Jason Schuchard, President of BMW Dallas Marathon, on Selling Out & Launching the McKinney Historic Half

DFW Running Talk: Jason Schuchard - Dallas Marathon President
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, so let's get started.

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel and today's special guest is ~say sorry,~ Jason Schuchard. Jason, how's it going?

Jason Schuchard: Great, Chris. Thanks for having me.

Chris Detzel: Jason, you're the president of BMW Dallas Marathon and the recently new McKinney historic halve, so that's really exciting. We'll talk about all of those things in a minute.

It's funny because I've had all of a lot of your staff on, and I've had Paul Box on and Logan and everything else, and so I'm really excited to get to talk to you today.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, same Chris. This will be great.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. So tell me, so look, we'll get into the Dallas Marathon here in a minute. We'll get into the Kenny Horse story half, but I wanna know a little bit about you and your background.

Did you know, were you a runner? How'd you get into it? Those kinds of things.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. So I consider myself a former runner. I've got a 6-year-old at home now, so I always joke that my running nowadays is chasing him around the house, but. Yeah, my journey [00:01:00] started a long time ago. Grew up in the Dallas area, Plano, in fact, and my mom was a big runner, so my story always starts with her and watching her run and compete, certainly at the Dallas Marathon among many other events that she would drag our whole family out to participate on a Saturday.

But a lot of great memories there. Really just started my passion for running and that really kinda led more into track and cross country as I got a little older and actually ran. And cross country for Plano Senior High back in the day. Took a little break during college, but then really got into it heavily after I graduated from Texas Tech.

So quickly. Got so quickly. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: When you're in high school and you did cross country, were you one of the fastest runners? What were you like? Were you just did it for fun? What was the

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, I was probably about the 10th best guy on the team.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Jason Schuchard: That's why I got into endurance.

Like track really wasn't my speed. It I was really built for endurance. Not necessarily, short distance really en enjoyed long distance running, but we had a pretty good squad. But I always [00:02:00] like to say I was about the 10th best guy on the team. I

Chris Detzel: mean, for Plano Senior high,

Jason Schuchard: pretty good.

Chris Detzel: 10th isn't bad. I went to a two A school back in the day in Little Elm, and I was number three or four, but it was only a two a school.

Jason Schuchard: No, it was good. I, we this was back in the kind of mid to late nineties, so cross country was still, I think, gaining popularity as a sport overall.

I went to a football school and got into another sport but it was great. Really allowed me to really learn more about the sport and really enjoy it. Really meet some folks early on that kind of made a difference in my life and really steered me into this direction I'm in now.

But yeah, never knew it was gonna lead into a marathon and really even an Ironman career. I really got into it pretty heavily in the early to mid two thousands for about 10 years back when I was single and didn't have a whole lot going on. It was pretty much just working and working out.

Yeah, it's always been a great journey for me. Like I said, I don't run quite as much as I do as I did, maybe [00:03:00] 15, 20 years ago. But it's been a good ride so far.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. So you've, I assume you've run some marathons or things like that. You've done some Ironmans, you said, dive into some of that.

Yeah I'm interested.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. Yeah. So again, just following in my mom's footsteps came full circle for me back in 2004, which was my first marathon, which is the Dallas White Rock Marathon at the time, back when it was starting over at the American Airlines Center. And so yeah, that kind of really started a series of marathons for me.

I got to know, travel around the country and take part in a lot of different events New York, CIM, Miami, et cetera, and again, got into it pretty heavily there for about. Five to 10 years, did probably about eight to 10 marathons and then decided to level up a bit and give Ironman a go. Got into the circuit there for a few years and that really was a big time commitment.

Really was a time for me to learn a lot about myself and challenged myself for sure. I was working for. Cooper Aerobic Center at the time, and it just was a great [00:04:00] environment for me to train and be around some of the best folks within the sport. I was very lucky to have a great trainer there.

And yeah, I just always wanted to keep pushing myself to, to do more and more.

Chris Detzel: I can't just leave that there, I gotta know. When you were doing marathons what was your. Best times and, most favorite part of marathons.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. So again, this is going back to my cross country days.

I was never the fastest guy out there, but I,

Chris Detzel: none

Jason Schuchard: of us saw it. I yeah, I my fastest time was a 3 23. I thought it was, pretty respectable. My mom likes to gimme a hard time course that she still holds the family record, but it was fast for me. Yeah, it was fast for me and

Chris Detzel: that's great.

