Hi there and HAPPY 2019! Hope you had an incredible weekend and celebrated the new year doing some fun things. Today I figured we would do a RECAP from my fun long weekend of running!! Something I like to do every year is a big run across my town with some of my ultrarunning friends! That’s right, it’s not a race- no medals or special recognition or anything. But just a fun way to end the new year with some major miles and with a BANG! So today I will tell you how it all went down. Hopefully if you’re local you can join us on the next one!
So this is the third year in a row that I’ve done the Dallas to ‘Cowtown’ run. For those of you unaware, Cowtown is slang talk for Ft. Worth – which is the other big bustling city near Dallas. 30+ miles outside of Dallas to be exact. Ft. Worth is very “cowboy” esque– they have rodeos, they have people that like to ride horses on the side of the road, they have all of the things a TRUE Texas city should have. It is a little different from your ritzy Dallas and it definitely has its own charm. So, one of the coordinators for this race (who is an ultra runner like myself) will post this run on Facebook every year and anyone who is everyone can join in.
Typically, the distance is 33 miles long, and we run near/along the local train rail system. So, you can opt to do the entire distance- or shorten it a bit and hop right back on the rail and head to your car. We all parked at Denny’s in Dallas this year and made the trek WEST towards Cowtown.
Since I just finished Brazos Bend 100 a few short weeks ago, I knew for a fact that this would be a FUN RUN. No worries about pace, and I knew since it wasn’t a race I could stop whenever I wanted. But I did want to do the entire distance and wanted to see how my legs would hold up. This year we had a lot of takers that wanted to do the whole shebang. I love it when the FUN runners show up for stuff like this because it really makes the experience memorable.
I arrived in just enough time for the briefing, then we took pic and we were off. I stayed pretty conservative pace wise with something I could hold onto forever without crashing, which was in the high 9s/low 10s range. The sunrise over Dallas was lovely with some nice cloud cover.
We made a couple of pit stops early on, for water/gatorade and there were lots of gas stations on the route which was perfect. Temps stayed pretty chilly in the morning and then the sun came out to play a few hours in. At around mile 20 or so, my legs started talking to me so I grabbed some pickles from 7-eleven which turned out to be a God send. The salt really got rid of the calves cramping which was great.
Along the route, we pass through a few cities doing an uphill climb, then it’s a little bit of downhill and another big uphill into Ft. Worth and downtown Ft. Worth. I also love running along the Trinity Trails, which were included in our route. We found a great mural in this area and of course I had to grab a pic.
Once we arrived to our destination there was a pub that said they would allow us to crash and have a little post run party. I finished with the distance and added a bit to get 33.3 miles because why not? The point 3 was for the 3rd year that I’ve done this run. Good times indeed and met a lot of super fun people who like running and chatting and listening to jams along the run just as much as I do.
I think next time we run in that direction I may park my car out in Ft. Worth so I have my vehicle to drive home. Hopping on the train was nice for my legs though because I got to stretch out and play on Facebook. But yes, fun!! Join us next time if you dare. Run a little bit of it or run the whole thing. Great way to end 2018 with a bang. And, I got to see two great city skylines. Hey, Ft. Worth!
And when it was all said and done, I ended 2018 with a crap TON of miles! 2018 miles- 3,793. Holy cannoli.
Happy New Year and cheers to getting out there and busting out some more miles and making more memories!
How was your New Year’s Eve? Did you do anything special?
Ran 33.3 miles and then danced the night away. After a massive nap, of course.
thedancingrunner 
Happy new year Chelsea! Super impressive mileage and really cool way to end the year. I think the train ride sounds better after 30+ miles than a drive, because that way you can stretch out the legs a bit!
True. Both have their pros but it was nice to relax and reflect on the way back!
Happy New Year! That sounds like an awesome way to start the year:)
Thanks girl! Great way to end the year for sure and start 2019 knowing you did something badass 😉 HNY!!
Sounds like a great run! Happy New year and wow, big mileage last year!
Thanks lady!! I’m sure I will see ya out there on the trails in 2019!
Well done, and loved the write-up. Both years I’ve done it, I’ve left my car at Fort Worth, and really makes the trip home more enjoyable. This year the trip in from FW was a lot more fun, since there were a lot more runners on the train.
It was cool having BOTH Dallas side and Ft. Worth side runners representing out there!! As someone who lives in Irving and mostly runs in DALLAS, I enjoy running all over the place when I can. Cheers! Happy 2019! I will be checking out your blog, too. 🙂
This sounds so fun! I wish NYC would do this but I’m not sure where we’d run to… ideally somewhere on Long Island, although I think we’d have to run along highways. 🙂 And super impressive mileage, damn!
Thanks lady!! It was great fun! Yeah, Texas is pretty spread out. Drive for hours in any direction and you’re still here. LOL
Hi there! This run sounds like it was super fun for you! What app do you use to track your running?
Garmin. And Strava. And, thank you!