Krispy Kreme Challenge West | Take 3

Long time blog readers will know that Todd loves to participate in wacky races. So it should come as no surprise that he has participated in the Krispy Kreme Challenge West in 2010 and 2011. Last year was cold, rainy, and miserable. I had no interest in participating until this year, when they added the “Lite Division”. In the past they had just the “Classic” division, where you had to eat 12 doughnuts, and the “Donut Man” division, where you ran 2 miles, ate 12 doughnuts, ran another 2 miles, ate another 12 doughnuts, then ran the final 2 miles. This year’s “Lite” division means only 6 doughnuts required! So when Todd signed up, so did I!

The forecast for Saturday 11/10 morning was possibility of rain. We decided on Friday night that unless it was pouring, we would brave it. Upon waking up at 6:15am on Saturday morning, we were delighted that it was not raining and the ground wasn’t wet. So we got up and got ready and drove ourselves down to De Anza Cove at Mission Bay.

We checked in and got our t-shirt and race number, which was printed on a barf bag!


Todd decided to wear his for the race.


Photo-op with the doughnuts. The thinner boxes were the 6-doughnut “Lite” division. The taller boxes were 12 doughnuts for the “Classic” division. As far as I know, there were no 24-doughnut “Donut Man” participants this year!


It was a beautiful morning at Mission Bay.


Each participant brought an unwrapped toy to donate to Rady Children’s Hospital. We bought stamp & card-making sets for kids.


The founder of the event, Keith Kirby, with a lady from Rady Children’s Hospital.


Co-founders of the event, T-Bone and Keith, going over the race rules.


Pretty soon, it was time to start the race! Todd was ready!


Except for some shoelace adjustments, that is.


These socks rock. There were some wacky outfits for sure!


I had my camera with me during the race. I ran the first two miles pretty fast (for me) at 10 minute miles. Made it to the Doughnut Corral and got my 6 doughnuts just as Todd finished eating his 6 doughnuts and left! He did stop to take a couple of photos of me.


The first one tasted good!


Todd all happy and proud that he finished the 6 doughnuts with no trouble. Compared to the miserable 12 doughnuts last year, this was cake! (Pun intended.)


I’m making progress on my first doughnut!


The Doughnut Corral was full of people trying to get their doughnuts down.


Here is my doughnut-eating progression. It took me 13 minutes and 44 seconds to eat 6 doughnuts. I guess I can’t count on a career as a competitive eater!


After finishing the doughnuts, I proceeded with running another 2 miles. I felt surprisingly good for having just eaten 6 doughnuts and running. Todd finished way before me and took photos of me at the finish.


My goal was under an hour and I was pretty happy to finish at 55:23! I was so happy I did a “Phoebe-from-Friends-running-waving-my-arms” pose at the finish.


I’ll have to say, the “Lite” division with 6 doughnut was not difficult and made for a fun race. We didn’t need our barf bags!


Here were the race organizers with the Under-18 winner, Classic Division male and female winners.


The middle two were the Lite Division female and male winners.



They posted the final finish rankings and I came in 7th in the Lite Division. It took Todd only 6:52 to eat 6 doughnuts, while it took me 13:44. How crazy is it that the winner of the Classic Division ran 4 miles and ate 12 doughnuts in 27 minutes and 22 seconds! CRAZY! I’m pretty happy with my running time though. I’m very glad to have participated in such a fun race, and to donate some toys to the kids at Rady Children’s Hospital. It was well-organized and I would do it again next year!  :)