“It blew up from there,” said the race director, Maggie DeWeese, a junior at the university. The event is now a fund-raiser for UNC Children’s Hospital, run through a charity that pays for the doughnuts, since it has no official affiliation with Krispy Kreme.

Ms. DeWeese said typical event participants are college students. “It’s just something you do before you graduate,” she said. Last year, 40 percent of runners opted to take on the full, 12-doughnut challenge, in which runners attempt to run two-and-a-half miles, eat 12 doughnuts, then run back in under an hour. Another division, The Casual, allows runners to eat however many doughnuts they choose, with no time goal. And new for this year, the No Doughnut, for runners who want to leave the food out of it — though given the propensity of race participants to toss their cookies (or in this case doughnuts) during the race, they still will need to watch where they step.

February seems to mark the beginning of the food racing season around the country. In a few weeks, Indianapolis runners will compete in the Circle City Donut Dash, where participants must consume a dozen doughnuts at the halfway point. To improve race completion rates, the race organizers this year decided to offer “smaller doughnuts.” Racers now must eat a dozen doughnut holes at the halfway point rather than larger doughnuts. “We want more people crossing the finish line completing the challenge,” says the race website.

Next month, runners in Sacramento compete in the Donut Dash, billed as four doughnuts over four miles. A “lite” division allows competitors to eat just six doughnut holes during the run. The Duluth Donut Dash in Minnesota this fall is a bit tamer — the race offers every runner a doughnut and coffee.