Jason Schuchard: I just, I think for mar, for me, marathons always just represented, a feeling of self accomplishment. You put so much time and effort into these things as you're well aware of whether you train six months to a year or year round for that matter. And. I tell everyone all the time, it's just really hard to replicate the finish line feeling of a marathon after you know [00:05:00] that you know the amount of work and effort and sacrifice that you've put in to get there.

And I think that was always what drew me year after year to keep putting another one on the calendar and trying to set a PR or really just go out there and continue to try to just show myself what I'm capable of.

Chris Detzel: Did you ever like. Back then, Dallas was a little bit different from a community standpoint and how all these running groups are together.

Did you run with friends and what did that look like? You said you worked at a gym.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: but

Jason Schuchard: yeah. Yeah, I was in the the original run club that started my, my, my mom and a good family friend of mine, he's a second dad to me, started a run club. Which you would call a run club now.

Yeah. Back in the eighties at White Rock Lake and the group evolved over time, so it was, people's sons and daughters would join, or coworkers and whatnot. The group's still going to this day meets at the same parking lot every Saturday morning out at White Rock Lake. They've been going strong for, gosh, 30 plus years,

Chris Detzel: and they call themselves.

Jason Schuchard: They don't have a [00:06:00] name really. They don't have any official t-shirts or a website or anything like that, but

Chris Detzel: they just

Jason Schuchard: me, they're just folks that enjoy running, enjoy each other, doing life with each other. They go to Starbucks afterwards and they were this group that said, look, if you wanna run fast, we'll meet you back in the parking lot.

You wanna run slow, we're gonna stop at every water.

Chris Detzel: Yep.

Jason Schuchard: Station along the way. So that was really what. Kind of run clubs looked like to me, certainly back in the nineties and even early two thousands. And then as I got a little bit more serious into it, I'd either show up early and get a few extra miles in, or would just tell 'em, I'll meet you for a coffee afterwards.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna take off here.

Chris Detzel: That's great, man. The way that run clubs are today, there's so many out of 'em, and names and group, websites and cra I mean everything, so it's cool how it's really taken off in the DFW area. So you did some Ironmans, any one or two part in particular that kinda stood out?

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. For different reasons. My first one was in Arizona.

Which was a great course. And if you're gonna train in Dallas, you might as [00:07:00] well go compete in a climate that is comparable. I actually also did Coeur d'Alene, which was absolutely beautiful, but not comparable to what you trained for down here in Dallas.

It was the coldest water I've ever swam in. Both the bike and the run course were extremely hilly, and so again, it was incredibly beautiful. I haven't been back since. I'd love to go sometime, but not for an Ironman, but.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, it's hanging out

Jason Schuchard: Peggy. It was, yeah. It was a great trip, but definitely a lot harder than what I was expecting.

But yeah, I just, those were the two fulls. I've done a variety of halves. Did one out in California in the river. That was pretty cool. Funny enough, I did one out in Buffalo Springs Lake out near Texas Tech, which was funny 'cause going to school, I had no idea that, there was really even an event, let alone anybody would ever swim in Buffalo Springs Lake until I actually got into the circuit.

And of course they would. Realized that Yeah. Crazy people

Chris Detzel: everywhere.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. That a lot of people do. And it was something that folks that compete in Kona also like to go to, [00:08:00] 'cause the conditions are relatively similar. But yeah, no, I, it's fine. I think no matter whether I was getting involved in a marathon or a triathlon, it was just great to experience different parts of the country and gave me an excuse to travel a little bit.

But yeah, it was just, as every race is different. Whether it's the weather or whether it's the course or whatever, they all offer something different, but that's what makes it unique.

Chris Detzel: I remember my wife and I, one year was doing this thing called Leadville Heavy Half. I was like, I don't even know what that is, so went out there and it, that one was just the heavy half, they have all kinds of hundreds and things like that. And I thought, okay, I'm gonna get out. And one, it's on a trail and we did some trail running and I knew it was gonna be on a trail, but I didn't know. So when they say heavy half.

They meant it's 15 miles. And then you start out at 10,000 feet of ga. You just start out in Leadville at 10,000 feet, and then it goes up like seven and a half miles. Three and a half thousand four. Yeah, three and a half thousand feet. And it gets [00:09:00] really windy. Like we got up there, it's 50 miles an hour of wind.

