Marketing

Runners racing to earn free Chipotle

Photo: chipotle

January 2, 2025

Runners across 25 cities in North America and Europe are racing to win free bowls from Chipotle Mexican Grill as part of a challenge created by the fast casual brand and Strava, an app that tracks workouts for over 135 million users in 190 countries.

The initiative connects Chipotle's running community across the 25 cities that eat the most Chipotle, including Paris, London and New York. Click here for the full list. People may also complete the segment by walking or in a wheelchair.

"Last year, we learned about the literal great lengths that our fans will go to for free Chipotle," Chris Brandt, chief brand officer, Chipotle, said in a company press release. "Participants logged more than 9.25 million miles on 'Chipotle segments,' the equivalent of circling the planet more than 370 times. After seeing the passion our fans had for the initial launch with Strava, we had to increase access to the competition and raise the stakes."

Chipotle x Strava: The City Challenge

Chipotle has partnered with Strava to create 25 Chipotle segments — portions of roads and trails created by the Strava community where athletes can find friendly competition by chasing the fastest times on the leaderboard. Through Jan. 31, fans may compete for Local Legend Status, an award for the individual who completes the segment the most times. Chipotle will reward the Local Legend in each city with free Lifestyle Bowls for a year.

Also, every city with a Chipotle segment will also compete to see who can collectively complete the highest mileage on the segment. The cities' progress will be tracked on the "Chipotle x Strava: The City Challenge" heatmap, a leaderboard showing daily updates of each city's performance. The city that wins will score a BOGO entree offer for their entire city valid on in-store orders on a future date to be announced by Chipotle.

No Quitters Day is better with friends

The second Friday of January is known as "Quitters Day," the day people are most likely to forfeit New Year's resolutions. Since 2023, Chipotle has celebrated "No Quitters Day" and rewarded guests who sustained healthy habits all month. As Chipotle enters its third year celebrating No Quitters Day, the company is creating a motivational text message community via SMS to help guests achieve their goals.

How It Works:

• From Jan. 2 to 9, guests may visit chipotle.com/lsb-text to join the "Goals, Gym, Guac" text message community.
• Throughout January, Chipotle will text its community with exclusive content from top creators, motivational texts and affirmations, plus a first chance to score a free Chipotle Lifestyle Bowl.
• On "No Quitters Day," Friday, Jan. 10, members will receive texts with instructions to get one of 50,000 free Lifestyle Bowls.

"It's well known that having an accountability buddy makes it easier to accomplish wellness goals," Stephanie Perdue, VP of Brand Marketing, Chipotle, said in the release. "We are showing up for our guests with our version of a group chat to make healthy habits fun on 'No Quitters Day.'"