2012 Running Plans

Wow, a whole month into 2012 and this is my first blog post. Yep, I'm a slacker.

My plans this year consist of stepping it up a bit. I started the year with a sub 27 minute 5K, that is fast for me and my 220lbs (was over 250lbs in the summer). The main step up is: I bought a Cannondale CycleCross bike, with the plan of, doing some bike races this year along with running. So what are my plans so far?

Here is a pic of me in the Run For Young 5K, I'm in the background, the one in blue without the wheels (the sub 27 minute one):

Well the first race is the Krispy Kreme Challenge this Saturday (Feb 4th). If you have never heard of this race, it is a blast, but not your usual endurance event. What you do is, run from the NC State Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme (2.5 miles away), eat a dozen glazed doughnuts and run 2.5 miles back to the Bell Tower. I've signed up as a challenger, so the goal is to do this in under an hour. Last year it took me forever to eat the dozen doughnuts (total time 1:17) but this year I run much better and I hope to sneak in under an hour, maybe by 1 second but under an hour is what counts. I'll post my results next week.

Here is my BIB:

The next event I have planned is the Tobacco Trail Half Marathon on March 18th. This was sorta last minute, but I did get signed up before it sold out. Parking passes were already gone which is sort of a bummer, as I have heard the buses are not run well. Well, I hope they have it figured out this year. As for training, nothing plan, just doing my normal with a few long runs mixed in. What does that consist of? I run 4 miles every other day, sometimes every day. Also, this past Monday I ran 10.4 miles on the Tobacco Trail. So I'm ready as I'm gonna get. Hopefully, I will improve over my last half but we will see.

The only other event that I'm signed up for is a Duathlon in Cary on April 7th. I signed up for the short course. You can sign up too at fsseries.com. The short course starts with running 2.5 miles, bike 17 miles and the run another 2.5 miles. Good thing I bought a bike. So far I have done a few 4 mile runs followed by a 20 mile bike ride. I wasn't flying but I can handle the distance just fine.

What else? Well, I hope to get into the NYC Marathon and have entered the lottery for entry. All I can do at this point is run and keep my fingers crossed that I'm picked. I don't have a big ambition for marathon but would like to do one and why not do the biggest one?

The Krispy Kreme Challenge

Well Feb. 5, 2011 was the Krispy Kreme Challenge. If you don't already know this race, it is 4.77 miles of running with a stop in the middle to eat a dozen glazed doughnuts with a goal time of less than 1 hour.

Stephanie and I arrived at the race around 7:45am. I was dressed in my Steeler poncho, shorts and my New Balance 101's. Stephanie was spectating and dressed warm. It was raining and 35 degrees for the race, fun, fun, fun. There were 7500 people signed up but a few less showed up due to the weather. Anyway the race started at 8:30am, it took me 3 minutes just to make it to the start line. Once in the open I settled into a pretty good sub 10 minute pace that would keep me in the 20/20/20 plan. Well as I got within sight of Krispy Kreme the leaders were done eating and heading home, dang they eat fast. Once I made it to Krispy Kreme My problems started.

It started with a road block, well most seemed to be my pace and arrived at the doughnut stand at the same time. It seemed like it took 5 minutes to get past this bottle neck and get my doughnuts. I choose to eat 2 at a time till I made it thru the first 6. At this point the glaze was getting to me and I grabbed a cup of water. Now I'm down to 1 doughnut at a time, and having difficulty even taking a bite. I was not going to eat 12. Anyway some more water and I had 9 down. I thought to myself that there is no way for me to eat 3 single doughnuts so I smushed them together and nibbled my way thru. At this point I looked around and very few of us were still there. I went over to the challenger timer to get my split 54 minutes, it took me 30 minutes to eat the doughnuts but I ate them all. Knowing that the hour goal was out I took my time back, walking up one big hill, although most of the return trip to the Bell Tower on NC State campus was up hill. Surprisingly I had energy, guess a sugar high. Eventually I was done in 1 hour and 17 minutes.


Overall, it was a fun time and I look forward to next year and getting that doughnut eating time down to 5 or 10 minutes like the top finishers.

http://krispykremechallenge.com/

Pictures of the event can be found here:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/05/970446/first-look-krispy-kreme-challenge.html