It's back, and maybe bigger than ever. He called last year's race a "roving party" and said he loved the community—particularly the number of first-time ultramarathoners, for whom this was an on-ramp to the sport. Co-organizer Phil Hargis texted that despite the Taco Bell 50K being a "terrible idea," this year's race will be a "piñata of fun and deliciousness."
When 75-year-old Michael Koppy crossed the finish line of the 2026 Arrowhead 135 Mile on January 28 with 59:30:00 on the clock, he became the oldest ever finisher of the difficult winter race in northern Minnesota. The event, held entirely on snow on the Arrowhead State Trail, often sees temperatures that dip well below zero degrees Fahrenheit and high attrition rates, and this year was no exception, with less than half of the runners finishing the race.
Although many participants of the 2026 Winter Spine Race in England are still out on the 268-mile course at the time of this article's publishing, the leaders have made their way through frigid conditions and arrived at the finish line in Kirk Yetholm on the Scottish border. Racers set off at 8 a.m. local time on Sunday, January 11, in the village of Edale in Derbyshire on the southern end of the Pennine Way.
My immediate feeling was just one of shame really. I was very emotional, she said, just born from the perspective that I really felt like I'd let down the girls that I was running for and I'd really kind of got this narrative in my head and psyched myself up that what I was doing was just so insignificant in comparison to what they're enduring.
On Saturday the 10th we made the difficult decision to remove one of our participants from the race following a personal safety threat, we have been working with all the relevant authorities and believe there is no wider threat to other participants on the course. We understand that this is disappointing for the runner in question, but the safety of all our participants is always our primary concern.
"I've never heard of anybody running any of the train lines. So I was like, you know what? Let's get this f---ing going," Richards said. "I looked at the map... and I was like, man, this is gonna be one hell of a feat."
Alone in the fog, after six days of running through the British mountains, Raf Willems began to speak with the grass and stones. About what, he doesn't know. The air was freezing, but he liked it that way; summer heat made for awful running weather. To be in naturethe thickening precipitation above, the undulating terrain belowpushing his physical limits was a thrilling adventure. Until he saw dead people lying in the snow, calling to him: Help, help, help me!
If you-like me-have absolutely nothing to do on November 29 and feel desperate to ruin both your stomach and legs, then local endurance runners Phil Hargis and Mike Wardian have a fun activity for you: the Taco Bell 50K. In this peculiar ultramarathon-which, according to the organizers, is "not sponsored by Taco Bell, just fueled by it [taco emoji] [death emoji]"-runners will traverse 31.07 miles while stopping at nine (nine!) area Taco Bell locations and eating at least one menu item at each.
