Run, gorge, run

Only rules: Finish in an hour and keep your doughnuts down

RALEIGH -- Steve Marks was worried that he wouldn't graduate from N.C. State University this spring.

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 doughnuts and running two more miles, all in less than an hour.

Without throwing up.

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.

Saturday's fourth running drew 3,035 runners/eaters whose goal was to run two miles from the Belltower on Hillsborough Street to the Krispy Kreme at Peace and Person streets, eat 12 glazed doughnuts, then run the two miles back to the Belltower.

To meet the challenge -- and earn a coveted green T-shirt -- runners had to complete the course in 60 minutes or less, with all 12 doughnuts still on board.

"Those last three doughnuts 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-Doughnut-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, Technician, was on his knees at one, camera poised.

"It's for the frat page," he told one runner leaning over the can.

"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 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 doughnuts.

"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 doughnut box-toting runner leaving the Krispy Kreme.

"None," the guy responded. "I'm taking 'em home for breakfast."

Tradition is born

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 runners who has since graduated but returns from Washington, D.C., to volunteer. "You know, with the whole health thing."

Except for the dozen doughnuts?

"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, the 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 and camping out for tickets before big basketball games.

"It's something students can rally around," said Gospodarek. "I'd love to one day see 10,000 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 relieved Challenge-taker of all was Marks, the civil engineering senior who needed the run 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."