bike junkie: Tour de Donut

I had no idea what to expect going into this race. In the 4 years since I got back into cycling, this was my first race. I was honestly expecting it to consist of a bunch of racer-types who have brought their "A game" and I believed that I was going to be rolling into the finish right at the back of the pack, if not dead last. I wore my "roadkill" socks, because that is what I pretty much expected by my performance.

I pulled up to the starting line at the school and saw that it wasn't just racers there, but everyone. There were kids as young as 4, grannies riding 3-wheeled recumbent bicycles, road bikes, mountain bikes, and every type of cyclist in between.

250 cyclists showed up to race. The way it worked, is we staretd off in a mass start at 9:00, rode a 7 mile loop back to the school where there were 2 lines we were funneled down - those who were eating donuts, and those who were not. The donut line consisted of several tables lined with donut boxes. We would ride in, find a empty spot along the tables, and then proceed to eat as many donuts as we could. When we were finished, the judge would mark how many donuts we ate on our bib, and we would head out for the second lap. repeat the process again at the donut tables, and out for one last lap. When we came in for the last lap, we went past the timing clock, where they gave us our time, told us our position, and took our bib so they could calculate the adjusted time based on how many donuts we consumed. I rolled in with an unadujsted time of 56:51, and after calculating my donut consumption of 7 donuts (3 first lap, 4 second) I had an adjusted time of 35:51 (3 minutes deducted per donut). The winner came in with an adjusted time of -3:47. Yes, negative 3 minutes. He ate 25 donuts! It was actually sickening to watch him eat them. He took 3 and 4 donuts at a time, flattened them together, and wetted them down with his water bottle before he ate them. He also won the "King Donut" prize for eating the most donuts. His prize - a box of Krispy Kremes. Here are the complete race results.

Lest you think I came away from the ride with just a t-shirt and a sore stomach, They had a prize drawing after the ride, and I walked away with a pair of socks, a multi-tool, and a bottle of chain lube!

This was a hoot of a ride! I didn't take it too seriously, and ended up having a blast! I am definately going to sign up next year. I am going to try to convince other members of my family, such as my kids, and Julie and Phil to sign up with me next year.