Cole Ramirez's Staging Area

I signed up for this race primarily because the timing aligned perfectly with my training for an April marathon. I’ve run Dallas BMW multiple times and trusted that this would also be a well-produced race. The Irving half is much closer to me and was significantly less expensive, but they’re disorganized and the course is ugly so I thought it was worth the investment to try something new. Plus, I love Tupps. Their beer is good and the brewery is a fun spot to hang out.

This race did not disappoint. Easy DRIVE-THROUGH packet pickup the weekend prior to the race. Nice start/finish in downtown McKinney. Great afterparty at Tupps. The course was semi-hilly. Somewhere around 400ft elevation gain maybe? So not exactly flat but you aren’t scaling any mountains either. Aside from the start/finish, the course is pretty dull. Some parts in a park, some parts on suburban highway. Unremarkable, really. Good on course support except that, like Dallas, they use U-Can (seriously who likes that?). Medal doubles as a bottle opener. I’m too old to care about getting a medal so it’s nice when they give you something you can actually use.

The main draw for this race is Tupps. Get some friends together, run the race, plan to stay awhile and enjoy the brewery. Fun day all around.

This was my 3rd time participating in the Dallas marathon weekend – 2nd time doing the full. My general feelings about the race remain the same: I like the route. It’s hilly – more challenging than you would expect for Texas – but offers both city and lake views. The spectators are great. The race production is good. The timing of the race is perfect – happy to go into the holidays without a marathon hanging over my head.

Things I don’t love:
-the shirts. Every year, the design is cool but the fit is just SO WRONG. This year the participant shirt looks like something I’d want to wear, but while the torso fits, the sleeves almost reach my elbows and the armpit seam is about 5 inches too low. It pretty much gives me webbed arms, like a bat. Who sewed this thing? Obviously a lot of planning goes into putting on this marathon weekend, but I wonder if maybe no one actually tries on the shirt template before they are ordered en masse.
-Ucan. Can we stop with the ucan? No one likes it. It’s chalky, it tastes bad, and it doesn’t even work as well as traditional gels.
-Expo. There are 30,000 participants. The expo is open for 16 hours. This is insufficient. My kids do the 5k on Saturday which gives us only 1 option for getting to the expo to pick up our bibs. Can we get some Thursday hours too?

Now that I’ve had a chance to air my complaints… look: this is a great race. Would I travel from out of state for it? No. Do I like Cowtown better? Yes. But to have access to a good sized race like this that is put on as well as it is and still be able to sleep in my own bed the night before? I’ll count myself lucky. If you live in the DFW area, definitely sign up for this race. And do it sooner than later – this one sells out!

This is hands down the most expensive 5k I’ve ever done. I agreed to run with neighbors because I was misled by the website’s pricing structure and did not realize how expensive it would be until I’d already committed. The website advertised something like “$80, $40 off through 7/1”, which I incorrectly assumed meant the total would be $40. I did not realize until registering that the $80 already accounted for the $40 discount. Who pays $120 for a 5k?! On the other hand, I also realized upon registration that the event was a cancer fundraiser, so I’m not exactly mad at the price.

All that aside, this was a great race. I ran it with a friend and we had a fabulous time. The route starts and ends in the stockyards. Kind of a cross-country feel to the middle of the route. The best part was the swag. I LOVE this t-shirt (although I do with they had offered XS) and I LOVE the mug. I’m so over all those tech material shirts that usually go along with races. I want a comfortable cotton I can actually wear around. This was great. Obviously you don’t pay $120 for the swag, but I’d venture to say it softens the blow.

The race staff was super friendly. I’m not sure they have a whole lot of experience putting on races, but overall I think they did a great job.

Oh! And the race photographs! I can’t quite understand it but somehow the photographer actually made the runners look good. No one looks good in race photos! But something about the light or the way he touched them up… very nice!

I do quite a few local 5ks. This is one of the better ones for sure. Super fast flat course. It goes around the football and baseball stadiums which I personally found more interesting to look at than some other local courses (Irving race series, trinity trails, etc). Good size (615ish in the 5k and 275ish in the 10k). Overall winners received gift cards, not just medals. 1 free beer of choice at the finish.

The big negative was the bib pick up. For some reason, they only offered 1 packet pickup location and time slot prior to race day. Predictably, almost everyone had to pickup their bibs the morning of. The line was VERY, VERY long and moved slowly. We got in line at 7:05am and did not get our bibs until 7:50. Many were still in line at race time. I hope the race producers recognize this as a problem and offer additional packet pickup locations before race day next year.

I ran it with V this year, but I’d be happy to head back next year and race it!

This was my 4th year running the race, but everyone’s first year on the new course. Since the old Rahr Brewery is closed, the race began and ended at the Flying Saucer. I’m not sure if this is a permanent change or just a one year solution until Rahr opens a new tap room.

