Dallas is the course that made me a marathoner, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Even more so because I trained for the 2013 marathon, which had to be cancelled due to ice. Race organizers made a wise decision when they made that call.
Overall, I love this race, which is why I'll be running it again in 2015! The race went through a change in leadership in early 2014 and that improved the communication and marketing around the race. The race is well-organized. Packet pickup was a breeze. The course was clearly marked and the volunteers were awesome! I was most impressed with the way the post-race area was laid out. The medals, finisher item and water/fuel were easily accessible and not crowded because of the way they were arranged (or the lack of crowd could have been due to my terrible finish time because of my ITB injury). After grabbing these items, I was able to exit that area and my family was waiting at the exit! As far as parking/access....I stayed at the Omni Hotel, which is on the start line, so access was super easy for me!
I LOVE the t-shirt from 2014. The marathon shirt was a long-sleeve dri-fit, and anytime I can get a long-sleeve dri-fit, I am a happy girl! The design on the shirt featured the Dallas skyline so it was actually very pretty! A "unique finisher item", which was a drawstring back pack, was given to each finisher. This came in handy to help carry around all the things you end up picking up post-race. The Expo had a nice variety of booths from which to browse and my family and I spent quite a bit of time (and money) there.
As far as the actual race goes, I love the course....or most of it anyway. The course takes you through the iconic neighborhoods and areas of downtown Dallas, including Deep Ellum, White Rock Lake and the Santa Fe Trail. The famed "Dolly Pardon Hills" was actually one hill and, in my humble opinion, not much of a hill. Take that with a grain of salt because apparently my definition of a hill and a regular person's definition of a hill are not always the same. Having said that, the course is basically flat, with just a few inclines here and there.
The White Rock Lake portion of the race was probably my least favorite, because I knew that there would be a turn-around point and I kept wondering when that would happen. However, I liked this turn-around better than most races. Going out, the runners were on the lake road but coming back we were on a trail. This did help me mentally, because I find it very difficult to continually pass runners who are going the other direction when I haven't changed directions yet! LOL I could actually see the runners who had already turned around, but I had to work to do so.
One of my favorite parts of the course was around mile 20 when the course came off the Santa Fe Trail and race organizers hung the banner from the Expo there. My kids had all signed the banner and thinking about that gave me a nice mental boost that I needed. The course scenery after mile 20 declines somewhat until getting back into downtown toward the end of the race, but overall the course scenery is nice and I enjoyed seeing these parts of Dallas on foot.
I didn't use the aid stations because I wore a hydration belt, but they all seemed to be very organized. I will definitely drink the beer at mile 20 next time!
Looking forward to 2015!