Journeys of The Key West Southernmost Walker

Cowtown Half Marathon

Fort Worth, Texas

March 1, 2020

On Sunday, March 1, 2020 I race walked the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas. The temperature varied from 58 to 72 degrees with mostly cloudy to partly cloudy skies and a strong wind of 15-20 mph with higher gusts. The course was on city streets that were completely closed to traffic. Police were stationed at all the intersections to ensure the separation of the traffic from the participants. At a few of the intersections the traffic was backed up for quite a distance. Much of the course was quite open to the strong winds. There were many up and downs; however, none were very challenging. One up-hill of almost a mile in length was located after mile 8 and lasted to just past mile 9. Water/Gatorade stations were located every 1.5 miles and had plenty of tables and volunteers to take care of the needs of the participants. The entire event was spread out over Saturday and Sunday with a total of nearly 30000 entries. There was a 5K and a 10K and a kid’s race on Saturday. This was the 42^nd version of this event which has a main purposed of encouraging children to run. There were 6500 kids in the kid’s race. Each kid was charged an $8 entry fee, had training at their schools, and received an event T-shirt. This year’s version also gave 5500 pairs of running shoes to the needy children. The Sunday races were a half marathon, a full marathon, a four-person marathon relay and a 50K Ultra marathon and contained about 12000 of the event’s total entries. The event has always been well organized and fun and I have completed the half marathon in 2010, 2016 and 2020. Also, the 50 States Marathon Club had a reunion at the event and I attended it.

Before The Exposition