The People Who Ran an Ultra Marathon While Eating Taco Bell

An Ultra-Marathon is considered to be any race that is longer than the 26.2 miles (42.195k) of a traditional marathon. So, a Taco Bell 30k/50k means participants will be eating Taco Bell whilst running 18.6 or 31.1 miles.

When I first saw their flier, my mind went to the same place yours did. The gutter. Or the toilet if one could make it in time. Don't use the sink though. The floor is better than the sink. You can’t clog the floor.

It sounded kooky enough to peak the interest of the Broke-Ass readership, though, so I thought I'd try to participate, or at least see if I could witness someone blowin' taco chunks on the roadside.

In a region of the Bay Area known for its high-end wine and culinary tourism, running and eating Taco Bell is about the last thing that comes to mind. So I pulled up to the South Napa Market Place Taco Bell, a little before the 10 a.m. start, expecting to find five or six weirdo runners with a fast-food fetish.

Imagine my surprise as I beheld 50-to-60 people in running wear and proper marathon bibs.

The first organizer I spoke with was Alec Villagomez, a member of the Vinerunners, a Napa running club.

“We run a lot of races in the fall,” said Villagomez. “And the actual Taco Bell 50k in Denver is in October, so we were always going to have a conflict. So we were like, let's just do it here.”

Oh, Sweet Chili Christ! Eating Taco Bell and running is already a thing?!

Yeah. The Denver International Taco Bell 50k has been going on for eight years, with the ninth event coming up October 3, 2026. There's one going on in November out in Washington D.C. this year, too. They're holding it on Black Friday. Just when you thought consumerism and our nation's capitol couldn't get any more full of crap...

The Denver rules are as such:

There is also the:

The Napa rules were basically the same, though they had variations for the shorter distance race.

30K Rules:

Also, turns out Napa doesn't have as many Taco Bells as Denver – who knew?

“In Denver you can do a full loop and hit ten Taco Bells,” explained Villagomez. “But here we only have the two, so we're like, 'Ok, ten trips it is.' They happen to be almost exactly a 5k apart which makes it a 50k. And we thought, 'That's kismet, we gotta do it.'”

Hmmm, so it could make for a relay race…

The South Napa location is more-or-less directly connected to the Jefferson Street location by the Vine Trail pedestrian/bicycle path. In addition to connecting the two restaurants, the trail runs from the Vallejo Ferry Building to Calistoga, making it possible for avid cyclists and runners to access the Napa Valley from public transit.

A Taco-Bell-fueled footrace is probably not what they had in mind. “Oh great,” said a local resident when hearing about the event. “The Vine Trail is gonna be one long brown smear.”

There was a large and enthusiastic turnout, ready to decimate the course. Fans of #BaytoBreakers group costume tradition will be glad to know “The Sauce Packet Squad” was in attendance.

“She's been training for this all her life!” Proclaimed Tony “Mild Sauce” Nguyen.

“It's like the two things that I'm really good at,” admitted Blythe “Fire Sauce” Marshman. “Running some miles and eating some Taco Bell.”

“And I have a chihuahua, so I gotta do this!” continued Mild Sauce. “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!”

“But John and Tony have run Hundred-Milers,” said Fire Sauce, expressing that they were also serious runners. “Diane has run a 100k, so – ”

“This is all training for future races,” interjected Karina “Verde Sauce” Grabis, followed by a nodding chorus of agreement.

For how ridiculous the event seemed, the crowd was mostly real, serious runners. The vast majority turned out to be experienced marathon, ultra-marathon, and trail-race runners.

“We three are all actually training for a real ultra-marathon race in October,” said Villagomez of himself and co-organizers Ryan Melendez and Jamie O'Sullivan. “So our mileage has been quite high. And any time we meet to talk, somebody will pick up Taco Bell. So we've eaten a lot of Taco Bell, we've run a lot of miles. Today they become one.”