I thought to myself, wow. Like I had no idea that it was that. Much and completely different than what you know. So if you think you can go out and run like a one 40 half marathon or whatever, you're not, it's just not, it's not the same, it's a trail and everything else.

Trails are completely different, so

Jason Schuchard: yeah, I haven't dabbled too much in, into trail running, but that's a whole nother level, especially doing something like what you just described there. I've had a couple of friends take part in that. That race and yeah it's a whole different level up there, starting at that elevation.

Chris Detzel: It's a whole different level for sure. I remember, and I'll get back to you, but I was walking up those stairs in Leadville with my suitcase, and I could hardly breathe. I was like, oh man, haven't even started yet, is gonna be rough. Yeah. So

Jason Schuchard: That's funny.

Chris Detzel: So you did some Ironmans and did you enjoy 'em?

How many did you do? How many? So

Jason Schuchard: I did about I did two fulls and I did about six halves. Again, it's just one of those. Progression things [00:10:00] where, I'd done several marathons and decided, oh, this was the best part or best time of my life to, to focus on doing one of these the right way.

'Cause I wasn't gonna do anything halfway. I was like, all right, I'm gonna go all in. I'm gonna get a trainer. I'm gonna spend way too much money on equipment and nutrition and all that stuff, I'm just gonna go for it. I didn't have a super demanding job at the time. I wasn't married. I had a lot of extra time to really focus on me and really what I wanted to accomplish.

And so yeah, that was about 10 years of my life and yeah, just it's interesting to look back now, right? Yeah. Because now it's starting to become a distant memory, but it's certainly something I wouldn't ever change. It was a great moment.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty awesome. So I thank you for telling me all I, I think it's very interesting and where your background is, where you come from your journey and things like that.

And I'm sure we can dive in a little bit more, but I wanna dive into, 'cause I know how interesting this is to people, but I know it's interesting to me, and I know some people will be very interested, hearing about, you used to work for the Dallas Mavericks [00:11:00] and you worked for them for 10 years plus, I know that was a long time ago and also worked with BMW Dallas Marathon for a little over almost 11 years, I think. And but I wanna hear about that. How'd you get into working, into that? What's that story like?

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, so I've always been in sports in some capacity. I knew coming out high school and in going to school out at tech that I wanted sports to be a part of my future.

Okay. I couldn't participate professionally or play professionally. This was like the next best. Thing for me. And so I was exploring a lot of options, went to school for sports marketing. That sort of industry was just starting to get really popular and so huge

Chris Detzel: now.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. And yeah, it basically was saturated when I graduated.

There's like a line out the door of candidates wanting to get in and work for their favorite sports team. But I was very fortunate to meet. Some great people right outta school that made some introductions for me. Really just tried to roll up my sleeves and get to work and work for a number of different kind of temporary jobs and just seasonal jobs, just to try to [00:12:00] meet as many people as I could.

But yeah, the Mavericks gig was great. Again it started off part-time and it evolved into a full-time role. But I like to say I was there during the Dirk Naski era, so got to see a lot of great basketball. Yeah. Man oh six and even into the finals in 11 was, it was just great. And it was

Chris Detzel: amazing.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. It just I could talk

Chris Detzel: ma all day, but

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. Yeah. It was, I

Chris Detzel: digress.

Jason Schuchard: It was a lot of fun. It was, a lot. As you could imagine, it's nine, season's, almost nine months. Outta the year when you include playoffs and was there for 13 seasons and that was great.

But yeah, it was time to get into something a little bit different. And I think the best part about it is I met my wife there, so we

Chris Detzel: That's awesome.

Jason Schuchard: Both decided to get into new industries and fortunately there was a spot that opened up here with the marathon a little over 10 years ago.

And so I just decided to make the switch and join the team.

Chris Detzel: And I'll say this, it's funny because I remember three or four years ago, I was like. I wonder what it's like to be in working for like Dallas Cowboys or [00:13:00] Mavericks or something like that. And I went to this thing and I realized real quick, you start off, everybody starts at the bottom pretty much.

It's rare to see anybody get hired in one of those just as an executive. Unless you're, as a, as yeah, pretty much. You just don't get hired as, at a high level, if you cmo No, that's right. You probably did a lot of stuff. Beforehand, and you travel all around. So you go from one team to another potentially.

