Arizona ultrarunners battle in ridiculous Strava challenge
Two American ultrarunners, Jamil Coury and Kevin Russ, have run more than 1,000 kilometres in pursuit of free burritos

The Strava x Chipotle segment challenge has sparked off-season motivation for many runners looping around their local Chipotle restaurant for a chance to win free burritos for a year. In Tempe, Ariz., two ultrarunners have taken the challenge to the extreme—logging nearly 1,000 kilometres each on a 360-metre loop since Jan. 2.
Jamil Coury, a veteran America ultramarathoner who’s tackled the Barkley Marathons and Hardrock 100, and Kevin Russ, a seasoned thru-hiker and winner of the 2024 HOKA Vert Strava challenge (where he climbed 84,563 metres in a month to win a year’s worth of shoes), have been in a head-to-head battle all month.
Russ is no stranger to the Strava Chipotle challenge; he came into the event as the reigning champion of the Los Angeles segment last year. Heading into the final day, he is holding a 45-lap lead on Coury, who had just put in a 50-mile day. Their combined 3,200+ efforts have pushed Tempe to second place in the overall Chipotle City Challenge leaderboard–a separate competition to log the highest mileage collectively, with the winning city scoring a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) entrée deal for all residents.
“It’s an interesting event, because it’s not on a controlled course,” Coury said to local news. “Normally, in a marathon or trail race, there’s infrastructure set up by an event director. But here, our arena is a two-city block stretch in Tempe where normal life is happening—people waiting for the bus, scooters zipping past, loud motorcycles going by. You never know what’s going to happen next.”
Despite the fierce competition, the two runners have formed a friendship. Coury’s parents brought brown-bag lunches for both athletes (with their names on the bags) as they pushed through their loops on Wednesday. Coury has been documenting the challenge in daily vlogs on YouTube and Instagram, while Russ’s friend, Sean Haworth, has been documenting his journey on Instagram.
With just hours left before the competition ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, the city-challenge race remains tight. As of Friday morning, San Francisco leads with 1,480 miles, while Tempe sits in second place with 1,150 miles. Toronto, the only Canadian city featured in the 2025 challenge, sits 20th out of 25 with 217 miles (350 km).
A spokesperson for Chipotle told Canadian Running the mileage and camaraderie between Coury and Russ have exceeded anything the brand saw last year. In 2024, the Washington D.C. segment was a tight race that came down to the final few hours, with competitors Joshua Bauer (1,345 attempts) and Blake Reinke (1,292 attempts) battling until midnight. Coury and Russ had both surpassed those totals before the final day.
As the clock ticks down, the question remains: Who will win the coveted free burritos for a year? One thing’s for sure—Coury and Russ have cemented their status as legends in this burrito challenge.