Clemson Pi Day Challenge Race Report

This was a rather impromptu "race" but it was on campus celebrating Pi Day and there was food involved so why not? The race was slated as a 1 mile run - Eat 1/2 a Cheese Pizza - and another 1 mile run. In reality I found the runs to be 0.89 miles according to my Garmin Forerunner 610, but my approximate pace and overall place wouldn't have changed so it doesn't really matter.

With the short distance of running I knew it would come down to the eating portion, something I knew I wasn't awful at, but I had no idea how I'd fair. Maybe about 50 people started the race and I took off quickly settling into 2nd place. The guy in first was running well, but I figured there was little chance he'd hold on even to the pizza station. The first run was mostly downhill, but with a flight of stairs at the end. I lapped my watch and grabbed a plate of pizza. First run - 0.89 miles in 4:47.3 (5:23/mi. pace).



I started out eating fairly fast, but quickly realized this pizza was not going to be easy for anyone. 4 large slices of Papa John's hand tossed cheese pizza (1/2 of an entire large pie). Over the next 12 minutes I ate, drank about 5 cups of water to wash it down, and ate some more. I got the last bit of crust in my mouth and tossed my plate in the trash... ready to go! Wait, I still had more to swallow, and I realized that wasn't going to happen if I ran yet.

Go! I had dropped from 2nd place down to about 8th or 9th on the eating, and my teammate had already crossed the finish for the overall win, but I took off sprinting. Down the steps and back uphill for most of the return nine tenths of a mile. About a third of a mile into the run I passed a string of runners and kept on moving. I was actually holding a reasonable pace and flew by a couple more people before out sprinting one last person who had puked no more than 100 ft from the finish line.

I ended up 4th overall, with teammates taking 1-2, in a time of 21:37. My return run split was 4:49.7 (5:24/mi. pace) and only 2.4 seconds slower than my first run... after half a pizza and uphill!