Hey everyone,

The 4th annual Krispy Kreme Challenge is set for January 26th, 2008 at 9am. The past three years have seen exponential growth in participants and funds raised for the North Carolina Children's Hospital, so help us keep that trend alive!

Go to http://www.krispykremechallenge.com to register and to see a movie featuring footage from last year's race.

Over 400 people have registered so far, and we're hoping 2,500 to 3,000 people show up on race day!

Once again, all proceeds will be donated to the NC Children's Promise at the North Carolina Children's Hospital.

I want to hear from you: what questions or comments do you have?

1/6/2008 7:54:49 PM

you need something for the teams that actually dress up or the individuals, last year we had a ton of guys all dressed like 1970's telecasters running in suits expecting we'd get some recognition in the costume part of it, we got nothinggggg.

so if you advertise a team part of it, have some reasoning or award incentive.

also, you need someone to make sure the people that are close to the front or the people are actually eating all 12 of the donuts to be competitive, i know i saw some of the top runners not finish their box.

1/6/2008 8:08:19 PM

the nutritional info needs to be revised, as kk donuts just went trans fat free (0g per serving, at least)

i think i am gonna run it this year but i ain't eating no dozen donuts, this run is part of my weight loss regimen

1/6/2008 8:14:08 PM

i'm gonna do it...is this one of those things where people say they will pay 10 cents per mile you do?

1/6/2008 8:20:16 PM

no



and you should eat the donuts

i HATE the fact that you can claim you do it if you just do the run, so bogus, thats why they need people watching the people that actually eat all 12...they need a seperate online listing for those that just ran and didnt eat.

thats not the point, its a challenge, its not the RUN to krispy kreme challenge...its THE KK challenge.

1/6/2008 8:23:18 PM

damn....i've ran lake johnson in like 30 minutes before...thats like 2.7 miles...this is 4 miles AND eating 12 donuts in under an hour...

1/6/2008 8:26:25 PM

If it's practical at this late date, different t-shirts for challengers vs. casual runners/supporters would be nice. Besides that - I had a great time as a casual runner last year, and I HATE running (and only have a mild liking for doughnuts). You guys did a fantastic job.

1/6/2008 9:30:30 PM

Yeah, the organizers need to understand that people are attracted to the event for a variety of reasons. Those that are competitive would like to see the competitive aspect properly maintained. It is possible to please both groups.

1/6/2008 9:54:47 PM

I would be skeptical that the numbers would change much from last year.

But I also think you should stress more of a team thing + add costume contest. It needs something new to keep it exciting, and hey, people do this on their own anyway.

1/6/2008 9:55:10 PM

Thanks for the comments. We'll try to do a better job at recognizing some of the more 'interesting' teams and participants this year. The awesome costumes and stuff took us by surprise last year -- we loved it though! The guy in the shopping cart, the Elvis get up, the telecasters, etc. Do stick around after the race though for this though.

TallyHo -- ah, I didn't know KK had gone zero trans fat. This is GREAT news. Last year I got so worried about the 48g per dozen donuts that I made sure we put a disclaimer about the evils of trans fat on our webpage. We don't want anyone suing us for destroying their health.

Drunknloaded -- we've thought about adding a per-mile pledge sort of contribution, but it takes a while to get it setup with firms. Right now we take all the revenues from the registration fees and one-time donations, subtract our costs, and donate all the profit to the Children's hospital. We try our best to keep our overhead low.

JT3bucky -- i hear your concern about making sure people eat the 12 doughnuts if they are a challenger. This came up last year too. Please consider though the enormous difficulty of watching and enforcing the 12 donut rule at the Krispy Kreme store. I'm not sure if you ran the race last year, but I was managing things at the store last year and it was just insane. It's pandemonium there and that's a big reason why its so much fun. We've debated this a lot, and we just don't think cracking down on donut consumption fits in with the overall goals of the race -- have fun and help kids.

hollister -- good suggestion about different colored shirts for challengers/casual. unfortunately it's a little late to implement something like that, but we'll definitely keep it in mind for next year. what's hard is that the t-shirt printers need minimum of 2-3 weeks advance in order to print t-shirts (our order size is now 2000+). Looking at data from the past 2 years, our registration rate is exponential. On Jan 5 of last year (16 business days before raceday), we had ~150 people registered. On raceday, we had 1300+. Its hard to properly order specific t-shirts and keep everyone happy. This is why we really encourage people to sign up early. It helps us out tremendously in planning this thing.

