UNC-Chapel Hill, get ready for a sugar rush like no other.
On Feb. 3, students will have the opportunity to join runners in Raleigh to eat a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and run five miles in one hour. For those keeping score, that’s 12 doughnuts and 2,400 calories. Between the thousands of runners, that’s enough calories consumed in one afternoon to power a 60-watt lightbulb for 44.5 years.
“It’s just a fun time,” said Sara Lewis, a junior at N.C. State University and one of the race directors. “The concept itself is pretty silly, so just to see people running around and eating a dozen doughnuts is a lot of fun.”
Though the concept may be silly, the cause is anything but. Through registration fees, corporate sponsorship and fundraising efforts, the Krispy Kreme Challenge has donated $1.35 million to the N.C. Children’s Hospital over the last 13 years.
Those with the physical and gastrointestinal skills to take the challenge begin at N.C. State University's Memorial Belltower, embarking on a 2.5 mile run to downtown Raleigh’s Krispy Kreme. That’s where the real magic happens, as participants prepare for the run back to campus by collectively eating over a half ton of doughnuts.
The challenge, which is coordinated entirely by a team of N.C. State students, has pledged to donate a total of $2 million to the hospital by 2020.
“Being a part of this organization has been one of the highlights of my college career,” Lewis said. “It has been so much fun and so rewarding.”
It’s no surprise ESPN calls the challenge one of the world’s craziest sports.
“The way you eat your doughnuts is the biggest challenge in the Challenge. The five miles is five miles, but eating those doughnuts right is what helps you get in under an hour,” Lewis said. “A lot of people will squish them together in groups of three or four and condense them a little bit in big sandwiches.”