Pete Ciotti was hard to miss even in 6 a.m. morning gloom. I noticed the pink hoodie first, emerging slowly from the predawn fog muck down the street, and then the lime green shorts and bright hat and gloves. His face, not slathered in neon, shaped itself last. We said hi and started running. 

We hung a right at the Jogg’n Shoppe, then a right on F Street, then a right at Adventure’s Edge, then a right on G, then a right at the Jogg’n Shoppe, then a right on F street, then a right at Adventure’s Edge, then a right on G…

We continued like this for about an hour while the sun slowly came up. Pete had already been at it for that long by the time I showed up, and he’d connected those dots more than 200 times in the days before that. I said surely the repetition was getting tiring.

“I don’t get bored. Because — you know what?” he asked me. “You show up, someone shows up, whatever. I actually met a few new people since we’ve been doing this.”

Arcata is a beautiful place to run, full of sights like the forested hills to the east, the Presbyterian Church, city hall, and the Arcata Theater Lounge. There are other places worth checking out, but aside from whatever the weather’s doing, those are the main features to see from that block we were wearing a trench in. It’d be an unremarkable one if more than 30 people weren’t doing the same thing we were doing, albeit usually a little later in the day. They’re crowding it this January, collectively spending hundreds of hours grinding out laps less than a fifth of a mile long.

The record is 1,067. (As of publication. No, that’s not a typo.) Jazmen McGinnis, 31, has run over 200 miles in 0.19 mile increments around that block in the last week alone. The competition started Jan. 10 at 5 a.m., and she’s run multiple ultramarathon-length distances on that short circle, over 40 miles four times and a 50-miler the day after it started. Others have done similar, but right now no one’s within sniffing distance of her stats. 

“I wanted to see how far I could run,” McGinnis told the Outpost. “Turns out I can run pretty far.”

The rewards are tantalizing: the top male and female finishers get two burritos every month for a year, supplied free of charge from Backwoods Burritos, as well as entry into the Sonoma Fall Classic.

Organized by Ciotti and other members of Arcata’s Raccoon Run Club, it isn’t the only place with a “Burrito League.” Started in Tempe, Ariz. just a few weeks ago by a group saddened by the end of the Chipotle x Strava running challenge (there’s a lot of lore to this), they decided to do something similar without any corporate backing. Support online was instantaneous and widespread. Dozens of running groups around the U.S. and at least six other countries are sponsoring a Burrito League. 

Local runner Elliott Portillo hoisting a burrito. Courtesy of Jazmen McGinnis.

Ciotti, 47 years old, is somewhat of a running influencer (yes, he has a podcast) and is casual friends with the founders of the original Burrito League-ers in Tempe. They suggested that he found one in Arcata. He wasn’t sure if any restaurants would sponsor them. He asked a few; they didn’t get it. One laughed him out. Ciotti thought he was at a dead end for a minute, but he decided to ask Backwoods Burritos, the cart that sets up outside the ATL most mornings. Fortunately for him, owner Britton Latham is also a runner.

“Pete called me, and it was an immediate ‘yeah,’” Latham told the Outpost. “Before I even got the details…I love having fun. I joke with everybody, ‘I’ve always been poor, so I’m not trying to get rich.’ I’m just trying to have fun here.”

It’s been fun. Ciotti and McGinnis are glad to have an opportunity to run and hang out with other runners all day. Ciotti’s getting friendly with all the early-morning regulars on the block; the garbage truck driver greeted us twice. They’re both accumulating a litany of anecdotes about the people they’ve met and the things they’ve learned about those they already knew.

“You get so much more time with people that you’ve never got,” McGinnis said. “Like, run club, it’s an hour or less that you usually spend with these people, and now you’re spending gigantic chunks of time hanging out with these people. You never really would have had the time otherwise.”

They’re both tired but not hurting. McGinnis said she isn’t planning on doing much more running unless someone starts nearing her in the rankings. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it’d take a couple very long efforts to get close. She’s between jobs at the moment and has plenty of time to log a few more ultramarathons. 

McGinnis with Jogg’n Shoppe owner Mike Williams. Submitted photo.

Ciotti said the running wasn’t interfering with his landscaping work, even claiming it made him work harder.

The Burrito Leagues have their critics. Ciotti said a business owner on the block complained about the constant traffic in front of his store. Ciotti said he directed the runners to give his door some room now. Bystanders can also get confused. 

No matter who runs the most laps, the biggest winners are likely the businesses they’re circling; the Jogg’n Shoppe has been selling a lot of shoes, nearby cafes lots of coffee, and Backwoods lots of burritos. (Latham said he was selling so many he didn’t really need the bump, but was grateful nonetheless.) An employee of the Arcata Smug’s Pizzeria told the Outpost he was glad the “burrito community” was having fun. 

The business-friendly outlook was intentional. Ciotti owned the bar the Jam for a while and was concerned about how Arcata businesses were doing during their slow season and after the Jan. 2 fire.

“I’ve been working in front of the ATL for two and a half years, and this past week, I feel like the energy has been more positive than it’s ever been,” Latham said. “You know, we deal with so much riffraff and, like, people just being drunk and causing issues down there. And then I feel like the people running laps has kind of pushed a lot of that away.”

Even if she might miss getting to spend so much time with friends, McGinnis said she’s excited to win her burritos.

“Oh, my god, are you kidding me?” McGinnis asked. “Those burritos are so good. Like, so good. I’ve had a lot of people be like, ‘Okay, when you pick up your burrito, you can get one for you and one for me. We can have a date.’ I’ve had a lot of date invites.”