I assume whoever measured and coned off the course in the morning was already well into their 3 free beers, because the race was long by at least a quarter mile. Between that and the rolling hills on mile 2, ain’t nobody PRing on this course.

But really who cares. My bitterness was gone by the bottom of my first pint.

I really loved the Flying Saucer location. Lots of shade and much prettier than the Rahr brewery. Better bathroom situation too. I do wish the Flying Saucer had been open for food. Seems like a missed opportunity. We were done with our beers by 10am and ready for a meal.

If anyone reads this from Rahr, here’s my request for returning to the cotton t-shirts next year. I have enough of the stinky dry-fits. My favorite Rahr race shirt is the yellow cotton one from 2021 (?) and I’ve worn and washed it so many times it’s starting to fall apart.

In any case, this continues to be the most fun race Fort Worth has to offer. If you are waffling about signing up, don’t. Just sign up. You’ll love it.

The marketing for the Irving racing series is top notch. They make the races look huge, fun, and well run. The reality is something different.

Lots of problems:
-Massive, slow moving line for packet pick up.
-Porta potties ran out of toilet paper 1hr before race start.
-race started 15 minutes late (which makes a big difference when we’re talking Texas summer heat)
-infrequent water stops
-Gatorade zero on course (confusing choice for runners)
-ugly course, full sun

I really wanted to like this race because it’s super convenient for me, but there are just too many races I’d rather run for $75-$100.

This was my first year participating in the Cowtown half instead of the full (opted to run the Dallas full this year instead). Great experience, but I did miss running through the beautiful, supportive FW neighborhoods.

It’s a pretty easy course, with exception to the big hill in mile 9 and a few smaller hills sprinkled throughout. Plenty of aid stations with many volunteers.

I did not love the new finish – it felt like there were a lot of turns at the end (at least for the half). There was also this very awkward hairpin turnaround a couple miles from the end that was confusing and a little strange. Did they realize last minute they needed to add .1mi to the course or something?

Still, this is a great course through the stockyards and downtown. The military mile makes the hill fly by (or at least shuts me up from complaining about it!). I LOVE the netting back of the finisher shirts. I was glad to get a short sleeved instead of a long sleeved this year. Maybe half marathon finishers always get short sleeved? I do wish it was crew neck instead of v-neck, but overall it’s a good shirt.

There’s a natural comparison to be made between the Dallas and Cowtown marathons and Cowtown is hands-down the winner.

I love the timing of this race. Cowtown is a better race on almost every front, but training for Cowtown leaves you doing long training runs right around Christmas. I love that the Dallas marathon happens in mid December, leaving you free to pull back from running so much and recover through the holidays.

THE GOOD: Route incorporates both city views and lake views. Race starts on time. Great expo. Super cute participant shirt. Plenty of water/gatorade stations. Easy bathroom access in convention center.

THE BAD: Corrals are too big. The first mile is very tight. If they doubled the number of corrals to make them more pace-specific, this would help. Lots of potholes on the road (not the fault of race production, just sayin). The finisher shirt has been ugly two years in a row. Mostly a fit problem, as opposed to design. U-can is the gel sponsor, which I don’t personally care for.

Overall, it’s a well run race – I can’t imagine all that goes into executing such a big event in the city. There are some serious hills in miles 19-20ish that make it a not-so-easy but interesting course. But if you’re trying to decide between Dallas in December or Cowtown in February, go Cowtown.

Despite its name, this race is NOT in the dark. On the contrary, it’s at 6pm, which is close to peak heat for Texas. This is what makes the otherwise flat course difficult: heat. I can understand why they don’t want the run to actually be in the dark, but then why call it that?

In my opinion, the race could be improved by moving the start time back an hour. The run would still be in the light, but the temperature would have gone down a bit.

Otherwise, a great race. Easy packet pickup at Bear Creek Running store. A good number of participants both fast and slow, but still small enough for parking and spectating to be very very easy. Water bottles at the finish.

The shirts could have been better (purple, meh).

The course difficulty here is obviously the fact that it’s an August race in Texas. It was hot. Otherwise, the course is almost completely flat and very easy. There was great signage AND people directing runners at every fork, split off, or turn around.

The race started late, but it seems like most races I’ve done at White Rock Lake have started late, so it could be that this is more an issue with the lake security team than with the race producers.

Plenty of water and gatorade. I don’t know what the deal was but the first few water stops had HOT water – like it had been sitting out all night and risen to 85/90 degrees – but after that all the water was cold. The refreshments after the race could have been better. It looked like there were quite a few options at one point but they were largely consumed by the 5k and 10k participants. I finished at the early part of the half, but some vendors were already packing up to go home. I’d imagine the people who took over 2 hours to finish the half crossed the finish to a line of empty tents!

Also, I somehow ordered the incorrect shirt size and they said they have a no exchange policy. Most races will let you exchange it on the day of the race, but they said they order tightly. So double check your size when you order!

