The Loco Strikes Back Taco Bell 50K set for Saturday in Denver might be the worst idea in America.
“We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning.
It’s an un-sanctioned ultramarathon with – last we checked – a requirement to stop at 11 Taco Bells and eat at 10 of them along the way. Throughout its history it required runners to make 10 Taco Bell stops and eat menu items at nine (drinks don’t count), but Zolnikov and co-organizer Jason Romero figured that was too easy.
“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.”
There were more than 740 starters in 2025, and 516 finishers – a 70% rate.
So everyone has to eat more Taco Bell this year to earn the title of finisher, er, survivor.
Taco Bell as a franchise has not sponsored, claimed, or stared too long, at this race.
Fifty kilometers equates to about 31 miles. Runners take on urban streets. They must have consumed a Chalupa Supreme or Crunchwrap Supreme by stop four, and a Burrito Supreme or Nachos Bell Grande by stop eight. No one’s allowed to bring Pepto Bismol or other dietary aids.
If you barf, you’re disqualified.
This race boasts a higher did-not-finish (DNF) rate than the famed Leadville 100, a 100-mile trail race in extreme Rocky Mountain terrain that peaks at 12,620 feet elevation.
Zolnikov said in usual years, 50-60% of participants drop out before the end.
But that’s on brand.
“We’re ultra runners. So you know ultra runners like to just do hard things, ridiculous things,” he said. “And I think if you can just marry the two together like we did with Taco Bell, it ticks both those boxes in one fell swoop.”
Zolnikov expects the drop-out rate to spike Saturday: The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-to-low-80s.
Zolnikov said the idea struck like an epiphany after one of his regular 15-20 mile runs around Denver with his friend Mike Oliva.
They liked to stop at farmer’s markets as aid stations.
Oliva popped into a Taco Bell to use the bathroom one time, and they bantered about, “Hey next week, instead of farmer’s markets, we should just pop into Taco Bells.”
“It was like divine inspiration,” said Zolnikov, adding that the 50k materialized in his brain.
“That was my one moment of clarity or stupidity.”
Three competitors fuel up at one of the feeding stops on the 2025 Denver Taco Bell 50K. (Peter Vo, Rocky Mountain PBS) 
The 31-mile Taco Bell ultramarathon Saturday in Denver that requires runners to eat Taco Bell throughout is almost the worst idea in America. "We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning. 
Runners have to eat a menu item at each stop on the 2025 Denver Taco Bell 50K. (Peter Vo, Rocky Mountain PBS) 
The 31-mile Taco Bell ultramarathon Saturday in Denver that requires runners to eat Taco Bell throughout is almost the worst idea in America. "We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning. 
The 31-mile Taco Bell ultramarathon Saturday in Denver that requires runners to eat Taco Bell throughout is almost the worst idea in America. "We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning. 
The 31-mile Taco Bell ultramarathon Saturday in Denver that requires runners to eat Taco Bell throughout is almost the worst idea in America. "We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning. 
The 31-mile Taco Bell ultramarathon Saturday in Denver that requires runners to eat Taco Bell throughout is almost the worst idea in America. "We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning. 
The 31-mile Taco Bell ultramarathon Saturday in Denver that requires runners to eat Taco Bell throughout is almost the worst idea in America. "We’re hoping so,” said race organizer Dan Zolnikov with a laugh Friday morning.
Rock It
Wyoming ultramarathoner Joe Wilson, who learned about the race Thursday in a phone interview, said he’s bummed he already has plans and can’t go.
“That’s the measure of endurance right there, is making it to that bathroom,” he said.
Wilson called the race evidence of the measures people will undertake to stretch human endurance.
“I would totally do it and I would kick ass,” he said, adding that he would not need a diaper, but he will need to have a bowel movement beforehand.
“Ultramarathoners, endurance athletes are wired for a challenge. They’re wired to suffer. And they’re wired to survive the suffering.”
Wilson ran the Lean Horse 100 in Custer, South Dakota, last August, placing sixth overall in 21 hours, 16 minutes and seven seconds.
“The horrors persist and so do we,” he said.
Wilson’s friend Ty Draney, who has won the Bear 100 and in 2014, ran it twice for 200 miles, isn’t judgy about The Loco Strikes Back.
But he doesn’t want to do it.
Draney has spent 25 years competing in ultras, and keeping normal food down is a big enough challenge. On race day he tends to eat mostly energy foods: Broths, gels, the occasional sandwich. He doesn’t have fecal incidents, but he’s “more of a barfer,” he said.
“I have less than zero interest in doing that race,” said Draney. “But more power to those that do.”
Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