I hope I've answered some of your comments. We want to keep this event transparent and really get feedback from students. Thanks and keep them coming. Tell your friends and sign up!

1/6/2008 9:55:32 PM

David, definitely agree with you about participants doing this for a variety of reasons. This event is really interesting because its getting a lot of support in the Raleigh community. Out of 405 people already registered this year, the median age is 27 years old.

mrfrog -- predicting turnout has always been tough. 2004: 12 people (not advertised, just friends). 2006: 140 people. 2007: 1300+

Jan 5, 2007 registrant count: ~150
Jan 5, 2008 registrant count: ~405

will the growth still hold true? not sure. we're planning for 2500-3000 people this year. we'll see what happens.

1/6/2008 10:02:35 PM

I predict 13,000.

1/6/2008 10:09:05 PM

wow, 410 registered already. Looks daunting.

with that many people already in for it, maybe it could be a lot more. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if there were 5,000. But as you say, it's just hard to predict.

1/6/2008 11:45:10 PM

do you have to pay the 15 at the time you sign up? i dont have a credit card



and what are the odds of running out of shirts?

[Edited on January 6, 2008 at 11:47 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2008 11:46:33 PM

How often do you guys update that team name list on the registration page because our team has a few members already and it's not listed yet.

1/6/2008 11:55:32 PM

God help us if its 5,000 or 13,000. I actually think the Raleigh PD will not allow that. too many people. plus, there is no way we could have enough donuts. KKC has the challenges of a road race and a eating contest. we are doing our absolute best to ensure people can get donuts that are made the morning of the race.

Yeah, to register online you pay at the time of registration. there might be a brickyard registration where you can do it all in person.

I feel confident we'll have enough t-shirts, barring something insane happening.

DPK, hmmm the team name update should be immediate. PM your team name and your team members and i'll check it out for you.

[Edited on January 7, 2008 at 12:01 AM. Reason : added info about payment]

1/6/2008 11:58:06 PM

PM sent! Thanks for looking into it and doing a great job organizing everything for such a great cause!

Now I just need to get into training mode to prepare for this, lol.

1/7/2008 12:06:10 AM

i was planning on doing this, but i don't have $15 i can readily just give away so i can run.

1/7/2008 12:51:45 AM

i have 15, i just need a way to pay it...svora, if you dont mind, if it wouldnt be too much trouble, can you pm me like the day you find out if there is a brickyard registration?...i'm on tww a lot, so you could send it at 4am and i might reply like 5 minutes later

1/7/2008 12:55:46 AM

It's not exponential. It's logistical

1/7/2008 1:50:42 AM

are you guys going to want us to staff the EMS side of things again this year?

if so, and you aren't already talking to someone else from cary or NCSU EMS about it, lemme know.

1/7/2008 2:06:22 AM

^^ true for the general situation here. Then there are more complexities in the real world.

1/7/2008 5:01:45 AM

I was actually referring to the function

1/7/2008 8:12:00 AM

I haven't run a race since '05.






I'm in.

1/7/2008 9:05:10 AM

drunknloaded,

We'll be doing another brickyard registration before the race. We'll take cash then, if you have it. We'll keep you updated as that approaches.

1/7/2008 11:54:55 AM

David and I discussed this the other day. I realize there is just way too many people to keep track of who is actually eating all their donuts, so you guys just need to make an effort to stress the fact that you must eat all 12 donuts to be considered as completing the challenge. I just find it annoying when people give the idea that they were successful, but then if you directly ask them they'll be like, "oh, well I only ate half the donuts." I realize it's for a good cause, and that's great. People don't have to eat the donuts if they don't want to, I just thought the whole point of saying you're a finisher was to do it the legit way. I mean I had to totally bust my ass last year and with more people signing up every year, the challenge could lose some of its legitimacy. But, like you said, can't monitor every person, just have to rely on honesty.