In any case, great race production. I love the size of these races… not too small, not too big. This one was well staffed and well run. I would do it again.

There’s a lot to love about this race. It’s a great size – enough runners to be FUN but not enough to make parking or the portapotty line an issue. The swag was great. Love the socks! Loved the participation from our armed forces, and loved supporting causes that support our military. Much hillier course than I anticipated! Half marathon included two loops of rolling hills. Maintaining pace on the trail portion was also difficult…. both because of the windy trail and the weaving around slower 5k/10k participants.

Water stations felt plentiful. No gu/nutrition on the course, just water and gatorade or whatever. Water and some kind of sports drink at the finish, but no snacks.

The main reason for the three star rating is the poor directional signage. Around mile 10.5, there was a blue arrow pointing to the right that drove MANY half marathoners off course and onto the 10k loop. There needed to be a half marathon sign in that same spot directing the half marathoners to run straight. Taking the 10k loop portion cut somewhere around 0.17 miles off the length of the course. Obviously this is not a cheating situation… none of the runners meant to cut their race short! But I do think it should have been mentioned or taken into account in the awards. Comparing race times is meaningless if people are running different distances. Even before this, there were multiple points along the course where I was confused about whether I was supposed to turn or go straight. Signage needs to be CLEARLY marked HALF MARATHON or 10K instead of just being color coded. They need double the signs, too.

Also, as the race grows, I would suggest keeping it off the bear creek trail. It’s challenging for half marathoners to weave through the 10k walkers… the trail is just too narrow for the number of runners. I think the race has outgrown the trail.

Overall, a fun race. Hopefully the race directors get lots of feedback about the signage issue and correct it for next year.

The shirts are good. I actually like the participator shirt better than the finisher shirt. The neck hole on the finisher shirt is bizarrely small. I’m a normal sized woman. It should not be hard to get this shirt over my head and around my neck. But I digress – I don’t run for the shirts.

The course is ok. I only ran the half, so I didn’t get to experience the part around the lake, which I know is beautiful because I’ve run other races around it. The half is mostly in downtown with part through the bordering neighborhoods. Dallas is pretty ugly so I liked the neighborhood stretches the best. There are some hills throughout but I wouldn’t personally call this a hilly course.

There is water/gatorade every other mile but I think the nutrition could definitely be offered more frequently. For the half, the only gels are on mile 8. Apparently there was supposed to be gels at the start, but I never saw any.

The spectator support is great in the neighborhoods (a contributing factor to why I liked those stretches best), but there’s not a lot in the way of race entertainment otherwise. I’m comparing it to Cowtown I guess, where there is entertainment almost every mile for the entire half.

The big issue, and the reason I would hesitate to run Dallas BMW again, is the corral organization. There are only 4 corrals, and corral A contains people running 5:00 pace to 10:00+ pace. There is no organization by time within the corral. I spent the first two miles dodging runners going 12 minutes per mile. I did so much weaving in the first two miles that my half marathon race actually ended up being 13.5 miles! Dallas needs to figure out a better way to do this. Corral A should be separated into 5-6 different corrals with tighter pace ranges.

Lastly, this race is EXPENSIVE. It’s the most expensive race I’ve ever run (including my fulls!) and I just don’t think it was worth the premium cost. Next fall I’ll probably go back to running DRCs the half and stick with the Cowtown full (which I do highly recommend!! A great course!!).

This is an exciting route through the Stockyards, downtown, and beautiful Fort Worth neighborhoods. There are a couple of small hills, but nothing excessive. Texas is pretty flat, remember.

For the first half, the race entertainment was ON POINT. They had music every half mile or so and the roads were lined with cheering spectators. How motivating! This all came to a grinding halt when the half marathon folks split off and start making their way back to the finish. From that point on, there were a few neighborhoods who organized block parties to cheer us on and offer refreshments (fruit, candy, fireball) and there was a water/gatorade stand every mile, but other than that, nuthin. It felt so sad, after those first 10 miles of noise, distraction, and encouragement! There may have been 1-2 musicians on the second half, but no big bands like there were for the half marathon. I guess most people run with headphones anyway, but I wasn’t, and I’ll admit to losing some steam without the musical pick me up every few minutes.

The water and gatorade stations were plentiful, as were the bathrooms. I thought they could have had more stations with food, and I would have preferred an alternative to the gooey stuff (like mini cliff bars?). Thankfully multiple neighborhoods had their own refreshment tables set up and offered bananas, oranges, etc. How thoughtful of them!

The other thing I really appreciated was the memorial to fallen heroes on the bridge to downtown. There were hundreds of people holding flags and probably an entire mile lined with the faces of those who’d been lost. It gave me the chills! One of my favorite parts of the run, for sure.

Overall, a really fun race. This was my first Cowtown and I hope to return next year to run it again!