The Cowtown

BOTTOM LINE: If you haven’t “herd,” there’s a reason The Cowtown was voted “America’s Rave Race” back in 2020. There’s a reason it was voted the Best Marathon in Texas and Best Half Marathon in Texas by runners across the US. And there’s a reason that as of this writing, the event has earned Top Rated status with 1,000 reviews—more than any other event—here on RaceRaves. The Cowtown ain’t one of them “all hat, no cattle” races, y’all.

This was the first race where I felt like—for the first few miles, at least—I could HEAR each mile marker before I reached it. Every mile seemed to feature a different musical act, and in particular I appreciated the Elvis tribute as well as the high-energy accordion of the AlpenMusikanten polka band. If you’re a runner who finds motivation in the music, you’ll find what you’re looking (or listening) for in Fort Worth.

As far as highlights, mile 7 through the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District with its decidedly Old West vibe (and aroma 🐮) is what most folks think about when they think about Texas, even if the area immediately surrounding the Stockyards feels like a dilapidated ghost town. To one side of the street, a jet-black cow statue glared down on us (can you blame her?) from atop a neon steakhouse sign, while on the other a rust-colored horse mannequin stood like a sentry on the edge of a retail balcony. And not to be confused with cobblestones, the red brick streets around the Stockyards were comfortable and easy enough to run on, though I reckon that could change in wet weather.

After the Stockyards, the Blue Mile leading up to the Tarrant County Courthouse in mile 9 was a moving tribute lined with U.S. flags, ribbons and posters depicting fallen soldiers. This long straight stretch, which preceded the hardest-hitting hill on the course, was attended by servicemembers in uniform who cheered on the runners (a humbling feeling, to be sure), providing the perfect motivation to dig deep and get ‘er done. It’s tough to feel even the slightest pang of self-pity when faced with the reality of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the rest of us.

The two-mile straightaway home stretch on Lancaster Ave was a smart way to end the run (the fewer turns, the better), followed by a smoothly executed finish chute with plenty of snacks and an easily accessible family reunion area where I met Katie. Spectator bleachers even lined the finish line, which I thought was a cool and thoughtful touch. One reason the Cowtown is such a bull-loved event is that it understands the devil is in the details.

If, by the time you exit the finish chute sporting your finisher medal, Cowtown-branded disposable mesh hoodie (another nice touch), bag o’ munchies and giddy smile, you still haven’t gotten your fill of Fort Worth’s western heritage, well then by all means do step inside the Will Rogers Memorial Center (conveniently accessible to all runners, this is late February after all) and specifically the state-of-the-art facilities that host the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Take a deep breath and let the Old West fill your sinuses—in this day and age, it’s as close as most of us will come to feeling like a true cowboy.

Congrats to Race Director Heidi who, not surprisingly, was sans voice by the time I saw her at the finish line on Sunday, and who continues to host a world-class event that’s one of the best race weekends not just in Texas but in the entire nation. I ran this half as a fortuitously timed training run for London, but I’d love to come back and add it to my list of TX marathons (or ultras) in the near future.

If you’ve yet to run Fort Worth on the last weekend in February, I’d recommend you find out for yourself what all the fuss is about in 2024. The Cowtown is a race that won’t “steer” you wrong.

PRODUCTION: It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve yet to experience a race weekend with better production values than The Cowtown. Case in point, the corral layout on race day was among the best I’ve seen—the corrals were laid out (to use a physics analogy) in parallel rather than in series, so that faster runners didn’t have to elbow their way through the masses or climb over fencing to reach their corral. Rather, you simply bypassed the other well-labeled corrals before arriving at your own, with each corral feeding into its proper sequence at the start line on Gendy St in front of Dickies Arena. It was a well-designed layout that utilized the parking lot of the Will Rogers Memorial Center to perfection. In addition, pace groups carried different-colored signs depending on the distance—red for the half, blue for the full, green for the ultra (50K). And despite bypassing every aid station (my usual M.O. on a cool day), I have nothing but props and gratitude for all the tireless & enthusiastic volunteers who made the entire weekend possible. If you run a race of any distance without thanking the volunteers, you’re doing something wrong.

Coming from an hour away, we only managed to catch the tail end (no pun intended) of the pre-race expo; even in its waning moments, though, it was an energetic affair that featured more vendors than your typical expo and especially in the post-pandemic era. The Cowtown team are pros in every sense of the word.

SWAG: Maybe it’s a Texas thang, but as was the case when I ran Houston and Dallas, I received two shirts at The Cowtown—a short-sleeve white tech shirt at packet pickup along with a short-sleeve red Under Armour finisher’s tech shirt in a sealed envelope that we were instructed not to open until we crossed the finish line. I don’t know many runners who need two more short-sleeve shirts, one of which is emblazoned with sponsor logos, so I would have preferred a single lightweight quarter-zip … and especially in late February when I can wear it immediately. (I was tickled to see on the back of the finisher shirt the slogan “HOW THE WEST IS RUN,” which I do believe was first coined in our 2018 “Best Marathons in the U.S.” article here on RaceRaves.)

For its part, the attractive finisher medal depicts the Fort Worth Stockyards sign above longhorns in running shoes, the latter a subtle detail you may not notice on first glance. I’m proud to add it to my collection, my only objection being that the medal is shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece (see photo) and is the second in a four-part series that, once completed, will no doubt make a bad-ass keepsake. I just wish they’d find a different way to design these modular medals so that each more easily stands on its own for us out-of-towners who aren’t able to collect all four.