Nearly 1,600 people took part in Seattle’s Dick’s-A-Thon last weekend, an event with a marathon option and a twist: eating a full Dick’s Drive-In combo meal somewhere along the way. The fifth annual Dick’s-A-Thon included a 26.3-mile loop past five Dick’s locations, where full-course participants were expected to down fries, a milkshake and three burgers — a deluxe, a special and a cheeseburger — before crossing the finish line back at Magnuson Park.
As The Seattle Times reported, the event is organized as an informal, untimed challenge, and organizers have emphasized that participants do not need to be hardcore runners to take part. The full marathon menu — fries, a shake, a Dick’s Deluxe, a Special and a cheeseburger — along with the 26.3-mile distance and five drive-in stops, is also laid out on dicksathon.com, which notes registration includes a race bib, a T-shirt, vouchers for the Dick’s menu, water and electrolytes at aid stations, and a raffle ticket.
A Festive Course With Fries at Every Mile
Seattle Times reporter Kaleigh Carroll, a colleague of the article’s author who has finished several marathons and half-marathons, ran the full course and said she had never eaten three burgers, fries and a milkshake while running before. Her group started at the Mountaineers’ Magnuson headquarters dressed in burger and fries costumes and headed south to the Wallingford Dick’s for their first stop, per the same Seattle Times account.
At that first stop, Carroll ate a Dick’s Deluxe burger, then worked through fries, a Special, a cheeseburger and finally a milkshake at the remaining locations. She told the paper the restaurants grew more festive as the race went on, and her group finished back at Magnuson Park around 4:30 p.m., roughly six hours after starting…