Krispy Kreme Challenge - 2012

What an honor for my 100th blog post. EVAH. Raleigh's very own Krispy Kreme Challenge!!!  And one of the participants this year was none other than Matt!!!

For those new to the event, runners participate in a 5 mile race, only about mid-way through, you have to stop and and eat a dozen of the legendary Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Seriously.

Matt has always wanted to do this so I am super proud of him for training this year and running.  He has been running at night but passed on trotting up to the Dunkin' Donuts down the street as part of his training for fear that one bad experience might turn him off.

He left early that morning and after a whirlwind breakfast, Mom, who was up taking a break from caregiver to my g-ma, and I managed to get the kids out the door early and away we went. I had scoped out some potential places to park on the interweb and it actually worked out perfectly.  I couldn't have asked for a better parking space or place to watch the race from.

waiting for the race to start

We were a few blocks away from the starting line. It was AMAZING how many runners there were. Over 7700!!!!!!  And a lot of people "dress up" for the race. Next year Matt is totally dressing up. He is at least wearing something other than gray because he was so hard to pick out. Thankfully I was able to see him coming and going.

Here they come!

We were sitting there, watching the thousands of runners go by. The children were especially enthralled because there were a ton of characters that they could identify. And then there was this one man. I don't think I saw him at first but all of a sudden Avery starts exclaiming, "There is Jesus! There is Jesus! Jesus is running in the race, Mommy"!!! Sure, enough, there was a Jesus running in the race.

Matt was running behind Jesus at one point, although he didn't know there was a Jesus in the race. But he kept hearing all these people yelling about Jesus and he was totally confused.

Matt tries to avoid the crowds by running on the sidewalk

Gray and Greta were waiting near Krispy Kreme for moral support. And water!!!

Greta snapped this one. He's almost done!

As I said, we were in a really great place to watch the start of the race.......because Mr. and Mrs. Wuf hung out there too! I love these pics because it has the iconic Hillsborough St. IHOP in the background. I also love these pics because this was the first time Avery wasn't scared of them!

Go Pack!!

After the runners headed off in pursuit of doughnuts, we headed a few blocks up the street to the Bell Tower, which was the finish line as well. My great college friend, Meg, was there. Her husband and brother were also participating.  We had a great time visiting while waiting for the guys to return.

Waiting for Daddy to cross the finish line

Meg's family shared some of their doughnuts with us.

Here comes Matt!! Yay!!!!  He actually consumed all 12 doughnuts! Not everyone in the face can claim that! Now, I'm not saying that all 12 stayed down.....yuck!!!!

We had a lot of fun hanging out after the race....high stepping over piles of vomit!! Seriously.

Yay Daddy!!

Kappa Sigmas

At the Bell Tower

Future Runner

I get a little nauseous every time I think about it, but it was still loads of fun! To watch of course.