Overview The Cowtown is Fort Worth's race weekend, six distances from a 50K ultra down to a kids' 5K, and more than 6,000 children run it every year, thousands of them in running shoes the race paid for. The 2025 weekend, the 47th, drew more than 26,000 runners from all 50 states and 14 countries. Races start and finish at Will Rogers Memorial Center in the Cultural District and run out past the Historic Stockyards, downtown, TCU and the Fort Worth Zoo. The Cowtown is a nonprofit, and its race proceeds underwrite C.A.L.F. (Children's Activities for Life and Fitness), the youth running program it started in 2009. On site The weekend is split in two: the 10K and both 5Ks run on Saturday, and the half, the full and the ultra on Sunday. Before that, the free Health and Fitness Expo fills the Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall at Will Rogers for two days of packet pickup, 80 to 100 vendor booths and keynote speakers, and it is open to anyone. Out on the course, partners staff their own water stops and bands play from set sites along the route. Finishers collect custom puzzle-piece medals that the race designs to be collected year after year. Audience The field is mostly local. The race's 2025 report counted 63.6% of participants as locals and 36.4% as visitors, with an average trip of 87 miles, and more than 100 school teams and 165 corporate and open teams entered. The Cowtown says women aged 35 to 55 are the most socially engaged group in its community. Runners can also enter virtual distances that run from January to March, and 657 did in 2025. Track record The first Cowtown Marathon ran on February 17, 1979, with 182 finishers. The race later moved its start and finish from the Stockyards to Sundance Square, then to Will Rogers, and spread the events over three days. Its Kids 5K was named the top kids' running program in the nation by Running USA in 2011 and 2020, and C.A.L.F. had handed out more than 60,000 entry grants and pairs of running shoes by 2026. In 2025 alone that meant 5,400 students from 110 schools in 14 districts. The Cowtown puts its economic impact on Fort Worth at $10.4 million a year. Brand presence The presenting partner's name goes into the event name, and each distance can carry its own presenting partner, as the ultra does with Miller Lite. Top-tier partners get kiosks through the event, a tent on Cowtown Alley, a feature story in the runner guidebook, a logo on more than 32,000 race shirts and on the start and finish signage, and mentions from the grandstand announcer. Smaller groups can adopt a water stop and staff it, or put their name on a band site along the course. At the 2025 expo, Molson Coors sold out its stock twice. Charles Williams, president of Baylor Scott and White - Fort Worth, a race partner: "Our two organizations work seamlessly together to create proactive and healthy habits, from youth well into adulthood."