Yeah. I've seen a lot of that when I was talking to folks and I thought, yeah, it's not for me.

Jason Schuchard: No you're correct. And a lot of it happens on the sales side. You've gotta be willing to switch teams or leagues or cities. And so there's a lot of movement. I was a little bit more on the corporate sponsorship side, activation side of things, so we had a little bit more stability.

Yeah. You all start off. With everyone else, and it's you're having to prove your worth and yeah, be in it for the long haul, so to speak, if you really want to make a career out of it.

Chris Detzel: And so then you went to Dallas Marathon, I guess back then it was White Rock Dallas, white Rock Marathon or something like [00:14:00] that.

Is this still?

Jason Schuchard: It was just. No it was just the Dallas Marathon. Okay. Which happened in 2012. They, that's right. It was right before I started here. But it was the time when, they wanted to, make this more of a national slash global event. And, a lot of folks outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth area didn't know what.

White Rock Lake was, and so it was right before I started, and then we brought on BMW in 2016.

Which then we added that obviously to the name and they've been with us ever since. So yeah, going on 11 years now, a lot's changed during that time, but it's been a, it's been a fun journey.

Chris Detzel: One of the things that for BMW is.

It feels and I may might be completely wrong, but it does feel like once BMW started become a sponsor, everything seemed to change in a positive way. I'm not saying it was a bad race before, but it's a great race now. I don't, then I thought was it's all right and it had some issues with it back then, but now I think.

It sells out, it feels like within three months, maybe it's not that quick, but over the last [00:15:00] two years, it's just been pretty awesome and insane.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. Yeah. We're extremely fortunate to have BMW on board and the support of the six D-F-W-B-M-W dealers. They've done so much for our event just to elevate it, and they've given back so much to the community, to Scottish Rite for children.

And like you said it's really put us in a good position to grow. The last three years have sold out four outta the last five and it just, yeah, it's getting bigger and better every year and they played a big role in that success and so we're very fortunate to have them on board. And they're also joining us in McKinney, so they.

Clearly are in it for the long haul, if you will, and want to continue supporting what we're doing here in the North Texas community.

Chris Detzel: So tell me like the day in the life of what a president does at, like a big marathon, like Dallas. I'm curious.

Jason Schuchard: A little bit of everything.

Sure. Again, I, because you don't have

Chris Detzel: a big step.

Jason Schuchard: No, we're a small but mighty team of five which is exactly [00:16:00] interesting because we actually just hired our fifth team member back in September. Pretty, we've spoken with before, so we've always run pretty lean, in that kind of three to four range and, yeah.

I'll say though, that we work with some incredible partners and vendors that really help carry out everything that we do, whether it's operations, marketing, pr, et cetera.

Chris Detzel: You

Jason Schuchard: have to, there's just, oh my gosh, it's, there's just so many moving parts. So I think when you ask what I do on a daily basis, a lot of it is orchestrating the show, if you will.

We've got some great. Team members here. We got a great board of directors, advisory panel folks that are providing support in a lot of different areas. You're really just trying to keep the train on the track. And now that we've got this McKinney event, we're a year-round business, so you're just trying to make sure that you're staying ahead as best you can in all areas.

And that's operations, that's sponsorship, that's fundraising. There's just so many things that are involved in producing an event of this size.

Chris Detzel: [00:17:00] I. All the people I've talked to have been runners of some sort that involved in the DM W Dallas Marathon and the historic now. And they all have running stories and really great, and I love that.

People practice what they preach, even as the president. You've done a lot of that, in the past and things. And I think that's probably important. But one of my favorites, and I don't know if it's the favorite, but was talking to Paul Box and just his journey. I don't know.

I think Marcus is Chris, you gotta talk to Paul. And so he introduced me to Paul and the guy's the nicest guy I've ever talked to.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And just, doing some crazy awesome things, and it's pretty cool to see. So

Jason Schuchard: it is I would joke that he's got a couple screws loose because he decides to go do definitely, seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

Not once, but twice. And now Paul's an incredible guy, great story all around. We're very lucky to have him on our board. And he's a great friend and yeah he's a super human. [00:18:00] So I'm glad you guys got a chance to talk and learn more about him

Chris Detzel: And Logan, like he's, the love that he has and the passion that he has for Dallas Marathon specifically is unmatched by almost anyone it seems, and I guess that's why he's, where he is that. So I appreciate you guys getting on this podcast and doing this stuff. So I'm interested, as you look at. 2026. I'm gonna talk about Dallas Marathon, then we'll get to the other one. But how do you see that? Is there anything exciting coming up for people to get excited about besides the already awesome event that it is?