[Edited on January 7, 2008 at 12:10 PM. Reason : .]

1/7/2008 12:09:20 PM

I will remember this information.

4^ uh, yeah, and so was everyone else...

1/7/2008 1:19:56 PM

Quote :

"i think i am gonna run it this year but i ain't eating no dozen donuts, this run is part of my weight loss regimen"

i'll eat your donuts for you man

always willing to be a team player

1/7/2008 1:32:20 PM

^^^^thanks man

1/7/2008 1:41:34 PM

Quote :

" we just don't think cracking down on donut consumption fits in with the overall goals of the race -- have fun and help kids. "

so lemme get this striaght...you can not eat 12 donuts, and beat all the other runners (who actually ate all 12 donuts), and you win?

isn't that cheating?

so the event allows cheating?


i blame baseball for fostering this kind of environment.

1/7/2008 2:00:46 PM

if i could wait until the END to eat them no problem.

NOT in the middle hell no.

1/7/2008 2:08:30 PM

I'll take another crack at the "people are cheating and calling themselves winners" issue. The first year we did this race for charity, we only pitched it to 'challengers'. There was 140 people there, and we heard from people on the morning of the race that some of them wasn't going to eat all 12 donuts. We also divided the people into 10-20 person heats. We had volunteers at the store with a black marker and when a runner showed their empty box to us, we marked their race number with a marker to signify they did indeed complete the challenge. Of course, it started to rain and back then we didn't have the nice race numbers that Raleigh Running Outfitters is donating to us, so marking and tagging all the runners (matching their times and whether they finished the race, let alone getting their names straight due to check-in issues) was a real problem. We aren't using chip timing and increasing the cost to run this event by $2,000.

Last year, we offered a casual runner category and marked on the race number whether a participant was a challenger or casual runner. we had volunteers positioned at the Krispy Kreme store exit with markers, and they were to mark the runner's race numbers when an empty box was showed to them.

Now, I again ask you to consider: there were over 1,000 people at the Krispy Kreme store, essentially all at the same time, sitting/standing surrounding 360 degrees the entire store and even onto the spillover parking lot. Would you like for there to be a volunteer assigned to each group of 5 or 6, watching intently and tracking each donut consumed? (1000/6 = over 150 volunteers armed with black markers) Or to force challengers in one section and casual runners in another, thus splitting up friends/couples/families/colleagues who want to participate together? Or perhaps we can force everyone into regimented lines and eating stations, thus removing the chaos and pandemonium of the event.

The top 10 finishers of the race arrive at the store far head of the pack. We instructed them to eat their donuts near the exit point, and we were able to focus our attention and watch them finish their donuts.

Will some people claim to finish as a challenger and not eat all 12 donuts? It will most likely happen. Can a top 10 finisher be a cheater? I can say with almost 100% certainty that it won't happen. Finisher number #35? #51? #1141? They might.

We know there will always be competitive people racing -- we love them cause they bring such excitement and heck, legitimacy (if you can call it that) to our road race. But when we weigh the benefit/cost calculation of ensuring 100% accuracy of race results, the result is that it is bad for fun, bad for the Children's Hospital.

I hope you can all understand.

1/7/2008 4:53:51 PM

reduce the number of donuts people have to eat to 6

1/7/2008 6:04:20 PM

i always thought you had to eat all 12 donuts and then run back, but then i saw the times of the people last year. Yes it is for charity but I hope one day when the budget is right for yall that you have to eat the dozen!

1/7/2008 6:13:26 PM

I would do it if I didn't have to eat a dozen donuts...just so I can get in shape.

1/7/2008 6:27:36 PM

um, it's a one day event. It's not going to affect your fitness one way or the other.

1/7/2008 6:31:53 PM

Well, I know for a fact that the top 3 didn't cheat last year. I most certainly would never cheat, I hate cheaters, and Eric is a friend of mine and a good guy who wouldn't cheat, and of course Mike is an awesome runner and great guy as well. All three of us take our running very seriously, so I don't think the finishing times were that outrageous by any means. Mike and I were actually beside each other eating the donuts and had several people watching us, including the woman who wrote the news & observer record.

