For this challenge, it takes guts to get the glory… literally. Competitors usually spill their guts at the finish line – or before, if they didn’t train hard enough. It takes a special kind of athlete to complete this challenge in the allotted time, but if you do it, the victory is sweet – almost as sweet as the Krispy Kreme doughnuts one has to down in order to acquire this critically acclaimed honor.

Twelve doughnuts. Sixty minutes. Five miles. These statistics make up what is called the ‘Krispy Kreme Challenge’ that is coming to N.C. State Saturday morning.

In the midst of this challenge, a group of competitors were born. They go by the name, “The Cast of Wicked,” and claim they have been training hard for a few weeks and are ready for the Krispy Kreme challenge.

The Cast of Wicked is made up of four young men: Andy Masten, a sophomore in textile technology management, Peter Sherk, a freshman in psychology, Paul McNeely a freshman in first year engineering and Alex Smith a freshman in physics.

I wanted to get inside the minds of these disciplined athletes, so I asked them the tough questions – and they answered to the best of their ability, just like the amount of effort they will exert Saturday morning.

How long have you guys been training?

Masten: We have been training as a group for three to four weeks.

McNeely: Pretty much since we got back from winter break.

Sherk: We’ve been on very high calorie diets with very long runs.

What has your daily regimen been?

Masten: Well, most days we just do a few mile runs, but for the past week we have been eating a dozen doughnuts before our runs – and Peter has thrown up after every single run we have done.

McNeely: Even after the ones when we didn’t eat doughnuts before.

Sherk: It’s true.

How do you think your preparation will help you come Saturday?

Sherk: Well, we are probably going to get first place.

McNeely: Um, we can eat doughnuts really fast now.

Sherk: Yeah, like, even if we don’t win, it’s about the fun of the competition.

Masten: And also how fast we can eat our doughnuts.

McNeely: Yeah, I’ve gotten much faster with eating doughnuts, but I haven’t really improved my running that much.

Sherk: How fast we can eat the doughnuts is really the main challenge between us and not puking.

Masten: Puke-ers are disqualified on our rules.

Do you all like Krispy Kreme doughnuts?

Masten: I’m sick of them.

Sherk: I love Krispy Kreme! They’re my favorite brand.

Masten: Except they gypped us on pirate day!

Sherk: So, a few months back, Krispy Kreme was doing this thing where if you dress up like a pirate, you get a dozen doughnuts for free. So, we all go as pirates, and as you know we are college kids so we don’t really have costumes, so we improvised. They said we aren’t good enough.

Smith: They said we needed to buy our costumes.

McNeely: Yeah, like why were we going to buy costumes for free doughnuts?

So, is this training to get back at them?

McNeely: Yes, this is all because of revenge.

Masten: I’m going to eat all of their doughnuts, and then puke all over the desk.

McNeely: Yeah, that money is for children, not for Krispy Kreme. But, I still love Krispy Kreme – it’s really not a revenge run.

Do you think you will like Krispy Kreme doughnuts after Saturday?

McNeely: I will love them even more.

Masten: Not for at least a week.

McNeely: Yeah now that I think about it, we might have to go Dunkin’.

Did any of you do this last year?

Masten: Yes, I did. The rest of us are freshies.

How did it go for you?

Masten: Good, I did it in under an hour and I’m proud to say that I didn’t throw up. I jumped over the lake of vomit at the finish line.

Smith: That’s disgusting. Ugh, the sounds really disgusting.

Are you going to eat anything on race day?

Masten: Maybe a granola bar.

McNeely: Peter is going to drink some milk. We are going to drink water.

Okay, so do you think you guys will finish under an hour?

Sherk: I am not Hussein Bolt, I am Peter Dafoe Sherk from North Carolina, have high blood cholesterol and my doctor told me to ‘lay off taco bell.’ So this is probably not something my doctor would recommend for me to do, but it’s for the children. That’s all I got to say about that.

McNeely: Oh, absolutely not. There is no way that I can do it in under an hour unless I can eat doughnuts faster than I can breathe.

Masten: I have a chance!

Is there a reason for the short shorts?

Masten: Well long shorts chafe.

Sherk: Yeah, long story short, that’s what they do.

Masten: But with that aside, we want everyone to know how serious we are about this and that we are here to win.

McNeely: Also skies out, thighs out.

Sherk: Also to tell kids that obesity is wrong.

McNeely: To show them what happens.

Masten: And to promote good body images.

McNeely: Pale thighs.

What will you guys be wearing on race day?

Masten: Well, we are getting paint splattered on us Saturday and also wearing short shorts.

McNeely: We have like twelve colors, so look out for us.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Masten: I’d like to dedicate this run to my mom.

I guess the spectators of this challenge Saturday will truly find out if the short-shorts and weeks of training have paid off for The Cast of Wicked. How many doughnuts will it take to stop this crew? The world may never know.