Key Takeaways
- Denver’s “The Loco Strikes Back” ultramarathon will make runners cover 50K, stop at 11 Taco Bells, and eat at 10 of them without vomiting or using digestive aids.
- Organizers raised the difficulty after roughly 70 percent of last year’s 740-plus starters finished, adding another mandatory meal and requiring heavier items like a Crunchwrap Supreme and Nachos BellGrande.
- The unsanctioned race began as a joke between ultrarunners Dan Zolnikov and Mike Oliva, and Taco Bell has no affiliation with the event.
Apparently, too many people successfully ran 31 miles while eating Taco Bell last year, so organizers of a Denver ultramarathon have come up with a solution: more Taco Bell.
According to Cowboy State Daily, “The Loco Strikes Back” ultramarathon returns on Saturday, Oct. 3, with runners facing a 50K — roughly 31 miles — through Denver and mandatory stops at 11 Taco Bell restaurants. They must eat at 10 of them. Drinks don't count, digestive aids are forbidden, and anyone who throws up is disqualified.
And yes, organizers made the race harder on purpose.
More than 740 people started last year's edition and 516 somehow finished, producing a roughly 70 percent completion rate. That didn't sit right with organizer Dan Zolnikov.
“Yeah, so last year we figured our finish rate was a little too high,” Zolnikov said. “The weather was favorable and just a good day.”
So, the Taco Bell tax went up. Previously, runners stopped at 10 Taco Bells and ate at nine. This year adds an 11th stop and a 10th mandatory menu item.
Competitors can't simply game the system with the lightest thing available, either. By Taco Bell No. 4, they must have eaten either a Chalupa Supreme or Crunchwrap Supreme. By stop No. 8, they need to get through a Burrito Supreme or Nachos BellGrande.
And whatever goes down needs to stay down.
In a normal year, Zolnikov said, between 50 and 60 percent of runners fail to complete the race. That's a higher DNF rate than the Leadville Trail 100, the legendary 100-mile Colorado ultramarathon that sends competitors through the Rocky Mountains and reaches 12,620 feet.
The Taco Bell race has considerably less altitude and considerably more sour cream.
“We’re ultra runners. So you know ultra runners like to just do hard things, ridiculous things,” Zolnikov said. “And I think if you can just marry the two together as we did with Taco Bell, it ticks both those boxes in one fell swoop.”
The race itself started with a bathroom break. Zolnikov and Mike Oliva were on one of their usual 15-to-20-mile Denver runs when Oliva ducked into a Taco Bell.
The pair normally used farmers markets as informal aid stations, which prompted a question: Why not replace the farmers markets with Taco Bells?
“It was like divine inspiration,” Zolnikov recalled. “That was my one moment of clarity or stupidity.”
Taco Bell isn't affiliated with the unsanctioned race, but the chain has already had a bizarre 2026 without lifting a finger here. It announced Baja Blast under-eye patches at its Live Más LIVE event in March, while artist Sunday Nobody recently organized a full-blown funeral for a West Seattle Taco Bell that had been closed for more than 30 years.
Now hundreds of runners are voluntarily spending their Saturday attempting to eat their way through 31 miles.
Veteran ultrarunner Ty Draney, who has competed in ultras for 25 years, won't be among them.
“I have less than zero interest in doing that race,” he said. “But more power to those that do.”
