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.
Before the race, volunteers helped participants check in and handed out race shirts, while search-and-rescue organizations set up booths displaying their gear. The pre-race warm-up featured a line dance to Shaboozey's “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” with Rainier Beer mascots joining in, the Times reported. Runners also received raffle tickets for prizes as part of their registration.
Shorter Options for Non-Marathoners
Not every participant tackled the full distance. The Half Dick's-A-Thon covers 14.7 miles and three locations with three menu items, according to dicksathon.com's 2026 registration page. For those wanting an even shorter day, the Victory Lap covers 5.5 miles, running out and back along the Burke-Gilman Trail from the Mountaineers headquarters in Magnuson Park without stopping at any Dick's locations — participants instead receive a burger at the finish line.
The Times account describes its narrator completing the Victory Lap with her fiancé in just over an hour. She said she would do the Dick's-A-Thon again, per the Times. All race distances include a commemorative shirt and water bottle, the paper reported, while registration for the Victory Lap costs $65 and the longer races cost $150, according to the same account.
A Challenge Born From Tragedy
The event traces back to April 2018, when Ian Cox and his brother Connor Cox identified a route connecting five Seattle Dick's locations that totaled 26.3 miles, according to The Mountaineers. Their original challenge involved running 22 miles between five Dick's restaurants while eating three different burgers, fries and a milkshake, as the Mountaineers described it in their origin story of the event.
Ian Cox disappeared in 2022 while exploring the Cascades and was never found, according to the Seattle Times. Organizers re-created the Dick's-A-Thon that year to raise funds for the local search-and-rescue teams that had searched for him. That first official event drew more than 100 attendees and raised over $32,000 for search-and-rescue operations and Mountaineers scholarships, the Mountaineers reported.
The event now honors Cox, described by the Times as a late Seattle outdoorsman and mental health professional, and benefits Washington search-and-rescue organizations. Proceeds are donated to The Mountaineers Access Fund Scholarship, five search-and-rescue organizations and the Washington National Parks Fund, per the Mountaineers' event listing. Last year's event drew about 1,000 participants and raised $74,000, according to the Seattle Times; this year's run, held last weekend, attracted roughly 1,600 participants, a 60% increase in attendance.
From 22 Miles to a Growing Field
The race has evolved considerably since its scrappy 2018 origins. A half-marathon option was added by 2023 specifically to increase access for more runners, the Mountaineers noted in their account of the event's history, and later listings describe an urban walk option alongside training plans built for both running and eating.
Every Dick's-A-Thon route still starts and finishes at the Seattle Mountaineers Program Center, according to dicksathon.com, and the full course carries 2,064 feet of elevation gain. Runners looking for their next challenge won't have to wait long — the Seattle Marathon returns Nov. 29, per the Seattle Times.