All three event organizers are members of Vinerunners. Other members of the club, including Steven Cartwright and Chikako Harris, were assisting with check-ins and making sure the participants got their required Taco Bell items.

The Healdsburg Running Company also had a presence, carpooling multiple runners. Other contestants came from San Jose, Berkeley, and Santa Rosa. One runner was originally from the UK, sort of making this the Inaugural “International” Napa Taco Bell 30k/50k.

But were these Serious Runnin' Folks worried about pukin' and poopin'? The fast food chain is known for its digestive volatility – including that recent lettuce incident. Was this race to be sponsored by Taylor Farms?! And ultra-marathons are known to have their own digestive issues. Isn't this throwing gasoline at a fire – or Fire Sauce? Hell, their flyer even said that pacers were allowed “for moral support and for holding your hair if you must eject a gordita.” 

“I'm a puker,” said Mild Sauce. “I'm an expert puker.”

“I'm not gonna lie, I'm an expert pooper,” said Verde Sauce, partially joking, we think. “I have plenty of wipes, just in case. Being a trail runner really teaches you how to control your bowel movements. But Taco Bell moves through you so quickly!” 

“I do ultras. I'll be ok,” said event organizer Jamie O'Sullivan, a little later. “I'll figure it out. I mean, if it happens it happens. You just keep going.”

Just like life.

Moments later, the runners took off from the start, munching their wraps and tacos, peppering the ground with the occasional lettuce shred and rice grains.

They started arriving at the north location about 30 minutes later. In short order, the fast food restaurant had a wrap-around line of about thirty-five. Easily the longest line I've seen in a Taco Bell.

Taco Bell area manager Angelica Chavez was prepared for the rush and was passing out samples of the Tajin Pineapple Strawberry Freeze, and the Cinnamon Sugar Churros

“Oh! We love it!,” said Chavez of the event. Then, as the Sauce Packet Squad walked in, she declared: “Oh! My Fire Sauce is here!”

Since the participants were only required to eat a food items at 9 out of 10 stops, several runners chose to avoid the line at the first stop, knowing that the field would spread out as the race went on.

As the group waited to order chalupas and gorditas, I asked Ryan Melendez how he felt about the turn out.

“Couldn't be better,” said Melendez. “This was the first year we did it. We would've been happy with like 20 people. That would've been so successful. And we got 90-plus sign ups and at least 50 people that showed up. So, yeah, incredible.”

Throughout the day, there was a palpably positive vibe in the restaurants and on the trail. Even the fast food workers cracked genuine smiles at the ridiculousness. It had an air of whimsy. You're alive! Go run around and eat Taco Bell. Why the fuck not?! So maybe you puke-alupa or chunderrito. So what?!

“Very whimsical, very silly,” agreed Melendez. “Quirky. We're out here training for big ultras and stuff, and we're all having fun, but we just thought this would be such a silly, stupid event – but we're all silly and stupid! Why not do it?!”

The course was altered just a little bit for safety, so participants had to run around the block a few times at the end to get their complete 30k/50k. In keeping with the seriousness of the runners, all of the finishers came prepared with running watches or fitbits to confirm their distance.

Ultimately, there were only two reports of puking and no reports of explosive diarrhea. None that were admitted to, at least.

The event wasn't organized very strictly, so the winner of the 50k was declared to be “A guy named Hunter who was really fast.” They guesstimated attendance to be around 60 people, with about 10 folks that dropped out. A good number decided to be 30k finishers instead of 50k. More than one person mentioned “a lot of sloshin' around in there” between the food and the water consumed on what turned out to be a hot day.

The low-key race was more about getting out there, having fun, and training.

“We had one woman say that before this, her longest run was eight miles,” said Villagomez after the event. “She did the full 30k and beat her time prediction and said, 'This is me cementing that I'm going to be a life-long runner.'”

The final contestant arrived a little before 7pm to a round of applause. It was...drum roll...you know him...you love him... Diablo Hot Sauce Packet John Rasey!