Valerie Pauling's Staging Area

I’m not sure I’ve ever received so much food at the finish line. Within moments of finishing, I had a banana, a fruit bar, a box of couscous, a chocolate milk, a drinkable yogurt, and a coconut water. I skipped the beer line and the energy drink line. They also give you a zip-up jacket that is made out of the meshy material that reusable grocery bags are made of, instead of a foil blanket. I’ve seen these jackets as a throwaway jacket for other races. They also gave us a race shirt and a finisher shirt. The metals were a cowboy-hat-shaped bell.

The course has some minor hills on the front half and some pretty intimidating hills later in the course. Mile 9 is uphill and is the mile of remembrance. They have photos of fallen soldiers to motivate you up the hill. I was happy to high-five the JROTC kids near the top.

The last couple of miles of the half course have nearly nothing: aid stations, spectators. A highlight of the course was running through the Fort Worth Stockyards– tons of crowd support through there and it was mostly downhill. If you are sensitive to livestock smells, that might be a consideration when signing up.

The biggest hiccup was parking. There was a lot of traffic. I recommend arriving a full hour before the starting line to avoid craziness. I paid for a pass for race day, but in the future, I will give my husband the parking pass and take a ride share to the starting line.

The race is a fundraiser for the athletic booster club so expect high schoolers to be the ones helping you at packet pick up in the HS gym.

All distances finish at the same time so the finish line is chaos. This year they went ahead and gave medals at packet pick up. Odd choice but we all got the right medal. Half marathoners get two shirts and two medals.

The course is pretty hilly. The whole thing was either up or down, with a pretty big monster hill at the finish. The half marathoner is all country roads and pastures. Some locals show up to watch but not much by way of spectators. High schoolers have made punny yard signs throughout the course though— cute touch. There is a railroad crossing early in the course— one would hope they plan the race starting time to avoid disruption.

The finish line has free Blue Bell ice cream. All you want.