Monday, June 1, 2020

McDot Baker's Dozen

With all of the heaviness going around these past few weeks, the hubby and I decided we needed a "sweet" release. We watched a few Run Steep Get High challenges via YouTube recently and thought we would try and attempt a food running challenge of our own.... which is where the idea for Saturday morning's McDot Baker's Dozen came from.


It started with me reaching out to one of our local bakeries (Doughside is our FAVORITE because they're handmade and VEGAN) to see if they'd be willing to make us some donut holes for the challenge. They are still a start-up and don't technically have a storefront, but they were beyond amazing to work with and HOOKED IT UP! {Just in case you care, we paid for all of the deliciousness - we figured we were using our "race registration fees" to support local businesses.}

Love supporting local businesses (especially vegan ones!)!

The idea was we'd each eat a donut hole every mile for the length of a half marathon (13 donut holes each, hence the "baker's dozen"). Let's just say when we picked up the delicious treats "ish" got real... THE HOLES WERE HUGE!


Like I mentioned in the video, the hubby saw the size and wanted to grab his hydration vest to carry them in. I figured I'd just carry them in my hand (inside of a Ziploc bag, of course) so it would be easier to get to them throughout the run. (Spoiler alert: The hubby's holes turned into a giant gooey mess by mile 3 because they were getting warm from his back and then he was shoving them in and out of his vest. Thankfully it didn't impact the flavor at all ;))

These might be the biggest donut holes I've ever seen...

We drove down to Carlsbad for the run (since the shelter in place order I have only been running from the house, but the hubby really likes this route along the coast, so since he was willing to tackle this challenge with me, I decided I would do the location of his choosing) and got ready. We snapped a few pictures before we got ready to pound the pavement. 

Excited to get the challenge started!

Thought a bag would be easier to transport them in than the box they came in...

A little #RealTalk... I signed up for the East Coast vs West Coast 50K Challenge for the month of May. I ran my 50K distance on May 8th (in honor of my dad and Ahmaud Arbery) and recorded a decent time - 4:37:43. Since I ran my "race" early in the month, I kept seeing females run faster times and bump me down in the rankings. This virtual run allows you to run the distance as many times as you would like to try and better your time. This past week I kept going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to run the 31 miles again to attempt to take off a few minutes. The humidity has been pretty nasty (I don't think it has gotten below 90% in the past two or three weeks), which tends to zap my energy, not to mention there was no guarantee that if I ran the 31 miles again I'd run it faster than I did earlier in the month (or that other runners wouldn't submit faster times anyway). I decided that I wanted to KEEP RUNNING FUN instead of putting all of this self-imposed pressure on myself and that's when I posed the idea of this challenge to the hubby. I figured if he was in, I wouldn't attempt the 50K again, but if he didn't want to do the donut hole challenge then I'd give the 31 miles a second go. Let's just say he was MADE for food challenges, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself and spoil the ending ;)

I'll be honest, the first three miles were a breeze... so much so that I naively thought to myself, "I may have made this challenge too easy... I know some people do full donuts, but we couldn't have done full Doughside donuts, right?!"

Hole number 3 (the views weren't too shabby either)

Well, as I'm sure you probably could've guessed, the good feelings didn't last long, and by mile 4 or 5 the struggle was real... I'm not sure if it's because I have a smaller stomach compared to the hubby or because he has been "training" (he has a HUGE sweet tooth and can pound three or four donuts in one sitting without batting an eye whereas I don't tend of eat as many sweet treats as he does), but man, I felt like this was a challenge for me for legit miles 6-13.1. Thankfully where we were running had plenty of port-o-potties because I definitely had to duck into a couple along the way. (I joked with Ryan and asked him if I threw-up, if that would be a disqualification... thankfully it never came down to that!)


After I took that video I felt like I could just "walk it in". It seemed like I would eat my donut hole and then need to walk a half mile or so to get it to settle down. By the time I was "ready" to run again it was time to eat the new hole. I'm going to "blame" the size of the donut holes, hehe, but really I think I'm just not built for the challenges like the hubby is!

Just as stoked to eat donut hole #13 as he was to eat the first!

I definitely walked the last two or so miles (with a potty break mixed in for good measure because although they were still super yummy, my tummy was not sure how to react to the overload of sweet... just for reference, I ran the half marathon distance the day before with ZERO fuel and finished in under 1:50... this run would end up taking 50 minutes longer AND include a gallon freezer bag of sugar ;)) and during that time the hubby was literally running laps around me. (He finished with a half mile more than me because he would jog ahead and then back to meet up with me. Like I said - ROCKSTAR!)

You know you're a runner when you are thankful for port-o-potties, hehe!

I may have had to start my last hole a little before I hit mile 13 so I would be able to get it all down before my watch read 13.1.

Towards the end of the run challenge I was slightly nervous the donut holes would make an encore appearance, but I thankfully was able to keep them all down. This challenge was NO JOKE and apparently I needed a bit more training.

The struggle was real! 

In the end it took us two hours and forty minutes to finish 13.1 miles (well, the hubby did 13.6) and thirteen HUGE donut holes. We had quite a few folks comment about our shenanigans and ask us about the donuts. I'm not sure if they were laughing AT us or WITH us, but, hey, at least it brought some extra smiles to people's faces ;)

This #CarleesTreasure I found earlier in the week worked out PERFECTLY for my watch shot!

You can see at the beginning of the run we would do one quick walk break once we hit the mile marker to eat the donut...
 then the wheels started to fall off, the pace went out the window and it was all about surviving and not throwing up ;)

By the time we got to the car we were NOT in the mood to eat celebratory donuts (they melted in the car - oops! I'm sure it won't impact the deliciousness, but they definitely aren't as "instagrammable" any more). Thankfully this challenge didn't cause either of us to ward off donuts... we just needed to wait a few hours before we could enjoy them again ;)

Our celebratory donuts would have to wait until Sunday morning's breakfast.


PS Did you know Friday is National Doughnut (or Donut) Day?! You don't have to tackle this challenge (although I would totally suggest you give it a try), but you should mark your calendar so you can enjoy a delicious donut or twelve.


Have you ever tried a food challenge?

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