Podium - Tour de Donut

Ready for the memorial loop around the complex.
You can see the tables with donut boxes.

Tour de Donut day began with a memorial ride twenty minutes before the race start honoring two women, Bunny Bradley 2010 and Brynn Barton 2011 who were killed while bike riding. They did this to raise awareness that people should share the road, giving a cyclist 3 feet of room when passed by a vehicle. It was a silent, slow ride, around the North Pointe Business Park in American Fork. Very moving.
So, now for the race. This race is done circuit style, heres how it works. Ride the 7 mile loop, eat donuts, ride 7 miles again, eat donuts, ride 7 miles and come through the finish line. Easy concept. I like riding. I like donuts. What could be better than doing both on your birthday.

Riders all lined up at the start line.

I put myself and my bike in the middle of the pack, I was a little nervous being clipped in my bike with that many riders around me. I think it was just after the start when I got stuck and had a hard time getting around some slower riders that I decided, why don't I try to place in this race. I was feeling good, it was a beautiful day. I was hungry. Go for it.

Pink braids, pink bow, pink cape.

They did a manual countdown and we were off. This was a gun timed race, which means that when they said go, our time started, not when we went under the start gate. So I went under the start line 30 seconds after the race officially started.
With the big group of riders it was a few hundred yards until we started thinning out and able to get riding with some speed. I had a hard time getting around a few riders in the beginning who were riding together. The course was flat, but you really had to use a lot of care getting around it. There were pot holes everywhere! They were well marked, but they missed a few and so I had to be really careful. Also, there were a lot of turns. All well marked with a fluorescent green painted donut and a big arrow, the majority had a person or policeman showing you to turn and helping with traffic. (Very little traffic.) I was keeping a pretty good pace, avoiding potholes, making turns. Passing people.
Made it safely around the first loop for my first stop at the donut tables. I didn't know what to expect, well, except for I did expect donuts. And I wasn't disappointed, they had those! So I rode up to a table with an opening and picked up a donut and started eating. A volunteer "donut counter" handed me a bottle of cold water and told me that it helps to get the donuts down quicker. Ok. Then she told me you pour some on the donut, hope some of the sugar falls off as you keep eating.
I don't know how you can prepare yourself to eat donuts fast. I ate an early breakfast consisting of two poached eggs, water and vitamins. Did not have my usual toast. So by 9am I was a little hungry. My strategy became eat as many as I could the first stop before my stomach knew what was happening, but don't do so much I couldn't ride. My total donut goal had been planned for 4. I ate that my first stop! The donuts were warm, loaded with glaze and if I had been eating one or two, slowly it would have satisfied me. This eating faster was hard, I did a lot of chewing. It took almost the whole bottle of water, I decided after 4 it was time to ride. The donut counter wrote 4 on my bib, I wiped my hands with a wipe as best I could and I was off - sticky fingers and all.
This time the ride around the course was faster because all the riders are spread out. I passed quite a few of the same people again, I guess they ate less donuts than me or there was a "no donut lane" you could ride through and get a 0 written on your bib for not eating a donut. Lame, you are not going to win.... they tell you, no matter how fast you can ride the course, if you don't eat donuts you won't win.
So round two of donut eating. I thought experience would help me. Not! Now my stomach knew exactly what was going on and was trying to tell me I was full. Sorry stomach, but since I can be a bit slower of a biker than other women my age I will have to eat donuts to gain some time advantage... and I will have to do it fast. It seemed a little harder this time, using the same water trick as before I decided to call it quits at 3. I was thinking if I ate another it would take longer than it would be worth time wise and stomach wise. The donut counter wrote 3 on my bib, then ripped off the bottom portion to take it to be entered into the computer. I figured my stomach had bought me -21 minutes on my time, now my legs would have to do the rest. So I rode as fast as I could with road hazards, turns and a stomach full of donuts and water.
There was some time after the race ended before results were tabulated. I took the time to go get a free chiropractic adjustment, a shoulder massage, and relax in the shade.

James Perry, my friend who works at Infinite Cycles
earns First Place in age 14-34 by eating 18 donuts!

First results:

PLACE	BIB	NAME	GUN TIME	CHIP TIME	PACE	AGE	AGE RANKING
1	264	JAMES PERRY	00:21:18	01:15:18	NA	99	1ST M 1 - 99
2	102	RYAN AMY	00:27:45	01:00:45	NA	99	2ND M 1 - 99
3	267	LANCE GILLIS	00:33:32	01:03:32	NA	99	3RD M 1 - 99

So here is where it is all about the donuts, yes it took him longer to ride the course, but you just can't beat a donut eater if they pound them down. 1st Place 18 donuts, 2nd place 11 donuts, 3rd 10 donuts. Then we have Infinite Cycles shop owner, Brad Rowberry. He got the same exact time as Lance, but he ended up in 7th place because his donut eating skills left him with just an 8 count donut total.

263

BRAD ROWBERRY

00:39:32

01:03:32

NA

99

7TH M 1 - 99

Brad Rowberry loses challenge to James Perry and has to
get on the ground and act and bark like a dog.

So lets see how I came out in my division. This came out a little differently because as I suspected, I wasn't as fast of a rider as a few of the women in my division. There were nine total.

PLACE	BIB	NAME	GUN TIME	CHIP TIME	PACE	AGE	AGE RANKING
1	139	JEANINE HALE	00:56:30	01:02:30	NA	99	1ST F 1 - 99
2	151	MARSHA MONSON	01:03:31	01:24:31	NA	99	2ND F 1 - 99
3	142	MARY SCOTT	01:05:36	01:14:36	NA	99	3RD F 1 - 99
4	176	SUSAN TOENSING	01:07:19	01:25:19	NA	99	4TH F 1 - 99
5	319	JANET CORNIA	01:20:08	01:20:08	NA	99	5TH F 1 - 99
6	179	ELAINE REBELE	01:26:21	01:26:21	NA	99	6TH F 1 - 99
7	274	CINDY WILLFORD	01:36:03	01:48:03	NA	99	7TH F 1 - 99
8	241	KAREN SWENSON	01:39:45	01:42:45	NA	99	8TH F 1 - 99
9	110	DEBBIE DECARLO	01:45:33	01:48:33	NA	99	9TH F 1 - 99

Here is how I see it. Jeannie was a much faster rider than the rest of us. Since she probably didn't know her competition, I would guess she did this race for fun. She ate 2 donuts and easily took 1st Place. Now if you look at my "chip time", I was about the same riding ability as 4th-6th place. What took me to 2nd place was my donut eating ability.
Mary beat me on the course, but she chose to eat only 3 donuts. Just one more donut, if she had eaten it in less than a minute, and she could have maybe been in 2nd place. As you can see by chip time, Mary was almost 10 minutes faster than me on her bike. Factor in a couple of extra minutes of donut time for me. Things get close and sticky.
Susan took 4th, she ate 6 donuts. Go Susan. And you can see that 5th and 6th ate no donuts. What's up with that? Maybe next year they should try another race. 

Me and "Fatty", Elden Nelson of fatcyclist.com

So my strategy paid off and I walked away with a 2nd place Female Masters Division. 55+ I am hoping they post pictures, then I should have one with all three of us ladies with our trophies and they did get some of me eating donuts. Check back soon. And if you want to read about last years race, check out Fatty's blog post about the 2010 Tour de Donut. It is hilarious.