Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth: Race Weekend Guide

What is The Cowtown?

The Cowtown is a two-day race weekend run by Cowtown Marathon, Inc., a nonprofit that promotes health and fitness in the community.⁹ The 2027 edition is the 49th, and the organizer calls it the largest multi-event road race in North Texas.¹

The organizer also runs the C.A.L.F. program (Children's Activities for Life and Fitness), started in 2009, which fits children from low-income families with new running shoes. The organizer says it has awarded more than 60,000 grants and pairs of shoes in the past 15 years.¹¹

Registration runs on Race Roster rather than RunSignup, so The Cowtown has no live-fee listing on Bib Scouts. The prices in the table above were copied from each race page on the facts-checked date in the byline.³⁴⁵

Course and what to expect

The marathon starts and finishes at Will Rogers Memorial Center in the Cultural District and loops through most of Fort Worth's best-known neighborhoods.¹ These are the landmarks in the order the organizer gives them, with the mile markers from its spectator guide:¹⁹

1. Start on Gendy St. south of Lancaster Ave.; the half marathon, marathon and ultra share the east side of the street.⁹
2. Mile 1: Trinity Park and the Duck Pond.⁹
3. Mile 6: the brick streets of the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards.⁹
4. Mile 8: south down Main Street past Joe T. Garcia's and over the Main Street bridge, the stretch the organizer calls the Blue Mile. It is the longest straightaway in the race, and the organizer warns that the bridge is a challenge.¹⁹
5. Mile 9.5: Sundance Square, downtown.⁹
6. Mile 12: Magnolia Ave. in the Near Southside.⁹
7. Mile 13: Park Place Village, the halfway point of the marathon.⁹
8. South to the TCU campus, around Bluebonnet Circle and along the Foster Park Trail; Foster Park is at mile 19 and Overton Park at mile 20.¹⁹
9. North past Hogan's Alley at Colonial Country Club and the Fort Worth Zoo, then along the Trinity River.¹
10. Mile 23: the Woodshed restaurant on the Trinity Trails, then through Trinity Park to the finish at Will Rogers.¹⁹

• Boston qualifier: the organizer says the full marathon and the ultra are qualifiers for the Boston Marathon, and it runs pace groups from 2:55 to 6:00.⁹
• No elevation profile or total climb is published on the organizer pages Bib Scouts read. Runners who reviewed the race on RaceRaves rate its difficulty 3.5 out of 5 and single out the bridge and hills around miles 8 to 10 and the uneven bricks in the Stockyards.¹³
• Timing is by chip. Age-group awards use chip time and course records use gun time. Course time limits start once the last runner crosses the start line, and there is no on-course support after the limit.³⁹
• Strollers start in the last corral, pets are not allowed on the course, and once you are assigned a corral you cannot move to an earlier one.⁹
• Weather: the organizer advises dressing in layers and having wet-weather gear ready.⁹
• RaceRaves runners give The Cowtown 4.7 out of 5 across 1,439 ratings.¹³ Bib Scouts' team has not run it, so the course notes here are the organizer's and those reviewers'.

How do you register for the Cowtown Marathon?

1. Pick your distance from the table above, and check its minimum age and time limit: 7.5 hours for the marathon works out to about a 17-minute mile.³
2. Register online on Race Roster through the link on cowtownmarathon.org. The Cowtown does not take paper entries.⁹
3. Register by February 26, 2027, at 11:59 p.m., when online registration closes unless your distance sells out first. If there is space, you can also sign up at the expo on Friday or Saturday.⁹
4. Decide on refund protection at checkout. The Cowtown does not offer deferrals or refunds; runners who buy the enhanced refund protection claim through FanShield.⁹
5. Fill in the optional RaceSafe medical form the organizer recommends.⁹
6. Want two races? Add the Cowtown Challenge, one Saturday race plus one Sunday race, for an extra $25, in person or virtually. Challenge finishers get an extra medal and a piece of challenge gear.¹²

• Changing plans: transfers to another runner or another distance are free until December 31; after that the fee is $30. Moving up to a longer distance means paying the difference.⁹
• Transfers can still be made at the expo's Solutions Desk if the race is not full.⁹

• Register on Race Roster (official registration page)

Packet pickup, getting there and where to stay

Packet pickup is at the Health and Fitness Expo in the Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall at Will Rogers Memorial Center: Friday, February 26, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, February 27, from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is no packet pickup on Sunday, so marathon runners must collect their bib a day early. The expo is free and open to the public.¹⁰

To pick up for someone else, the expo page asks for your valid ID and that runner's confirmation number, while the organizer's FAQ asks for a photocopy of the runner's ID and their bib number. Bring all of it.⁹¹⁰

Gear check is at the north end of the Swine Barn on Burnett Tandy Drive. Marathon-distance runners get a clear bag and ID tag at packet pickup; backpacks, duffel bags and suitcases are not accepted.⁹

Race-morning shuttles run from downtown hotels, including the Omni, Hilton, Sheraton, Aloft and Embassy Suites, to Harley Ave. and Gendy St. In the organizer's schedule, Sunday pickups start at 5 a.m. and the last shuttle leaves at 6:30 a.m. Parts of that page still described 2026 when checked, so confirm the times nearer race week.⁹

The organizer's hotel booking for 2027 is open through Team Travel Source.⁹ Runners on RaceRaves advise arriving early for parking.¹³

Where to watch

Only runners with bibs are allowed in the start area. The mile markers in the course list above are the organizer's suggested viewing spots, and runners can be tracked live in the RunFAR Racing app.⁹

Runners and families meet at the Reunite area in the South Parking Lot behind the Swine and Sheep Barns, along Harley Ave. and Trail Drive. Outside food and drinks, backpacks, large bags and flags are not allowed there.⁹

More races in Fort Worth and Texas

The Cowtown is in late February. If you want a different weekend, the Fort Worth race calendar and the tables below list the next marathons and half marathons from Bib Scouts' listings, each with today's entry fee.²

• Every race in Fort Worth
• Races across Texas
• San Antonio Marathon guide
• Boston Marathon qualifier races
• Spring half marathons, March to May 2027
• How many miles in a marathon race?