The 4th annual Ice Cream Challenge (ICC) took place on Memorial Day 2022, and had more competitors than any of its previous years.
This year, we beefed up the caloric intake and shaved off a couple miles, to ensure that being a fast runner alone would not suffice - to win ICC 2022, your athletic abilities must extend to eating ice cream.. fast. Yes, that is an athletic ability.
Pre-race brief
The big news to start this year’s version was the late DNS of Tom Bowling, who won 2 of the previous 3 ICC championships - that would open up the chances for the field considerably.
Here’s how it works, for those unfamiliar. There are 2 divisions - Varsity and JV.
Varsity: Eat the ice cream treat specified below, then run the 1-mile neighborhood out-and-back. (8 miles total).
Loop 1: Snickers ice cream bar
Loop 2: Klondike Bar
Loop 3: Drumstick
Loop 4: Chipwich
Loop 5: Snickers ice cream bar
Loop 6: Klondike Bar
Loop 7: Drumstick
Loop 8: Pint of ice cream!
JV: Eat the ice cream treats specified for loops 1-4 above. Same 1-mile loop. (4 miles total).
That’s a lot of ice cream. While we can’t confirm the full list of everyone that puked, I can confirm that the manhole cover we used as the turnaround point was covered in chocolate puke by the end of the race.
The pint is always the make-or-break point in the varsity race, and this year was no exception.
Matt S. (ICC 2019 champ) and Chase took an early lead, with Ulises steadily in 3rd; it stayed that way until the pint. Matt put several minutes on Chase by finishing his pint 4-5 minutes faster, and the cagey veteran Ulises was also able to pass Chase by eating the pint quicker! Matt finished the 8 miles + 8 ice cream treats in just over an hour, at 1:01:44, earning him his 2nd ICC title, and a free night at Creekview Inn & Spa, courtesy of the Hauks! Ulises scored his second runner-up finish in a row, and Chase earned a very respectable 3rd place in his very first Rockhopper eat-and run competition!
Varsity Podium (L to R: Ulises, Matt, Chase)
Veteran competitor Chris gave his tip for eating the pint: “I try to mush it up as much as possible.”
Chris takes on the pint
Despite this time-honored strategy, he was still beat by his son-in-law Zach, who used a strategy of mixing his pint with water so he could drink it. Smart guy. This strategy earned Zach a very impressive 4th place finish, a couple minutes ahead of perennial ICC mid-packer (and RD) Joe, who finished 5th.
Zach demonstrates ICC success
Joe, notsomuch
Matt K was looking incredibly strong in his first ICC for most of the race… until the pint. He spent a lot of time under a certain tree with his pint, and, yadda yadda yadda, he wound up 6th. Chris finished 7th, followed by Ty in 8th, and Mike (2-time Whataburger Challenge champ) Ruhlin in 9th. Mike, how could you be so good at eating burgers and so bad at eating ice cream?? jkjk
The coveted DFL for varsity went to Ross Carter, who wore an ice cream hat the entire race, despite some brutal heat and sun on the course.
Ross: “I feel like I’m sweating ice cream”
Ruby Howard invented an ICC kid’s mile. Then she helped runners get ice cream and spoons, before offering to help with tear down and clean-up. What a sweetheart.
Ruby is going to dominate this competition soon
While Teddy was having a meltdown, Jess, Elizabeth, and Kate were aid station captains and made sure the race went smoothly - not an easy task when you have to give 20 people 5 different ice cream treats from the freezer and it’s 90 degrees outside! Thank you ladies!
Couldn’t have done it without these 3!
The JV race also had some interesting storylines. The most impressive performance came from the JV winner, Asa Howard, who was in 8th grade this year! He was followed very closely by Christine, who did very well considering this was her first foray into such a ridiculous format. Rounding out the JV podium was Matt’s son Bryson. Matt, possibly in a moment of hubris, bet his son he could finish varsity before Bryson finished JV. He couldn’t.
JV Podium (L to R: Christine, Asa, Bryson)
The one guarantee with ICC is that there are as many (or more) spectators as there are competitors. There must be something about the spectacle of watching people’s poor life decisions playing out in real time that’s irresistible to pass up.
Thanks for coming, everyone!
Results
Varsity
1 - Matt “The Assassin” Smith 1:01:44 CR*
2 - Ulises “The Talker” Marrufo 1:04:48
3 - Chase “Lactaid” Aycock 1:06:02
4 - Zach “Chris’s Son-in-Law” Cooney 1:10:35
5 - Joe “Schmo” Schmal 1:11:32
6 - Matt “The Wretch” Kuhlman 1:13:00
7 - Chris “Cactus Kid” Russell 1:19:36
8 - Ty “Rowdy” Tracy 1:22:29
9 - Mike “The Ringer” Ruhlin 1:26:28
10 - Ross “The Hat” Carter 1:40:38
JV
1 - Asa “The Kid” Howard 36:20
2 - Christine “The Pacer” 36:42
3 - Bryson “Assassin Jr” Smith 38:00
4 - Lisa “Camper Van” Keogh
5 - David “Kate’s Boyfriend”
6 - Daniel “I Want Puke of the Year So Bad” Tilson
7 - Ivan “Ivanovich” Smith
8 - Gray “The Wimberly Posse”
*Note: Matt is the previous Varsity course record holder with 1:18:26; however, this year we had a new, shorter course. The previous course was closer to 10 miles.
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