I absolutely loved the Cowtown Marathon and had the bext experience.

I thought the race was very well organized from packet pick-up to directing people to the starting line. I personally did not feel the starting line was overly crowded (even with the half marathoners starting at the same time). I have been in several other marathons where the half marathoners started at the same time and which were way more crowded.

The course was beautiful and offered a great view of Fort Worth. However, I would recommend hill work for this marathon, as there are steady rollers throughout the race.

My only suggestion would be to add plastic bags at the start of the race for people to store their discarded clothing in. The bags of clothes can then be donated to charity as opposed to just being thrown away in the trash.

This was my 4th year running at Cowtown. First marathon. Like the others mentioned, GET IN SOME HILL TRAINING!! This year's weather was beautiful. Looking forward to completing the 5-year medal series, and running even more Cowtowns. Great event. Just need to put a cap on the total amount of runners allowed. Or, change the groups up to allow different starting times. The fans were awesome!! As always!!

This was my 68th marathon but 1st Cowtown, and I was pleasantly surprised by the scenic course and the race director's ability to coordinate so many people and races. I liked the varying terrain, but the mostly uphill 25th mile was a challenge. The weather was perfect for this 2010 race. The fan support was spotty but good. The officers at cross streets were pleasant, as were the volunteers at the water stations. The finishing medal and shirt were great! For improvement, I would suggest working on the start waves since there was confusion. Otherwise, thanks for the great race!

This race is growing on me. What most of the locals referred to as bad weather last year was just fine by me for February - another reason to keep doing this one.

Perks: Very few marathons give a finisher tech shirt, and what a cool thing to have a 5-year medal series - I'm hooked on this at least for 3 more years.

Spectators were great: The folks who put this together really do a good job, and the most important part is that the people of the community are behind this event. Yesterday I heard traffic officers thanking the runners for being here - that's a first for me after 12 marathons. Lots of folks were yelling encouragement. It's not at the same level as Twin Cities, but it made things fun.

Water stops: Need more tables set up at each stop - several stops weren't able to pour water fast enough to keep up. As time went by, things thinned out when the full and half marathoners split off.

Course: Great course. A couple of areas on the return were tricky and a couple of drivers were not being safe around runners. The organizers must work very hard, but if there was some way to avoid some of these areas it would be great. I personally saw two incidents of drivers trying to drive on the runners side that was coned off when they had a clear choice on the left side of the road. At one point the spectators were out of their chairs yelling at a driver (go spectators!) and a police officer was directing the driver to drive on the lefthand side of the road - and as soon as they got around the officer they went back to the righthand side with the runners. Unfortunately, even with the amount of work the planners do, there are several areas of the course that are just a little risky to navigate later in the day because of the numbers of drivers and runners. It would have been nice to concentrate more on the run and less on who was coming up from behind me and what the driver's state of mind was. I get that some drivers will see runners as someone who's slowing them down, but it just makes for a bad mix when both are on the same road.

I was walking back to my hotel after the race with my worst time ever because I did not train at all, and I was sore and tired, and I knew that I was too late to get a shower before checkout. I was at a low. At a street corner, a bunch of spectators saw my medal and and started congratulating me and giving me high-fives. Those Texas spectators don't give up!!!!

This has been a good marathon to run in the past. It's like a good running shoe. It works good before the manufacture tries to improve it. Need I say more? If they would just separate the half marathoners from the full and ultra marathoners with different start times.... There would be no need for this stupid idea of holding runners so long at the start. At the most, there was only 1,500 going past 13.1 miles; the rest were around 5,000. Other than that, get some hill runs in before you try this one. The volunteers and the traffic control were great.

Crowded start, but that was good; it kept us all warm, especially since the temperature was in the 30's. Course is well laid out with adequate aid stations. If you are going for a PR, you will have some issues, as the crowd of people doesn't really start thinning out until mile 1-2. Great organization at the expo (although it could use a bigger area) and packet pickup; post-run organization was good for food pickup and medals, but it was horrid to get the tech shirt. Overall, I would run this again.

I really enjoyed Ft. Worth, and the great volunteers. The hills were tough, but I liked the out-and-back ultra part on a trail by the river.

This is my second time doing Cowtown. I did the marathon in 2006 and the half this year (and WILL be participating all five years for the series-medals - SWEET!!). This year I didn't see anyone directing traffic or assisting with parking. Getting off the highway there's a traffic light, and unfortunately traffic was backed up a good mile on the highway - at 15-20 minutes PAST the start time. :-/. Finding a place to park was a mess; I ended up just parking in a no-parking zone next to everyone else who seemed to opt for it. It would've been MUCH better if there were cops directing traffic into downtown considering the number of people here just for the race. The starting line mats had been taken up, so I found another couple who also arrived late, and we started from the intersection that the program stated, and just started running and hoping for the best. I would've PR'd if the mats were still down at the start - unfortunately, my time was based on gun time (instead of chip time). The race is good, and the view is not bad. It's a pretty easy course - though the past few years have been COLD, so come prepared. :)

Course: Enjoyed the mix of road/downtown, and paved trails in parks - the only element missing was a dirt or gravel trail. The degree of difficulty is easier then the average of what I've run. I found the hills/rises at the end more of a mental exercise then physical barrier. IF this continues to grow, and IF I ran this for time, I would be unhappy with the crowding presented from the half marathoners on the same course. Once we split off we had free range with little effort required for maneuvering. I ran the marathon, but was able to see the 50K route; this is a good course for first-timers wanting to run 50K with support.

Organization: Maybe a few more tables at water stations or spread tables out more to cut back on crowding. I ran past the crowded ones. I was able to get my race packet and shirt faster then any other marathon of the same size. I was unable to pick up/find the finisher shirt and I emailed for it and received it in 1 week, with a reply in 24 hours - UNBELIEVABLE SERVICE! Shirts were really nice - more than one color in the design, artistic and creative. Maybe run some speakers a couple of blocks from the start so we can hear the announcements and start of race back in the 3-hours-or-later groups.

I LOVE THE MEDAL AND AM COMING BACK FOR THE 5-YEAR SERIES MEDAL.

Spectators: I noticed a few spectators; locals spoke of this as a bad-weather day, but it seemed moderate to me.

I was looking for very big things from a Texas race. I came all the way from the east side of the USA to run a marathon with big bells and whistles. Keep trying, and thank you for the hometown love.