06 Jun Bull Run Founder Seeks to Solve Mystery Before July 9 Event

The Bull Run weekend in Dewey Beach, hosted by The Starboard Restaurant, is one that is famous for its quirky small-town ceremony. It brings out thousands of people in the fourth-largest holiday weekend for the beach town. But before the run was ever famous, it got its start humbly 20 years ago when several friends decided to get together and run across the dunes being chased by a fake bull, Pamplona-style.

Now, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the original bull run, event co-founder Michael McDonnell is asking for the public’s help in solving a 20-year mystery. “When it began, we had roughly 35 runners,” McDonnell said. “I know who every one of those people are…except for this one woman.” McDonnell has playfully dubbed her Mystery Girl.

What McDonnell remembers, however vaguely, is that she was from New York. She was a guest of a friend that weekend, but no one can remember whose guest she was. She had a custom-made bikini from a New York City boutique, a detail Mystery Girl shared with the group on the beach that weekend. After the weekend in Dewey Beach, she was headed to the Carolinas or someplace farther south.

In an effort to memorialize the prestige of the original Bull Run, McDonnell wants to put the final piece of the puzzle together and find Mystery Girl. “She deserves to reap the rewards of being an original runner.” McDonnell is adamant that he can find her, but he needs the public’s help.

Are you this woman? Do you know her? Help The Starboard Restaurant find the Mystery Woman and unite the original bull run crew. There isn’t much time left until Saturday, July 9, when this year’s Bull Run takes place, to find the Mystery Woman and solve a puzzle that has been dogging McDonnell these past 20 years. Anyone with any information about the Mystery Girl from the original Bull Run is asked to contact McDonnell at elmerthefrog@gmail.com.