Dallas White Rock Half Marathon
Half Marathon Participant Time Limit: 4 Hours
Runners, Joggers and Walkers are all welcomed to participate in the Marathon, Half Marathon and 5-Person Relay Race. Although the events are mainly put on for racers, we applaud all those who set out to complete the marathon or half marathon distance, regardless of the pace. The race is permitted through the city of Dallas and we use officers from the Dallas Police Department to monitor traffic along the route to keep the runners safe. Our permit requires us to reopen the public streets we run on to vehicular traffic after a certain time period, and thus the need for a time limit.
The Half Marathon course opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 12:00 p.m.
This is a pace of 18:00 (min:sec) per mile for the half marathon. For your own safety, we strongly discourage you from participating in this event if you cannot maintain a pace of 18:00 (min:sec) per mile as all course support shuts down based on this pace.
If participants choose to continue running after 12:00 p.m., they do so at their own risk and will be required by the Dallas Police Department to move to available sidewalks and obey traffic signals and laws along the course.
No times are recorded after 12:00 p.m. Finisher medallions and completion certificates will be awarded only to those who finish within the official time span.
Medical Aid closes at 2:30 p.m. in the Fair Park Automotive Building adjacent to the finish line. If problems are experienced after this time, please contact your personal physician or proceed to the nearest emergency room.
Race Course Closing Schedule
The race course is closed to all traffic, and then re-opened based on a “ROVING” schedule, which means the half marathon course will officially re-open (to vehicular traffic) behind the participants based on a pace of 18:00 per mile. Crews drive in trucks at a pace approximately equal to 18 minutes per mile to pick up trash and supplies from the aid stations along the course.
18:00 (min:sec) Pace
Any person moving at a pace slower than 18:00 (min:sec) per mile is strongly encouraged to discontinue. Officials with the MetroPCS Dallas White Rock Marathon and related parties take no responsibility for participants after the course reopens. All participants on the course after it reopens are required by law to follow all traffic rules, including using the sidewalks, cross walks, obeying cross walk signs, and not crossing streets while the traffic lights are red. In addition, once the race course closes and the streets reopen, all medical aid provided by the marathon is no longer accessible.
Course Time Limit FAQs
Why is the course only open 4 hours?
A number of services related to the marathon are paid for on an hourly basis. This includes ambulance services (which are required by the City), medical help, rental of supplies used on the course, rental of trucks and other vehicles and equipment, and rental of supplies used at the finish line. In addition, our City of Dallas Permit requires that we reopen the half marathon streets to vehicular traffic based on a 4 hour time limit.
Why can’t you guarantee me a medallion even if I finish over the 4 hour time limit? I paid the same entry fee as those who finish in 3 hours.
One of the hardest tasks in holding a race is trying to project the final number of participants far enough in advance when ordering all the supplies. If you guess too much, you’re stuck with dated finisher medallions and have wasted money. If you order too little those without are deeply hurt. Typically our orders for t-shirts and medallions are placed in late summer, giving our suppliers time to provide us preferred pricing. Less than 10% of the final participant numbers have signed up at this time. So we have to make educated guesses based on past figures. Things like weather, the local flu & cold season, and other factors beyond our control influence the final numbers. Bottom line is that the finish line goodies are passed out on a first-come, first serve basis. If supplies are still left at 4 hours, we are quite proud to bestow a medallion to you.
I am just a little slower than the pace of 18:00 per mile, and I want to stay on the street to avoid the sidewalk curbs. Why can’t I?
Because the streets are once again under the jurisdiction of the City of Dallas and they have laws against pedestrians traveling in the street. Sorry.
Can I start early then?
No, for two main reasons: the streets are not officially turned over to the race participants until the 8:00 a.m. start, and the official timing system is not turned on until the 8:00 a.m. start. Any person whose chip does not register as crossing the various timing mats along the course (including the start mat at 8:00 a.m.) will be disqualified from the race and may be barred from entering future races.
Why did race organizers decide to move from Victory Park to Fair Park for the 2010 race?
The Dallas White Rock Marathon has grown steadily over the last 40 years, and during that time, we’ve occasionally had to move to new locations to meet the growing number of race participants. For the last few years, our marathon has sold out earlier and earlier, and our waiting list has grown longer and longer.
After the 2009 race, the Board of Trustees met and decided after careful consideration to find a new location that would provide ample parking for participants, plenty of open space for expanded runner amenities, like the food tent and family meeting areas, and a larger area to help ease congestion at the start and finish line.
Why Fair Park?
Fair Park provides marathon participants with expanded parking options (including free parking on race day until 8AM), a larger start and finish location, and plenty of open space to accommodate the infrastructure necessary for a 22,000 participant race.
Fair Park is also one of the most historically significant parts of Dallas. The 30-structure complex constitutes the largest intact concentration of 1930s-era exposition buildings and public art remaining in the United States. It is also recognized as one of the most significant sites in the world for Art Deco architecture.
Today, Fair Park is a 277-acre venue containing one of the largest complexes of year-round cultural, entertainment, exhibit and sports facilities in the U.S. Southwest, including the recently renovated Esplanade Bellagio-style fountains, and museums such as the Women’s Museum and the Museum of Nature and Science.
How much will the move impact the full and half marathon courses?
We’re working with the city of Dallas to build our best full and half courses yet. The Dallas White Rock Marathon has always been a race built by runners for runners, so making sure that we’re constantly improving the runner experience in our marathon, half marathon and relay is a top priority. Both the half and full marathon courses will remain uniquely DWRM courses; they will not be replicas of other race courses that start and/or finish at Fair Park.
The full marathon course will not be drastically changed; rather it will be tweaked and improved over the course from Victory Park. It will still run through historic Dallas neighborhoods like Swiss Avenue, through beautiful tree lined areas in East Dallas, Highland Park and along Turtle Creek, and of course, will curve around White Rock Lake.
We’re very excited about the new half marathon course, which we believe will be the DWRM’s best half marathon course yet and will combine the best features of many popular Dallas races from the past and the present. We will release course details as soon as possible.
How large will the marathon get?
Over the past several years, we’ve seen interest in and registration for the MetroPCS Dallas White Rock Marathon rapidly increase. We have met that interest with slow and steady increases in the cap so that we can control the growth in a way that does not negatively impact the runner experience. The move to Fair Park means that we’ll be able to accommodate additional runners to meet the demand we’ve had over the past two sell-out years.
Equally importantly, an increase in participants means an increase in the donation from the DWRM Board 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.
Why the new date?
We’ve moved the race back to the first weekend of December, which until X was traditionally the weekend our race was held on each year. Additionally, the date allows us to take full advantage of all of the amenities available at Fair Park without competing for parking, etc., with other events occurring at the same time.