JOG 'n HOG

 (MORE PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM)

Only two weeks before the Tour de Tuli a grueling 200 mile mountain bike ride starting in Botswana, crossing into Zimbabwe, and finishing in South Africa. Prior to the Tour I am visiting the U.S. to see some family (it might be my last chance) and get some additional bike equipment.

Since I am in the thick of things with my training for the Tour de Tuli I thought a good race might be a way to stay in shape. I found the perfect race, "The Jog 'n Hog" you run 2 miles, eat a quart of Uncle Dave's Vanilla Ice Cream and then run another 2 miles.

I recruited 2 runners to join me, both avid marathoners so I knew they would be tough competition. Dan The Man (Super Scooper) and Gary Nolan.

There were about 300 runners, or should I say, "participants", as many looked like they had spent more time training for the Ice Cream section of the race than the running sections.

Our strategy was to run easy for the first running segment, eat fast, and run hard for the second running segment, we figured with a quart of Ice Cream in us, we should have the energy to push ourselves.

We started off in the middle of the pack, the course was gravely so it was some what tough to get good footing we kept with our strategy of an easy pace, but to our surprise we continually passed other runners / participants. At the one mile mark Dan The Man could sense he was getting close to Uncle Dave's and really picked up the pace.

We encouraged Dan The Man  to slow down, but the call of the Ice Cream was two strong. We ran the last mile at a sub six minute mile, passing about 30 people.

On arrival to the transition area we were handed our quart of Uncle Dave's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, along with a silver spoon. You had the option eat your quart of Ice Cream sitting or standing. Dan The Man and Gary Nolan choose standing I choose sitting.

Up until this point all three of us were happy with our race position, until we opened our Ice Cream container and found out the Ice Cream was frozen as hard as a rock. The silver spoon would bend just trying to get a scoop of Ice Cream. I had a slight advantage over my two teammates as I could get leverage since I was sitting, this made digging into the quart a little easier.

At the 5 minute mark I was about halfway done the Ice Cream, do not ask me how it tasted, the Ice Cream went from the spoon right down my throat, barley touching my mouth. Gary Nolan and Dan The Man were about a third done. My Training was paying off.

All of a sudden Amy Nolan, Gary's wife started trash talking Gary Nolan. "You can not let "DUG" beat you!!!" This got Gary Nolan's competitive juices flowing. Gary Nolan turned on his Ice Cream Eating turbo booster. Gary Nolan finished his quart in about 10 minutes, I was a few seconds behind. Dan The Man still had a scoop or two left. Gary Nolan and I made the strategic decision to start our run back without Dan The Man.

What a run it was two miles of running with a fresh quart of Uncle Dave's Ice Cream, what a great feeling. We kicked the whole run, passing other runners all the way to the finish line. Finishing in 36 minutes flat. Dan The Man cranked on the run and finished just a few seconds behind us.

A great time was had by all, and the funniest part was I lost a pound of weight, a pound I really did not want to lose.

Cheers,

DUG

P.S. No one lost their cookies (Ice Cream)