Runners pound the pavement, devour fast food at first Taco Bell DC 50K

Runners pound the pavement, choke down fast food at first DC Taco Bell 50K

Imagine eating a Crunchwrap Supreme from Taco Bell, and after stuffing yourself, you run 30 miles, all while stopping to eat even more Taco Bell every few miles. That’s what hundreds of runners did over the weekend for the first ever Taco Bell DC 50K.

Bridget Tobias, the top female finisher, struggled to get her ninth Taco Bell order down at the Taco Bell Cantina in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, after running the ultramarathon.

“By the end, I think my body was just rejecting any form of tortilla. Whether it was fried or soft, it did not want any more,” Tobias told WTOP.

Organizers said about 500 runners took off from the Taco Bell Cantina early Saturday morning, running around Arlington, Alexandria and D.C., and devouring cheese, beans and beef in various tortilla wrappings before sprinting off again.

“It was nice to cross the Key Bridge after having a chalupa. I’ve never done that before,” Mike Smith, of Bethesda, said.

Smith came in first place with a blistering time of just over four hours.

“I was made for this. I grew up eating like 7-Eleven like three times a day, so I was made for this,” said Smith, washing down his last Taco Bell meal with a cold beer.

Alex Fenn, who took the silver, drove all the way from North Carolina to participate in the race.

“Not used to eating Taco Bell while running those miles, so that was a little bit difficult, but fought off the nausea and ended up getting second place. So couldn’t be happier,” Fenn said.

He said the worst part of the race was a certain popular menu item, “I don’t normally eat meat when running. So, on the Crunchwrap Supreme, I switched out the meat for beans, and it just ended up feeling like a paste, and it was pretty unpleasant.”

Fenn trained for about a month running while eating foods, such as Little Debbie and oatmeal cream pies, to prepare his gut for the race.

But not every runner had the same strategy.

“I did not practice any food eating while running, which, honestly, I’m glad I didn’t because I think if I knew how much it was going to hurt, I don’t know that I would have come out today,” Tobias said jokingly.

All runners had to present the wrappers and receipts for every Taco Bell order at the finish and could only stop their time when they downed their last order.

Mike Wardian, one of the runners and organizers, told WTOP they decided to create the race after seeing the original race take off in Denver, Colorado.

“I posted something on Instagram, I thought we thought we’d have like 10 people show up. We had around 1,000 people sign up,” Wardian said.

“I had faith in the crazy people of the DMV to show up,” Tobias said.

Will the race return next year?

“It was definitely a challenge to make everything come off without a hitch, but I think everyone stayed safe and played by the rules. So, I don’t see why not,” Wardian said.