Runners come to Georgetown for the pack burro race, fans come for the burros and Clear Creek Rotary 2000 members come for the burro poop.

The 17^th annual pack burro race on May 27 brought 78 participants, most of them local, with others from around Colorado and from Western states, all ready to make the eight-mile journey from Georgetown to Empire and back with their four-legged friends. The fastest time was 1 hour, 13 minutes.

Burro-race fans took lots of photos, petted the pack animals and admired the sight they don’t often see in Georgetown.

Then there’s Clear Creek Rotary 2000. Why not take the steaming piles left along the road as the burros run by and turn them into a fundraiser? Rotary members mark 600 squares along one block of Sixth Street with painter’s tape, and for $10 per square, viewers can bet that their square will have the largest amount of dung left after the race starts. The winner gets $300; the club gets $5,700 to use for scholarships.

Clear Creek Rotary is an integral part of making sure the Georgetown burro race is something special.

Melissa Keuroglian, the Georgetown Community School director and a Rotary member, said her first weekend in Georgetown was Memorial Day 2022, and she attended the burro race.

“It’s been easy to embrace this little town,” she said, “and the burro race is one of the unique things that puts us on the map.”

History of burro racing

Pack burro racing is a sport native to Colorado, though it’s unclear how it originally started. According to social media, the most likely scenario is that two miners found gold and raced with their burros in tow to see who could get to the claims office first. "Burro" is Spanish for "donkey."

In 2012, pack burro racing was named the official summer heritage sport in Colorado.

The Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation (the name is trademarked) was formed more than 50 years ago to better organize the races, track race results, establish guidelines for how competitors should conduct themselves and enforce rules for how burros should be treated, according to the WPBA website. Racing continues to grow across the United States, with races seeing more competitors each year.

Burro race runners

This was Kristin Trapp’s first time in the Georgetown burro race, though she’s raced elsewhere. The Tucson, Arizona, resident said her son also was participating in the race.

“I love to run in them,” she said, noting that her burro Leo was a good donkey.

Nikki Ruelle of Georgetown was running the first time with Thumper the burro.

She joked that she would do well in the race because of communication and a deep understanding of Thumper, though she meant it when she exclaimed, “This is the best day of my life.”

Cousins Jason Mounts of Denver and Dewane Mosher of Alamosa participated together, Mounts with burro Bluebell and Mosher with Bunny.

This was Mounts’ first foray into burro racing, and he just wanted to cross the finish line unscathed.

This was Mosher’s fourth time in the Georgetown race. He said he used to run road races, and then he tried a race with a burro, and the road races became passé.

“These are more entertaining,” he said.

Burro fans

Leslie Russell of Salem, Massachusetts, used the Georgetown pack-burro race as a way to gain more understanding of the book: “Running with Sherman: How a rescue donkey inspired a rag-tag gang of runners to enter the craziest race in America.”

Both Russell and her daughter Erin Gilroy, who lives in Denver, are new to watching pack-burro races.

“I’m trying to fulfill a dream,” Russell said. “I am so excited. You have no idea.”

She said she was doing reconnaissance as she considers trying burro racing herself – maybe next year.

Tonya and Paul Pappert of Westminster attended to cheer on their daughter, Brooke Tolmachoff, who was running with Esther the burro.

Rotary fundraiser

The smiles and chuckles were noticeable as people learned about the Rotary club’s Call to Doo-ty fundraiser, a unique twist for the pack-burro race.

Five years ago, according to Rotary President Robert Smith, the club came up with the fundraiser, and he said club members have learned over the years that burros relieve themselves while they’re moving, which is why the squares are located near the starting line.

With apologies to those who might be a bit squeamish, Smith said the club wants to make sure the winner truly is the winner, so club members survey the squares after burros run by, and if there isn’t a clear square winner, they don gloves and grab paper plates to scoop up and weigh the excrement.

“We weigh it to one-one hundredth of an ounce,” he said, “to figure out where the most poop is.”

This year, the club added a poop-pitching cornhole game with participants throwing bags that look like poop, and winners getting gift certificates to area businesses.

Tonya Pappert laughed uproariously when she saw the Rotary club’s Call to Doo-ty fundraiser, with Paul adding, “Where else can you gamble on poop?”