I’m a big runner. I’ve run 5k’s, 10K’s, half marathons and several full marathons. But the most fun I’ve ever had at a race occured this past saturday at the Krispy Kreme Challenge http://www.krispykremechallenge.com/. The race melted together two of my favorite pasttimes, running and eating. The goal of the race was to run two miles, eat one dozen honey glazed krispy kreme donuts, and run two miles back. All in under an hour.

There was a team of runners whose shirts each had the nutritional facts of the dougnuts

Doughnuts: 12 Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

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

These guys weregreat. Another guy ran with a stick extended out in front of him with two donuts bouncing on a string on the end. Like a dog at the race track, he never took his eyes off the prize. The run was only $15, one of the cheaper races I’ve entered, and that brought out lots of college students and other runners. In all, 3,000 dozen donuts were handed out. The race organizers let baby joggers enter (I pushed Leah, my one year old) and this was one of the few races around where dogs were welcome. I wish I had known as I left mine at home. He loves to run and eat doughnuts. It was truly a family event.

The best part of the race for me was thatIran it with my son as well as my youngest daughter. He’s only seven and not really into running, but the promise of a few doughnuts and getting to see people puking was enough to get him to come out and join the fun. We were not disappointed. It was cold at the start and he was unhappy until the race started. At that point we jogged for about 15 minutes and then jogged/walked til we got to Krispy Kreme, which was 2.2 miles from the start at the NC state belltower.

At the dougnut store there were tables piled high with boxes on boxes, each containing one dozen glazed krispy kremes . My son grabbed a box and held on to it like it was a Pokemon EX card, which if you don’t know, is very valuable to a 7 year old.

If you’ve read my book, you would know thatI am a zealot when it comes to not letting the kids eat too much sweets, but on this day I let Max go to town. I told him he could eat as many donuts as he could get down in ten minutes. He ate 4, which is more than I was expecting. In case you are curious, I had 2.5 and they were awesome. Max might have downed one or two more but he was distracted by the many college kids (including many girls) attempting to get their dozen donuts downso they could run back to the finish. It was a site to see.

Max and I mostly walked the two milesback to the start. He had a bit of a stomach ache (surprise surprise) and was not up for running. However, he was having a blast watching people puking along the route. I could see the joy in his eyes when this one young woman proudly told us she puked five times on the run back. I believe the wheels of our baby jogger pierced a pool of her vomit. Max was in heaven.

The best part about the race was that it raised $20K for children’s hospital, which is a really great cause. I also got to spend some time with my kids, getsome exercise, eat a fewdoughnuts, and laugh a lot. So we ate more doughnuts than we typically do. It was totally worth it. Max also jogged/walked 4.4 miles. Although he burned fewer calories than he took onfrom eating 4 doughnut, it was totally worth it. Moreover, he now claims that he is willing to do short jogs with me, which if true, would be a great way for us to spend quality time together while getting some exercise.

We don’t eat doughnuts often, but in the future, when we do I’ll make sure they are krispy kreme. I’ll also make sure to do this race again next year. And I know Max will be running right along side me.