The New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, Va., hosted their fourth annual Donut Dash 5k on Saturday Nov. 16. All proceeds from the approximately 87 registered runners went toward NLCF’s annual spring break trip to Honduras. During the weeklong trip to Honduras, NLCF members work with locals in regard to community development. In the past, they’ve participated in the Clean Water Project during the trip.

 

“Our first goal is to provide a fun family friendly event for Blacksburg and the New River Valley. We’re also doing it to raise money for some of the work our church does in Honduras,” said David McCann, Race Director.

 

The race was a 5k, or 3.1 mile course. Runners made several laps around the Drillfield on Virginia Tech’s campus. The catch was that after lap two, runners could eat Carol Lee donuts in order to take time off of their final time. One donut deducted one minute.

 

“We wanted to do a 5k fundraiser and we realized there wasn’t a donut related 5k anywhere near here,” McCann said. “We knew that in order to be successful, it had to be fun and it had to be unique and something they haven’t seen before. We wanted to bring the fun of eating and running together.”

 

For runner Drew Kellogg, the race was an appealing experience because he had never eaten during a race before.

 

“I thought it would be a challenge and I’m happy I did it because converting the donut I ate took a minute off so I ran a 20 minute and 50 second 5k and I hadn’t run that fast in a while,” Kellogg said. “I only had one donut. I didn’t want to throw up.” Kellogg said.

 

The most Carol Lee donuts eaten was six resulting in the fastest finishing time of seventeen minutes and thirteen seconds.