigh Krispy Kreme bakery. There they would each consume 1 dozen of the legendary hot glazed doughnuts. The group would then run back to the belltower to finish the race.

All in less than an hour.

The race has grown in the last three years and morphed into a charitable event; it's being run this morning, and over eight hundred participants are running. Funds raised via entry fees and the sale of T-shirts go to the North Carolina Childrens Hospital.

No word on how many are running in the Extra Krispy category, which is the Full Monty: downing a dozen doughnuts in no more than a minute each while running a couple of two-mile legs before and after on a 12-minute pace.

To Complete the Krispy Kreme Challenge is to:

1) Run from the NC State Belltower to the Krispy Kreme on Peace Street.
2) Eat one dozen donuts.
3) Run back to the Belltower.
4) Do all this in under one hour.

People always ask if puking is allowed. Don’t puke on purpose. That’s not fair to the rest of us. Keeping the doughnuts down is the real challenge, don’t cheat yourself!

Now, truth to tell, a 12-minute mile is barely a jog; a respectable racewalker could do that. Hell, I walk a fifteen-minute mile on crowded NYC sidewalks, and I'm a fat man.

I doubt I could do it after a dozen Krispy Kremes, though.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, my hat's off to you.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge

Mmmmm - 20051101_0047
Originally uploaded by EngelFish.

P.S. Here's the nutritional information:

Doughnuts: 12 Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

• 2400 calories
• 1200 fat calories
• 144g of fat
• 36g of saturated fat
• 48g of trans fat
• 60mg of Cholesterol
• 1140mg of sodium
• 120g of sugar
• 24g of protein

And here's a photo of the famous neon sign outside the Krispy Kreme mothership at the corner of Peace and Person Streets in Raleigh, NC.

Krispy Kreme
Originally uploaded by beebo wallace.

Back in the early 1990s, I lived (with several roommates) in a charming old Victorian house in the Oakwood neighborhood of Raleigh, three blocks away from this 24-hour doughnut mecca.

Being an insomniac who was likely to start jonesing for doughnuts in the wee small hours of the morning, I met every cop, hooker, schizophrenic, and night-owl (and a few people who might have met more than one of these criteria) in the neighborhood over a very short period of time.