Admittedly, not two things that usually go together…
And yet…
On the morning of Matt’s birthday was the Matt Gfeller Donut Run. I wasn’t exactly relishing the idea of eating a half-dozen Krispy Kremes mid-5k, but I’ve wanted to do this race since it’s inception 3 years ago because of the cause. Matt was in my sister’s class when she student taught here in Winston, and he died after having a traumatic brain injury after a helmet-to-helmet collision in his first varsity football game. The race was started by his friends in 2009 to honor him as well as to raise money for TBI research in a foundation named for Matt. I know my sister appreciated that I should be there to “represent” her – although I’m quite certain she would have fared better at the donut eating than I did. There were a ton of high schoolers who were running the race (which in my experience is really unusual for a 5k) and there was just a huge sense of community and fellowship at this race.
And donuts! Did I mention you had to eat donuts? Fortunately, I found out that you did not have to eat all six half dozen donuts if you didn’t care about your time counting to place in your age group. Since the only time that’s ever happened to me was when I was the *only* runner in my age group in a very small race once, I wasn’t too concerned.
The donut challenge was intense. After a mile and a half, the runners came up on the donuts…
(If I knew that blonde girl, I’d feel bad about posting this picture as she is clearly mid donut-chomp. But I don’t. So I don’t.)
The runners on their way back after eating all six donuts looked seriously miserable. I don’t know if anyone had difficulty keeping the donuts down, but I can tell you after eating just one I wasn’t feeling my best.
Despite my donut half way (and the celebratory champagne we had the night before to early celebrate Matt’s birthday), I couldn’t believe it when my RunKeeper told me at mile 2 that I was averaging a little over a 10 minute pace. I’m generally more of an 11 minute mile girl, and factoring in my pre-race and mid-race dietary choices, totally expected this to be one of my worst races.
But hey, maybe I’ve just discovered the secret to my 5k PR: hydrate with bubbly, refuel with donuts. Sounds like a great plan to me.
2 comments:
I saw something about this race on Sportscenter last year. Always wanted to do it.
I went to the gym yesterday & ran a few, & then went to Great Harvest Bread Co. & bought a few cookies. Oops.
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