Article by Alex Bansleben (Q18)

The Krispy Kreme challenge. Not too many people have heard about it, but it is a competition growing in popularity. The first time I was told about what the challenge entails, I almost started getting stomach cramps. The Krispy Kreme challenge is an annual charity event held in several locations around the country. Two of our very own QUEST alumni—Brian Daisey (Q16) and Jeffrey Lue (Q16)—participated in the challenge at the beginning of February in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Essentially, participants in the challenge combine two activities which (to me, personally) sound equally unpleasant: running, and eating a dozen donuts. The challenge is to run two miles to a Krispy Kreme store in Raleigh, eat a dozen donuts, and run back within an hour. All proceeds from the event are donated to North Carolina Children’s Hospital.

Brian Daisey (Q16, middle) with friends Jason Kramer and Jimi Gipple

Jeff Lue explained that his training routine was to run, eat donuts, and run again to “prepare his stomach for the pain he was going to unleash unto it”. Brian ran approximately 5 miles every day, but was only able to eat 3 or 4 donuts during training.  Both Brian and Jeff agree that the easy part of the challenge seems to be running to the Krispy Kreme store. The REAL challenge comes with eating the donuts! Jeff’s strategy was the “smashing approach”, which involved cramming 4 donuts into a “dense megadonut”.  Brian’s strategy was to stack 3 donuts and smash them into a “disk of sugar glaze and dough”! As I’m writing this, my stomach is getting queasy.

Donut boxes piled as evidence of the challenge

Unfortunately, Jeff missed the challenge 1-hour cutoff by less than a minute, and Brian was not quite able to master (or muster?) his donut-eating-and-running skills either. It looks like they will have to try again next year! In the meantime, congratulations to both participants; it is great to see QUEST alumni participating in such a unique event!