The Big D is a great way to see Fair Park (where the famous Texas State Fair is held), as well as White Rock Lake. There are a lot of trees, historic neighborhoods, and of course the ferris wheel!

Parking is plentiful since it uses the fair grounds. There are some of the Fair Park buildings in use for the race - for packet pick up, vendors, and where they announced the awards.

You do get a t-shirt that they say is tech, however it was more of a blend and more cotton. Not really ideal to run that distance in. Awards were announced in a corner of one of the buildings in use, and it didn't seem like anyone really knew this was going on. We happened to walk through because I wanted to see some of the vendors and heard them making announcements with a small crowd in front. Kind of lackluster for just finishing a long race! However, one positive is they do try and announce each runner's name when they are crossing the finish line. That is a nice touch. I didn't see them trying when groups were finishing together, but they were able to keep up pretty well as a line of finishers crossed. Aid stations were simple, and seemed spaced a little too far apart (I may have just been struggling!), but they weren't like some races with teams, sponsors, signs or anything like that.

They do claim a "flat Boston qualifier with very few turns". This may be overall for the full Marathon, but I felt like the half did have about 4-5 gradual hills, some sharp turns, and two spots in the course where the road was under construction and you had to run around cones. It was later in the race, so definitely could have been dangerous!

Overall, I would run it again - mainly for the scenery and the atmosphere of Fair Park.