Ice Cream Challenge 2024

The 6th running of the Rockhopper Ice Cream Challenge took place on Memorial Day, 2024.  This year, the heat and humidity added some extra difficulty, with the heat index reaching 108° F by the end of the race.

I wasn’t able to convince as many people to compete this year - I think once you’ve experienced firsthand what a stupid idea this is, you are less likely to want to subject yourself to the misery again, so we might need to come up with a new stupid idea for a race next year.

Still, we had 2 Varsity competitors (Chris & Manny), and 9 folks in the JV mix.  Here’s how it works:

Varsity: Eat the ice cream treat specified below, then run the 1-mile neighborhood out-and-back. (8 miles total).

Loop 1: M&M chipwich

Loop 2: Klondike Bar

Loop 3: Ice cream sandwich 

Loop 4: ice cream Twix bar

Loop 5: Drumstick

Loop 6: Krunch bar

Loop 7: Bomb pop

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).

The varsity duel did not disappoint, and was quite the battle!  Manny jumped ahead to an early lead, building a 5-minute cushion on Chris by the halfway point.  Chris whittled that down in the second half, finally catching Manny in lap 7.  

Elizabeth hands Chris his 6th ice cream

There could be no doubt Chris would take the win at that point - he sat down in Aaron’s chair, completely drenching it in sweat, and plowed miserably through his pint of Neapolitan, all while grumbling about the lack of a pure strawberry option.

The chair will never be the same

Then the victory lap, Chris’ first ICC win!  He even went home with an extra folding chair, as Aaron had no interest in bringing it back home after the race, for some reason.

They were both so miserable 😂

In a touching moment, Manny’s family joined him to run him in at the very end, and as you might expect, there was nothing but pure pride and admiration beaming from their faces.

This is what determination looks like.  And nausea.

The JV race was dominated by Kwok from start to finish, completing the course in a blistering 27 minutes, a JV CR.  He dropped down from the Varsity category from last year, I guess because he wanted to be able to eat lunch or something, I don’t know.

Kwok breaking the tape (aka toilet paper)

The real drama in JV was the Collado family rivalry.  In a pretty tight finish, Alex got the best of her son Antonio, scoring a 2nd place finish, while Antonio won a hard-fought 3rd.  Matty was the other Collado to cross the line - he wore long sleeves and pants to make sure it was extra challenging!

JV Podium!

It was also a family affair for the Smiths and Howards.  All four of the Smiths (Tim, Ellen, Luke, and Emma) ran some or all of the race - Luke ran a new distance PR, covering all 4 miles!  Pretty impressive!  Ruby was the only official entrant from the Howard family, and she killed it!  I couldn’t quite get her to eat that last novelty ice cream, but maybe next year her stomach will have grown enough to down all 4…

Ruby and Asa on the left, Alex on the right

Thanks to everyone that came over and made it a really fun morning!