Marathon executives

Marathon executives Patrick Byerly and Kevin Snyder and Mark Rybczky test the Dallas Marathon route

Our city’s marathon started some 40 years ago. It was called the White Rock Marathon then. About 100 runners circled White Rock Lake a couple of times. The race (not to mention the sport of recreational running in general) has grown and morphed over the decades to a 20,000-runner event.

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The marathon has changed start and finish locations and altered the course many times. Some of the biggest changes occurred in 2012 when organizers changed the name to Dallas Marathon. We have a story about all that here: High Impact Sport.

The 2014 Dallas Marathon will see more changes, some due to temporary construction zones around the city. Organizers last week unveiled this year’s course and marathon president Patrick Byerly — along with fellow runners Mark “Hawkeye” Rybczky, a Dallas Marathon board member and KSCS disc jockey, and Dallas Marathon Chairman Kevin Snyder — tested it out.

Notes Byerly: “We’re paying tribute to our race’s history, dating back to 1971, by running at White Rock Lake and also featuring revitalized neighborhoods like Lower Greenville and Deep Ellum.”

More residential neighborhoods will be impacted by this year’s event, but more trails will be used to minimize street closures, execs say.

“Runners and spectators will notice that the course is more residential by design this year. We’re bringing the race to the people of Dallas, but doing so in a way that uses new running areas such as the Santa Fe Trail to minimize our overall impact on traffic and street closures,” says Byerly.

The race will look something like this:

“All runners will start in downtown Dallas near the intersection of Young and Griffin Streets, adjacent to Pioneer Plaza.

They will pass through Deep Ellum, Uptown and West Village before entering the Turtle Creek neighborhood and running through Highland Park.

After crossing through the M Streets, runners will hit Greenville Avenue at the Granada Theater and head south, following the same route as the Dallas St. Patrick’s Day Parade through the popular Lower Greenville corridor full of restaurants and bars.

Marathon and half marathon participants will run together for the first 9.5 miles.

Marathon runners will break off and pass through Lakewood to the ‘Dolly Parton Hills’ and White Rock Lake before returning via the Santa Fe Trail to merge with the half marathon course for the final miles of the race. (This is the first year the MetroPCS Dallas Marathon has incorporated the Santa Fe Trail.)

All participants approach finish line on a downgrade heading west into downtown Dallas, passing the iconic Dallas City Hall building and seeing Reunion Tower loom ever larger in their view.

The finish line is the same as the start line, along Young Street near Pioneer Plaza and adjacent to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.”

As race day nears, we will provide a list/map of spectator viewing areas. Meanwhile, register and learn more here.

Map of 2014 Dallas Marathon

Map of 2014 Dallas Marathon