Photo by keviikev
When running a road race, you depend on refreshments along the way. A dash of water here, an orange wedge there. Just some nutritional assistance to keep you on course. After all, no race wants to see its competitors keel over at the nine-mile marker.
But rather than replenishing its runners with electrolytes and vitamins, a half marathon scheduled for November 3 wants to feed its entrants something a bit heavier at the halfway point. The Half and Half Marathon is a 13.1-mile jaunt from the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Sixteenth Street Heights to U Street NW and back again, with a meal at Ben’s Chili Bowl at the turn.
So, instead of downing energy supplements or chugging gatorade, runners will chomp their way through one of Ben’s chili-soaked half-smokes and a side of chips before heading out for the uphill climb back to the starting line. And who knows what else will be running?
The Half and Half Marathon was conceived by brothers Chris and Peter Magnuson, who thought it up after running in the Krispy Kreme Challenge, an annual race in Raleigh, N.C. that dares its entrants to gobble down a dozen glazed doughnuts in the middle of the five-mile run.
“We wanted to come up with an idea that’s similar, but unique to D.C.,” Peter Magnuson says in a phone interview. “What’s one of the foods that’s unique to D.C.? Ben’s Chili Bowl half-smoke.”
Magnuson says he and his brother first thought of the half-smoke run after running the 2010 Krispy Kreme race. The pair of them, and a neighbor, ran a few miles to Ben’s and ordered themselves a few half-smokes lathered in the landmark restaurant’s famous chili.
“To be honest, eating a chili dog after six and a half miles was awesome,” he says. “It tasted great, you get all these proteins.”
This year, though, the Magnusons want to share their feat of gustatory athleticism with the masses. Ben’s Chili Bowl is on board with the idea, and on November 3, they hope to see lots of hungry runners making the trot with them. Proceeds from the $35 entry fee will be donated to scholarCHIPS, a charity that funds academic scholarships for the children of incarcerated parents. (Both Peter and Chris Magnuson work in education.)
So far, Peter Magnuson says, about 25 have signed up to join him and his brother in running a half marathon broken up by a meal that is synonymous with life in the District. After the first 6.55 miles, runners will dive into their half-smokes, those greasy, fatty meat tubes doused in saucy ground beef and onions. Anyone who’s ever eaten at Ben’s knows the experience, including licking the last bits of goopy runoff from their soiled fingers.
Still, Magnuson says a half-smoke should perk up any runner. He felt fine on his test run, what with his body already expending calories after the first half of the course. “I didn’t make me feel full, because I’m already burning stuff,” he says.
And when he and his brother have done the Krispy Kreme Challenge, both have been able to consume the entire dozen doughnuts, which total about 2,400 calories. Not everyone has so much gastrointestinal fortitude, however. “There’s always a couple people who throw up.”
But the only way to be an official finisher of the Krispy Kreme Challenge is to eat those sweet, doughy rings. With the Half and Half Marathon, Magnuson says the meal at Ben’s isn’t a binding requirement, but it is highest form of competition. “It’s really the point that you try to do it and try to accomplish it,” he says.
Perhaps a word of warning, though. Some runners, when they push themselves, experience a quicker-than-usual digestive process. Runners World advises its readers to avoid spicy foods before running, and to guard their midrun carbohydrate intakes. After all, the chili is best left on the half-smoke.
The Half and Half Marathon begins 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 3 outside the Carter Barron Amphitheater. Anyone participating might want to wear long pants. What? It’ll be early November and the starting line is on a hilltop, so it might be chilly!
