Making the Grade - Dallas/White Rock Marathon and Half Marathon - Part One

I figure I would break this up into sections, because I know a) some people have ADD and will get bored and/or lose focus or b) hate reading really long blog posts...

The Expo

I am not sure if the Expo has always been at Fair Park, or just this year since the Start was moved there as well (so that the Start/Finish were at the same spot), but being at Fair Park, to me anyway, was OK.  When I went to RnR Half Marathon in March there in Dallas, the Expo was there in DT along with the Start.  The only difference is that I got a sense of it being more 'open' when it was DT.  Being in this particular 'hall' at Fair Park, it seemed a bit squished and to get from end to the other was kinda a drag and there weren't really 'rows' to walk up and down to look at vendors and/or grab as many free goodies as you could.

There were quite a bit of freebies, but not near as much as Chicago.  Go figure.

They had a lot of samples, but I dont want to taste/drink there...I want to take it with me...and I also want to grab more than 1 when you arent looking thank you very much... :O)  (This would be taken care of at the After Race area of food/goodies)...I like free GOOD stuff..

Also why did I get stopped by someone there with a booth for if you were remodeling your bathroom?  That was just weird.

Now...getting TO the Expo...if you were staying in a DT hotel there were 2 options.  DART rail or they had shuttle buses.  The big huge across the country kind...The only thing was that they had 2 buses running on a loop and well, with other traffic trying to get there, we took our chances with the DART.

Best. Decision. Ever.

No traffic.

30 minutes ish point to point.

$4.00 for 24 hour pass which includes any public transpo-po like the bus

Easy to get on/off/transfer. You transfer once.

It let you out right at hotel (at ours anyway; Hyatt)

It let you out right in front of Fair Park.

Packet pickup and shirt pickup was easy peasy too.

Expo (B)  and packet pickup (A) = I think that averages out to like a B+ or an A-...whichever...

Transportation to and from the Expo = A+

Transportation to and from Race Start/Finish

Again you had two options.

Since the DART rail thing worked out so great on Saturday, we decided to do that.

So we walk through our hotel, down the tunnel and up to the platform.  Its cold out there.

Like 22deg wind chill kind of cold.  We wait 5 min.  There are no other runners around...

I go to the little sign thingee and oops...says first train at 6:43am.  Um...thats fine but cutting it TOO close to Fair Park, check gear bag...etc.  I like to be early as does April...

So we walk back through the tunnel (this is about 100yrds) and walk outside where the shuttles are supposed to be.  Um.  Yeah.  They rocked it.  We saw 6 big huge buses all lined up and waiting.  We hopped on the first one in the line and within 5 minutes we were off!  The ride, since they gave directions to all the drivers on how to NOT go on the freeway and take back streets had us there in 20 min.  And it was on a warm cozy bus!

After the race, since I was by myself, when I walked out this one door, I asked one guy, where are the buses?  He didnt know.  Where is the DART?  Right there.

So I took the DART back and again, it was awesome

April had to wait a bit longer at the transfer and at the original point there at Fair Park, but sometimes if you get there at just the time the last train left, you're gonna have to maybe wait 10 min longer than you would have.  Still she told me it was easy and awesome and glad she did that instead of having to wait for buses to fill up with runners finishing.  Its easier in the morning because everyone is typically all going at once or close enough to it...

Transportation to and From Race Start/Finish = A++++++