FOOD FOR TROT

Beer, tacos, doughnuts-these gluttonous treats make any situation better. That's why the running community has made FOOD RACES a fun way to compete in anything from a one-miler to an ultramarathon

- BY MARK BECHTEL ILLUSTRATION BY EDDIE GUY

"SO MUCH OF THE TIME WE HAVE TO BE SO SERIOUS. AND THIS WAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS AND JUST HAVE FUN," LASETER SAYS.

CHICAGO COUPLE Melanie Pozdol and Victor Hilitski really should have a meet-cute. She can drink four beers and run a mile in a little over six minutes. He once ate 19 samosas and ran 21 miles in a little over six hours. In a perfect world, they'd have crossed paths with each other jogging on the Loop while stuffing their faces with deep-dish pizza or something. But, no, they just met at a wedding.

The fact that they are part of the city's gastronomical racing community and never met before that day shows just how expansive that universe has become. And it's not just Chicago. Raleigh has a race that combines a five-mile run with a dozen Krispy Kremes. The Bay Area has an IPA 10K. Last year, runner and entrepreneur Simon Evers got the idea to stage a bakery half-marathon in Copenhagen when his company was putting out a magazine dedicated to 10 of the city's top bakeries. When he realized the total distance between them was 13.1 miles, he took it as a sign. ("It was written in the sky," he says.) This September, Evers brought the idea to Brooklyn; he got 17,000 applications for 100 spots. The list goes on and on, and they all owe a debt of gratitude to France's 40-year-old Marathon du Medoc, during which runners sample wines, cheeses and oysters. (Yes, oysters.)