In the middle of 2018, my husband and I decided to set a goal of running a race in every state in the U.S. You can read more about the why behind the goal in the full post HERE.
The very first state on our quest to Race Every State? Texas. Was this intentionally our inaugural state? Um, we can’t really remember. B and I don’t think we actually decided to “race every state” until we already had the first two under our belts. The problem is that we can’t remember why we decided to run in two random far-from-us states (Texas and Colorado, respectively) in the first place.
No matter why we ended up in Texas, we did, and it became the first state we crossed off our list. Read my review of the Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon race, course, and if I’d recommend it below!
What race did we choose in Texas?
We ran the Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in March of 2018. We didn’t necessarily center the trip around this race, as we would in other future states. Dallas was a place we already knew we wanted to visit: warm weather, Presidential history, and a proximity to Waco, Texas. In 2018 we were also pretty obsessed with HGTV, and specifically Fixer Upper, so making a stop in Waco at Magnolia was pretty high on the list for this trip as well.
March in Wisconsin is not a great time, so it made perfect sense to escape to the South for a little bit of running and a whole bunch of tourist-ing. It just so happened that we found the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half and it made sense to sign up.
How would I review the Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon race experience?
Rock ‘n’ Roll races are usually very well run, so I had high expectations going in. Being eager to see more of the city, I was also really excited to check out the course. On our highly technical rating system, we gave this race a B. It wasn’t the best course I’ve ever run, nor the worst. It had some things I was very excited about and a thing or two I could have done without.
HIGH:
Running past the Texas School Book Depository and the site of JFK’s assassination. We had toured this spot on a previous day, but actually running over the exact location of impact was surreal. See the very high quality (not) picture I snapped of our feet on the X below.
LOW:
Right before mile six, we ran up a highway on-ramp. Not exaggerating. Not only was it quite steep, it got pretty congested with the crowds and was just not my favorite race experience overall. It didn’t help that I was not expecting it.
Would I recommend the Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half?
While Rock ‘n’ Roll races do tend to be on the pricier side for races, they are consistently well done. Expos, though busy, are usually laid out well and easy to navigate. Courses are well-marked and have some of the best support and crowds of any races I’ve run. Especially for out-of-towners, Rock ‘n’ Roll races tend to be a pretty straightforward and easy to manage race experience, which is why we keep running them in different states.
While the course in Dallas certainly wasn’t my favorite, I would still recommend this race…if it still existed. After nine years of the race, 2018 ended up being the last year that they held the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half in Dallas, which I didn’t actually realize until I googled the race link to add into this post. So while you can’t run this exact race, you can still run one of the many other locations of Rock ‘n’ Roll full marathons, half marathons, or one of the other distances they offer.
Where to next?
With one state under our belt and having really enjoyed the Rock n’ Roll race experience, we decided the Denver Rock n’ Roll Half in October 2018 would be our next target. You can read about our Denver Race Experience here.
Want to read more about our time in Dallas and what we enjoyed doing? Check out my recap of our trip and what I recommend in my Dallas travel guide here.
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