The First Annual Snoopy Challenge

January 22, 2012

Here are the rules:  Start at Snoopy‘s at Meredith College. Eat a hot dog. Then run to Snoopy‘s downtown.  Eat onion rings.  Then run to the Snoopy’s on Wake Forest Road.  Eat an apple turnover.  5.1 miles and an ungodly amount of calories.   

I was up for the challenge!  I brought my daughter Kayla because I thought she would have a great time with it.  It was a North Carolina Roadrunners event and I am always up for a social run.  Especially when it involves food!  

A little more than a dozen people from the NCRC group met at the Wake Forest Road location at 2:00 Sunday afternoon.  It was cloudy and around 35 degrees.  We carpooled with Blanca Akers to the Meredith Snoopy’s location.  We arrived and figured out who was up for the full challenge.  Four guys and me!  Wooo!  (and one of those guys was eating only, not running, what is up with that, right?)  We all ate our hot dog - with everything on it of course - and headed out for the second Snoopy’s location.  I was running with my daughter and keeping an easy pace so we could run together.  About ½ mile in she asked “are we almost there?”  I kept encouraging her, and she kept on.  At times you could tell she was not happy with the fact that the locations were 2.5 miles apart, but she was a trooper.  Had someone stop and ask me if we were doing a race or something and I stopped briefly to explain the madness.  They laughed and said thanks for letting us know.  

Kayla and I made it to the downtown location.  She had had enough running for one day.  She made it 2.5 miles and had not been running regularly since September.  I was proud of her!  

At the downtown location I had to eat my onion rings fast since the other guys in the challenge had a head start  from arriving several minutes ahead of my daughter and I.  Kayla opted not to go out for the second half, instead she hitched a ride with Charles West.  I upped the pace quite a bit on this leg to keep up with Charles Akers and Mike Walsh.  It felt great to get into a faster pace.  Actually warmed up a lot and broke a sweat!   

Coming down the hill to the last location was the giant Snoopy’s hot dog waving at us.  Walsh and I high fived him as we came in.  Passers by were waiving and having a good time with it as well.  All 5 of us who started out the challenge, completed it with no problem.  

Waiting for us was a bag of hot apple turnovers.  Those were awesome!  Did I mention they were super hot?  

We hung out for a while, ate, and took pictures.  There were a LOT of door prizes.  Kayla won a Snoopy’s T shirt and I won a $10 Snoopy’s gift card.  I promptly spent the gift card and then some on take out for the rest of my family.  Easy dinner!  

It was a great event.  The owner Larry Cerilli was there to greet us and offered all the Snoopy’s freebies as door prizes.  NCRC board members Brad Broyles and Rebecca Sitton did a great job organizing it.   

I can see this becoming something similar to a Krispy Kreme Challenge.  It is easier in the fact that you don’t have to eat 12 donuts.  (I completed that challenge a few years back and was miserable the rest of the day for it.)  The Snoopy’s challenge was not bad at all.  No stomach issues.  Thought the onion rings might cause a problem, but they weren’t.  Guess I am used to it with all the running while eating I have done in the past.  

Hopefully next year there will be a second annual Snoopy’s challenge.  It was a great social run, and I am always up for those, especially when there is food!