Few would think to combine donuts and a relay race, but that is exactly what happened on South Quad Sunday.
The track and field team held the Riley Donut Run Sunday as a fundraiser for Riley Children's Hospital.
"We came up with the idea based of a fundraiser held at NC State," junior Doug Onuscheck, the event organizer said. "There they run two miles, eat a dozen donuts and run two more miles. Risk management wouldn't let us do that, so we shortened the run."
The donut run was a relay race where teams of four ran the length of South Quad, ate three donuts and ran back. The first team to have everyone finish won.
"The first race is more of a fun run," Onuscheck said. "The second race is more exciting and competitive."
Not all the participants were track team members or even runners. Some just decided to form teams because they thought it sounded like a good time or because the money was going to charity.
"We joined at the last minute. We were just drawn into the event," sophomore Chrissy Finkel said.
Finkel and her team, Jump for Children, were excited to have a good time while raising money for charity. They were a last minute entry; one of their runners even wore jeans.
"I didn't even have to worry about trying to keep up, everyone was so much faster," Finkel said. "It was just a really fun event."
While some teams were there for fun, others were there to support Riley and run a competitive race.
Team Deca, made up of the decathletes on the track team, won the relay. They came out strong and at one point were almost a minute and a half ahead of the rest of the competition. The second place finisher was the team No Shirts, No Shoes, No Service, who are all jumpers on the track team. Rounding out the top three was Team Gryffindor, made up of two members of the track team, a student manager and a regular student.
In the end, what really helped Team Deca clinch their victory was their donut eating strategy, especially that of senior Justin Schneider.
"First I squished all three donuts into one big ball which I dunked in water. Then I squeezed the water out of the donuts into my mouth, which got rid of the sugar," Schneider said.
Other runners tried to shove all three donuts into their mouth at once. Some ate each one separately, but everyone had a great time comparing their eating strategy.
This is the first year for the event and the track team was just trying to see how excited people would get before they set any goals for fundraising.
"We aren't sure how much we've made yet, we're just kind rolling with it and seeing how it ends up," Onuscheck said.
Overall, the event was deemed a success, Onuscheck said.
