New York, Boston and Chicago are all cities synonymous with the idea of their annual marathon races.
While the big cities have some of the largest numbers of participants, the BMW Dallas Marathon is a highly accredited race many people look forward to.
Every year several runners travel from around the world to run on the USA Track & Field certified course around White Rock Lake to qualify for the Olympic trials. Other runners, like Diana Moore, have made it a tradition to run in the Ultra Marathon (50K) event every year.
"I have run the Dallas Ultra Marathon every year since it started," said Moore. "I think because I got in on that first year, I feel like now I have a streak and I can't break it until it forces me to break because I don't make it in time."
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On Sunday Morre will participate in the "rollercoaster" of a 50K (31M) race.
"You have highs and you have lows and you do it multiple times throughout the race," said Moore. "You hit the wall, you get really low, and then eventually you kind of dig yourself out and you get back to another high, then you hit a low again."
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The longest-running marathon in Texas, the Dallas White Rock Marathon, now the BMW Dallas Marathon, started in 1971. It has added several events since its inception, including the Ultra Marathon and the Half Marathon that is celebrating 20 years.
Events have been added to the BMW Dallas Marathon due to an increase in interest in running and its events over the years.
"A number of events have started adding an ultra marathon to their weekend lineup," said Senior Director of Marketing and Partnership for runDallas, Jason Schuchard. "We added it a few years ago and it's sold out almost every year."
This year the BMW Dallas Marathon sold out all the Half Marathon (13.1M), Marathon (26.2M), and Ultra Marathon (50K) races. There are still spots available for the shorter-distance events that are held Saturday night.
While the Half Marathon has 10,000 spots, the Ultra Marathon only has 300 participants. With running's rise in popularity, ultra marathons have become more common.
In 2023, Ultrarunning.com reported 2,663 ultrarunning races and 82,459 unique runners. Of those total runners, 33,024 were first-time participants in ultra-distance runs. Ultra-running events can be trail runs or road races. The distances vary from 31 miles and go up to 3100 miles.
The Dallas Ultra Marathon course is a road course, and runDallas has updated the courses for this year to offer more views of downtown and fewer turns, which they hope will decrease the overall finishing times.
To see what events are happening or to sign up head to rundallas.com.
