The Dallas Marathon is crossing the Trinity River for the first time ever. The “West Dallas loop” brings runners over the Commerce Street bridge, to a right turn on Sylvan and another right turn on Singleton and over Large Marge back to Dallas.
The marathon starts at 8 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 9, and the West Dallas loop is at the very beginning, so rise and shine.
The West Dallas Chamber of Commerce has organized marathon-watching activities with businesses along loop. Twenty-one West Dallas-based nonprofits, including Mercy Street and the Lake West YMCA, will be set up along our stretch of the course, and the most spirited could win cash prizes of $2,000, $1,000 or $500 from the West Dallas Foundation.
“It’s my understanding that one of them is going to decorate and bring a bus as a demonstration of their team spirit,” says Randall White, the chamber’s executive director.
Six bands will be performing, and businesses will be out in spirit offering food, hot drinks and more.
Here are the hubs of activity:
A Japanese drum band will be performing at the foot of the Commerce Street bridge, welcoming runners to West Dallas.
Trinity Groves, the colorful warehouse buildings near the bridge where a development is planned, will have a band and food.
We’re not sure what Ray’s Sporting Goods has planned, but they will have some kind of party, and this seems like a good excuse to hang around there without buying a gun.
Smoke, the Belmont Hotel and Claire Vista fitness club will be set up on the northeast corner of Fort Worth Avenue and Sylvan. They’ll have Durty Laundry, a dance music DJ truck, plus hot chocolate and players from FC Dallas.
On the Alamo motel side of the street, the site of the Sylvan | Thirty development, a gospel group will be performing, and there will be activities for kids.
At La Grange, the sno-cone trailer at Commerce and Pittman, owner Stephanie Schumacher will offer coffee, hot cocoa and spiked lemonade. Plus her son’s band, a Mötley Crüe tribute, will be performing.
Heather Ezell of Ezell Sculpture is throwing a marathon-watching party and open studio, 2511 N. Beckley.
“I suspect we’re starting something that will continue and build into the future,” White says.
