Note: This is an expanded version of a story running in the Sunday, Jan. 27 The News & Observer.
Steve Marks was worried that he wouldn't graduate from N.C. State this spring.
Bad case of senioritis?
Actually, the civil engineering major had vowed that he wouldn't leave State until he completed the school's newest tradition: Running two miles, eating a dozen donuts and running two more miles all in less than an hour.
Without throwing up.

Queue up to throw up: the starting line on Hillsborough Street.

What began four years ago as a lark and a dare among 10 friends has exploded into an event that's fast becoming a Wolfpack tradition: the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Yesterday's fourth running drew 3.035 runners/eaters whose goal was to run two miles from the N.C. State Belltower on Hillsbourgh Street to the Krispy Kreme at Peace and Person streets, eat 12 glazed donuts, then run the two miles back to the Belltower.

Three percussionists gave runners a lift on the grueling post-donut climb up St. Mary's Street.

To successfully complete the challenge — and earn a coveted green T-shirt — runners had to complete the course in 60 minutes or less, with all 12 donuts still on board.
"Those last three donuts were tough," said a green Mark Whitfield after crossing the finish. "Every one I looked at, I thought [I may be seeing this again soon]." Whitfield, who is 20 and of a major yet-to-be-determined, ran the race with his dad, One-Donut-John. Running back to the Belltower, Whitfield said he didn't feel sick. Collecting himself at the finish, though, he added "But I kinda do now."
The Belltower finish area was not for those with an easily triggered gag reflex. Twelve plastic-lined trash cans greeted the finishers. Dreier Carr, a photographer with the student newspaper, the Technician, was on his knees, camera poised, at one.
"It's for the frat page," he told a cooperating runner wearing Bib No. 81.
"Hey camera boy!" yelled a woman at another active trash can, "you're missing your money shot."
Which begs the obvious question: Why? Why would 3,035 people, ranging in age from 2 to 64, break up a four-mile run with a snack of 2,400 calories and 144 grams of fat, a snack that smacks of gastrointestinal disaster?
First, not all 3,035 runners ate 12 donuts.
"I ate four," said senior Clint Baron as he left the Krispy Kreme. "I started to feel sick." (Just so you don't think Baron was completely sane, he and 19 fellow students ran shirtless — in the sub-freezing weather — and painted their chests to spell "Krispy Kreme Challenge.")
"How many did you eat?" yelled a spectator to another donut box-toting runner leaving the Krispy Kreme.
"None," the guy responded. "I'm taking 'em home for breakfast."
One big attraction of the race: Registration fees benefit the North Carolina Children's Hospital. This year, the race raised $20,000.
"The run is in keeping with the mission of the hospital," said Ben Gaddy, one of the original 10 KKC runners who has since graduated but returns from Washington, D.C., to volunteer. "You know, with the whole health thing."
Except for the dozen donuts?
"Well, yeah. Except for that."
But something more basic may be behind the quirky event's success.
"We've been losing our traditions," said runner Andy Gospodarek, a 2001 State grad who works as a software developer at Red Hat. In short succession students have seen school administration put the kibosh on the beginning-of-school block party on Brent Road, an annual frat-fest called Lawn Party, tailgating before football games, camping out for tickets before big basketball games.
"It's something students can rally around," said Gospodarek. "I'd love to one day see 10 or 15,000 people running in this. It could put Raleigh on the map as one of those quirky things that would make people think of Raleigh as a cool place."
At the finish, perhaps the most relived Challenge-taker of all was Marks, the civil engineering senior who needed the KKC to complete his curriculum. He finished with a few minutes to spare, with no need for a plastic-lined trash can.
"Now," he said with a smile, "I can graduate."

Ironic moment
The 3,035 runners were given an escort to the Krispy Kreme by an entity that no doubt knew the way: the Raleigh Police.

Uh oh
The KKC may be an N.C. State tradition, but a lot of Wolfpackers were left feeling a little blue at the awards ceremony. Upon being awarded the coveted gold donut medal on the awards stand, winner Philip Curley (time: 31 minutes, 20 seconds) graciously thanked race officials for his grand prize — of six dozen donuts. He drew a laugh by saying they were free to the first taker. Not so much laughter with his concluding remark: "Go Heels!"

Training I
How does one train to run a 2/12/2 race? Most people I asked, hand't. Then there was 41-year-old Arjay Hinek of Fayetteville, who did a practice KKC by running 1.5 miles, eating 10 donuts, running another 1.5. "It went well."

Training II
Of greater concern was how to efficiently ingest a dozen donuts in the shortest amount of time. Techniques varied, from breaking the donut into quarters and wolfing it down to smooshing four or six together and eating them en mass. But most seemed to embrace the technique made famous by hot-dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi (50 in 12 minutes) of dipping the donut in water before consuming. "It makes it not slosh as much," said one runner.

"Twelve donuts? Ha!"

Elvis sighting
Elvis ran the KKC. I'm guessing he had no trouble downing the 12 donuts. In fact, race officials probably had to keep him from eating more.

Mullet sighting
Prior to the race, I spotted a guy wearing a shirt reading "Scuba Steve" and sporting a sweet mullet. Alas, it was a fall.

This guy was the first to the Krispy Kreme. But what happened to him then?

Bib No. 1874
Bib No. 1874 (I've got a call in to identify him) set a blistering pace from the start, reaching the Krispy Kreme a good 400 yards in front of his next competitor. He ran at about a 12-mile-per-hour pace (according to my bike computer; I rode alongside him) and pulled into the Krispy Kreme in 11 minutes, 51 seconds. Alas, he did not appear to be among the top 10 finishers, leaving me to think that on the run back he ... DQ'd.

Spoken words

"OK, that's enough of that." A spectator hanging around the finish area after watching a third runner lose their donuts.

"I want to throw up so bad." A female finisher apparently experiencing performance anxiety.

"I'm not letting these puppies come up." Steve Marks, senior civil engineering major who came up short on his first to KKCs and vowed not to leave N.C. State until he had met the challenge.

"You're cheating!" Yelled at me a number of times by runners and bystanders as I rode my bike to follow the pack.

KKC by the numbers
Everyone who completed the Krispy Kreme Challenge got the chance to buy (with proceeds benefiting the N.C. Children's Hospital) a green T-shirt that read: "I completed the Krispy Kreme Challenge." Below that were some key race stats:
2,400 calories
4 miles
12 donuts
1 hour
In order, those numbers refer to: number of calories eaten, distance ran, number of glazed donuts consumed, time alloted to complete the challenge. Some other key stats from the race:
31:20 — Winning time, registered by Philip Curley
10 — No. of runners for the first Krispy Kreme Challenge, in 2005.
3,035 — Number of registered runners for this year's race.
$20,000 — Money raised by the event for the North Carolina Children's Hospital
36,420 — Number of donuts prepared for the event
144 — No. of grams of fat in a dozen donuts (more than twice the recommended daily allowance)
2 — No. of minutes it took Dylan Selinger, a sophomore majoring in business at N.C. State to eat his 12 donuts
12 — No. of plastic lined trash cans awaiting runners at the finish line

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