Why is it so hard to get motivated to write a few paragraphs every few days? I'll probably never have an an adequate answer, but I will keep posting about the decathlon. And in recent weeks I have come up with some new material so that will also go on here in the near future. But first, I need to write about the one event in the entire decathlon that deserves its own post: The Krispy Kreme race.
This race was one that is not a new idea, but is probably not done by too many people. The concept: a race to Krispy Kreme and back. Simple enough, until you add 6 donuts right there in the middle. This race is so brutal that it actually struck fear into the hearts of some of my less testicularly-gifted friends. I believe at one point we had 9 people signed on to run the race. The final tally at the starting line: 4. That in itself is a testament to the brutality of this event.
We met up on a cold winter afternoon around 4:00 at our alma-mater. The weather was about 32 degrees and fairly windy. One of the competitors' girlfriends offered to drive up to KK and order the donuts, and set them out. So after her departure, we proceeded to warm up for a mile, and then we took the line.
Drew went out to the early lead (mainly because he is in the best shape of the four of us). Ryan was second, myself and Shane were third and fourth. A little after a mile I passed Ryan to take possession of second place and focused on getting to KK in a reasonable time. I made it there (almost exactly 2 miles) in a little under 12 minutes, which isn't flying but not too bad either. Drew was on his second donut when I arrived, and Ryan and Shane both came in within a minute of me.
The first two donuts were hell to eat. I was coughing from the cold air and my throat could barely open. My nose was running, and I eventually had to waste valuable seconds requesting napkins. Ryan won the award for biggest mess, spilling hardened glaze all down his front side. He looked like he had been running in snow that hadn't yet melted on his clothes. His girlfriend just stared at us in disgust. The donuts, fortunately, were still warm and we had plentiful water to wash them down. Good job on the part of Ryan's girlfriend.
Drew finished the donuts first and made his way back quickly. Ryan was second to finish, and I left about 45-60 seconds later. Drew extended his lead throughout and won the race handily. I actually spent the entire second half of the race chasing down Ryan, who had a decent lead on me to start. Less than 400 meters into the run back I started feeling the donuts in my stomach. However this first wave passed for almost a mile. At about 1.25 miles, I caught and passed Ryan and began my push for the finish. I looked back throughout the last half mile but was able to extend my lead. That entire last half mile I was burping up donuts, which made everything even worse. Aerobically I was fine but my stomach was asking me to stop with every step. Drew won by about 90 seconds. His and my time on the way back were nearly identical. He slowed a bit from his time going there but my time was once again just under 12 minutes. So I guess the donuts affected me less...except that statement would be a dirty lie.
I hit the finish line, turned around to watch Ryan finish about 45 seconds later...and then excused myself with the statement: "I'll be right back, I'm going to puke." At that point, I went over by a tree and left about 3 of the donuts on the grass, to most likely be eaten by a passing dog on a leash. After this event, the points had me with a 3 point lead over Drew, and 4 points over Ryan. I will write in a day or two with an update on the other events we have done, including what was probably the hardest event of the entire decathlon. Stay tuned.
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