Described by organizers as fast and flat throughout, with only a few gentle hills scattered throughout the course, Texarkana’s Run The Line Half Marathon is a joint effort by the local nonprofit Partnership For The Pathway and the Team Texarkana Running Club, and takes about 500 runners and walkers each year along what one day will become a multi-use pathway for walking, running, biking and inline skating across the city.
Because it straddles the state line between Texas and Arkansas, this is one of those rare running events that takes participants literally across two states over the course of the race, hence the event’s title, “Run The Line.” For this race, runners start the 13.1-mile course in downtown Texarkana, at the corner of Pine Street and West Broad Street, and run a counter-clockwise loop through the city.
After about the first mile along Broad, the course turns left onto the Nix Creek Trail, which takes runners off-road and onto the trail’s 10-ft.-wide paved surface.
Once on the paved trail, runners then follow Nix Creek northward for the next two to three miles, running along the tree-lined pathway until reaching Pinson Drive, where the field exits the pathway and runs back onto city streets. Participants turn onto West 48th Street and then south onto Jefferson Avenue before turning again, west onto Arkansas Boulevard, which takes them on a straightaway toward Spring Lake Park.
