Colorado race travels 31 miles while stopping at 10 Taco Bells with eating requirement

74 days. 14 hours. 35 minutes. And 11 seconds. At time of publishing, that's how long it is until the start of the 6th annual Taco Bell 50K ultramarathon in Denver. And really, this 50K should be considered one of the most difficult around – not because of the mileage or elevation change, but because of the massive amount of food that must be consumed while running the race.

The Taco Bell 50K (31 miles and change) is set to take place on October 5, following a route around the Denver metro area that's designed to stop at 10 different Taco Bell restaurants. The race comes with a rather unique set of rules – most intimidating is that participants must eat a menu item at nine of the 10 Taco Bells they pass along the way to the finish line – and drinks don't count. On top of that, a Chalupa Supreme or Crunchwrap Supreme must be consumed by stop four, with a Burrito Supreme or a Nachos Bell Grande consumed by stop eight. The race must be completed in 11 hours and no on-course Pepto, Alka Seltzer, Pepcid A/C or Mylanta is allowed.

On top of the standard rules, there's also a 'Baja Blast Challenge,' which means drinking at least two liters of Baja Blast throughout the race without vomiting, as well as the 'Diablo Challenge,' which means 'lathering' all items with Diablo sauce and doing a shooter of the sauce at the end of the race.

Let's crunch some race-related numbers – someone completing the race at the 11-hour cut-off pace would be burning around 3,877 calories during the run, according to RunGeni. Let's pretend a runner opts to eat nine Crunchwrap Supremes at 530 calories each (though requirements do mean a little more variety) – that's 4,770 calories. Toss in the 1020 calories that come with two liters of Baja Blast for those participating in that challenge and it would be possible to consume a surplus of 1,913 calories while running more than 31 miles. Absolutely wild and surely a race where plenty of runners will lose their lunch.

On the other hand, let's say someone opts to eat the fewest amount of calories possible while still sticking to the rules. A chicken Chalupa Supreme is 340 calories and a chicken Burrito Supreme is 370 calories. Then for the seven other items that must be eaten, the runner would want to opt for the 160-calorie chicken soft taco. That's still 1,830 calories of Taco Bell throughout the course of the race.

Think this Mile High City race sounds like something for you? Register for the race's newsletter on the website. Information about registration was slated to be released in the spring of 2024, though this seems to be lagging behind a bit.