1/7/2008 7:31:07 PM

I don't understand why people give a shit whether someone eats 3 donuts or 12 donuts. It doesn't fucking matter.

1/7/2008 7:35:06 PM

why do you care if i don't eat any

1/7/2008 8:52:39 PM

YOU people. . .

Are roids allowed?

1/7/2008 10:10:28 PM

What streets (if any) will be closed for the event, and when one of you runs by my house can to leave a dozen by my door?

1/7/2008 11:51:22 PM

can i bring some kind of sash, and rather than eating the donuts at the kk premises, just string them on the sash creating a donut bandolier, and tear them off one at a time to eat on the way back?

i know i can't, i just like the idea of a donut bandolier

1/8/2008 12:16:13 AM

Quote :

"reduce the number of donuts people have to eat to 6"

-- heh, the 'challenge' is of course the insanity of eating a full dozen donuts while running 4 miles.

Quote :

"I would do it if I didn't have to eat a dozen donuts...just so I can get in shape."

joepeshi, you absolutely can! this is why we created a 'casual runner' category. come on out, get a t-shirt, run the course, have a donut or two or none, and help out the Children's Hospital!

Quote :

"Well, I know for a fact that the top 3 didn't cheat last year. "

Thanks Auburn for your perspective. You're in a better position to know how the top finishers run the race! I hope I was accurate with my description above of how you had to eat the donuts last year. I saw you arrive at the store but then had to duck inside to truck out more donuts. I couldn't believe how fast you got to the store.

Quote :

"What streets (if any) will be closed for the event,"

myerlyn, you can check out the 2008 route here. http://www.krispykremechallenge.com/index.php?page_id=3

Quote :

"can i bring some kind of sash, and rather than eating the donuts at the kk premises, just string them on the sash creating a donut bandolier, and tear them off one at a time to eat on the way back? "

This sounds awesome! Wouldn't quite work if you're shooting for a top finish, but this would be fun to do.

We've also toyed with the idea of a 'Baker's Dozen' bonus challenge: after arriving back at the belltower, you have to crown your run with a kreme filled donut. Hehe.

1/8/2008 1:49:16 AM

man all these people talking about cheating are being negative nancys that just want to do it for fun and see if they can really just eat 12 in the middle and finish it in under an hour

what happens if you finish like hour and 10 minutes?

what happens if you throw up on the way back?

[Edited on January 8, 2008 at 2:03 AM. Reason : .]

1/8/2008 2:00:50 AM

^ if either of those two things happen technically you didn't complete the challenge. but you still got a great experience. and its not like you can't say you didn't try. my first year i finished in 1 hour 20 min (with only 9 doughnuts eaten)...last year after i did all 12 and finished in 58:11

oh, and i was the only organizer last year to actually run the challenge

throwing up afterwards is allowed, just touch that belltower first!

1/8/2008 8:24:34 AM

Do you do heats?

1/8/2008 12:55:49 PM

Me: You wanna do the Krispy Kreme Challenge with me?
Co-worker: Whats that?
Me: *explains*
Co-worker: You're kidding
Me: Nope
Co-worker: Isn't that suicide? I'm pretty sure thats called attempted suicide.

1/8/2008 2:24:29 PM

not sure its feasible for you to do cost wise, but to solve the tshirt/entrant guessing problem, a lot of races have an open registration period months in advance, rather than a month prior. maybe there's been other advertising for this outside of TWW, i don't live in raleigh so i dont know, but it helps because you're likely to hit your numbers sooner and have a more stable event.

1/8/2008 2:56:48 PM

This was a lot of fun last year. I surpassed my time goal, but I think I won't be able to make the same time this year. But, I'll be out there trying.

1/8/2008 3:56:57 PM

^^^^ No heats this year. It's going to be one giant mass of runners from the start. Should be fun

^^ We've had registration open since early October, well ahead of where we were last year. We tried to get it up as early as possible, to encourage early registration. It's actually been pretty successful. We have nearly 500 people signed up already, compared to around 200 at the start of Spring semester last year

[Edited on January 8, 2008 at 5:13 PM. Reason : .]

1/8/2008 5:12:47 PM