Good reasons for White Rock and Cowtown to move events to other venues

By Charles Clines

I'm sure that runners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area know that the Metro PCS Dallas White Rock Marathon and The Cowtown are moving to new venues for their upcoming events. White Rock, set for Dec. 5, is leaving the American Airlines Center Victory Park area for Fair Park and The Cowtown is saying bye to downtown Fort Worth and heading to the Will Rogers Center complex.

There are several reasons for the moves, but mainly the two events outgrew their previous locations.

Recently, Hunter Heres, who handles public relations for White Rock, and executive race director Marcus Grunewald made a list of their top seven reasons for a move. Hunter says the move is a positive for runners, family members, volunteers and race officials.

The Top 7 reasons they came up with for the move are:

1, Runner safety is the number one priority, and the extra room (at Fair Park) and added visibility that we get by having the race at Fair Park means that there is less opportunity for accidents.

2, Fair Park is also an area that allows us to accommodate additional runners and their families to meet the demand we've had over the past two sell-out years. (Last year, White Rock reached its cap of 20,000 and have increased the limit to 22,000 this year).

3, Equally important, an increase in participants means an increase in the donation from the DWRM to our race beneficiary, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. In 2009, we were able to donate $362,000 to the hospital.  It is our goal to improve on that year over year so that Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children can continue to provide the highest quality medical care to patient families

4, 85 percent of the course will remain the same.

5, Fair Park provides marathon participants with expanded parking options (free on race day until 8 a.m.), a larger start and finish location that makes it easier to meet with family and friends, and plenty of open space to accommodate the infrastructure necessary for a 22,000 participant race.

6, In the past, we had 4 hours to set up for the race. Now, we have four days.

7, The race relies heavily on thousands of volunteers, and Fair Park affords them flexibility with parking and maneuverability.

Marcus previously had said that he and his volunteers couldn't start preparing for the race until 2:30 a.m. the morning of the race at Victory Park. They might still be getting up at 2:30 on race morning this year, but much of the work will have been done.

Access to Fair Park should be a big improvement because cars can come form Interstates 30, 45 and 35, plus DART's Green Line goes there. Also, figure if Fair Park can handle the Texas State Fair crowds, it should be able to handle White Rock.

Cowtown not only moved, but also split its six-event runs to two days on Feb.. 26-27 and will begin the indoor Expo on the 25th. The Expo has been in a tent at Sundance Square and has quickly outgrown the limited confines. Plus, inclement weather can be avoided at their indoor facility at Will Rogers.

As White Rock, Cowtown will be using much of the previous favorite locations along the marathon and ultra courses. Last year, The Cowtown reached 19,000 participants and executive director Heidi Swartz said she anticipates more for the 2011 event and ``There's nowhere to go in Sundance Square.''

Traffic flow should be better, too, as there are planned shuttles from downtown hotels and off-site parking.

There will be a few disappointed runners/walkers who liked the old venues, but expect smoother events that should change minds.