Anything new? Anything something that surprised me when I was talking to Paul was. The elite crowd, the college kind of elites or whatever they were. And that was fun to watch. I was like, oh wow. It was fun to see them and see you guys kinda separate it out.

I wasn't sure at first what's going on, but realized pretty quick looking at the tracker, but that, that was really cool to see.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, that was a great addition last year. You're referring to the NAIA Yeah. Marathon Classic. They brought 120 athletes from across the country [00:19:00] and had their championship event here in Dallas, and they're gonna come back this December.

Nice. As well. So that'll be great. They're gonna look to expand that a little bit. But that's certainly added a component to our elite field. I think, and. To be completely transparent, we're in the planning process right now for the year ahead. Our team just got back from our industry conference, and we're really excited to really dive in and, figure out what we want to do for 26.

But like I was saying, this event keeps getting bigger and better. So we're looking to make some adjustments for the year ahead. Now that we've sold out for three years in a row, we're trying to figure out the programming side of things and seeing if we want to, open up some additional spots for additional.

Marathon and half marathon participation. Those two events seem to sell out the quickest of the events that we offer, and so trying to make some adjustments there. Like we always say, we're never trying to be the largest marathon in the country. We just want to be considered one of the best.

We spent a lot of time on the show, if you [00:20:00] will, it is about the running, but at the same time, we want people to, remember. This event for a very long time, whether it's your first marathon experience, whether it's your hometown marathon, whether you're running in memory of somebody, we want Dallas to be special.

And so I think with, what I really try to bring with my background from the Mavericks and some of the other sports organizations that I've worked for is just to bring some of those. Extra elements to race weekend so that people walk away going, wow, that was pretty cool.

Definitely maybe not what they were expecting, or they just got to experience something completely different than one of the other events that they've participated in. So we're always trying to tweak it a little bit year to year and, add different components to the start, finish line to the course and whatnot.

And yeah we're looking forward to rolling out a few things for this year and. Taking it up a notch again.

Chris Detzel: So it's funny 'cause I talked to the three top finishers and Joe's, Joe has hale. He won it twice and [00:21:00] then he came on the, he got third places last time. So anyways, he, him and a couple others mentioned bottle service for the elites, and I was like and posing as a message, he goes, I got you.

So maybe bottle service will be a potential opportunity. For some of these elite athletes might be fun. See?

Jason Schuchard: Yeah. Yeah. Always looking to enhance the race every year. Again this year was our largest elite field that we've had in quite some times. It looked a little different, we're certainly wanting to, take into consideration all the different ideas and suggestions on trying to enhance the race every year. For us with this event getting, north of 30,000 participants, we're having to look at it from a big lens, if you will, and really trying to make adjustments that hopefully will impact everyone involved as much as possible.

Chris Detzel: Everyone is not elite. So I get that, it's a great event and the things that I love that over time what you guys did was you brought in, I think the 50 K, you brought in the five and 10 K, [00:22:00] and it's a whole weekend experience. And I think that, that brings a lot and then not just that you guys are meeting, at different times during the year, in different cities to push the marathon and that whole entire experience. And I love it. And so you guys have added a lot over the last several years, so it's not like you haven't done anything. You've done a lot.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, we like to say that we've got an event for everyone, regardless of your age or your fitness ability.

So we've even added walking components. That's right. We've got 12 events across three days. So yeah, there's a lot to offer and we've added those events as we've gone along, just as the markets changed a little bit. And, as much as I love the marathon and you love the marathon, we represent a small percentage.

Yeah. And so that's right. As you go into the shorter distance events, you can now impact more. And so we wanna make the biggest difference on the community. And so we're just trying to offer something for everyone. Certainly the kids and the families, trying to get them engaged at an early age 'cause they're the future of our sport.

So we've done a lot [00:23:00] with kids as well. And yeah, just it's fun though to offer a little bit of variety and, we certainly know, most major cities now have a marathon and so there's a little bit of a competition thing there, we would hope that, even if you decide to go run Houston or Austin or wherever it may be that you look at Dallas as a half marathon or relay or something that you can do as part of your training and still be able.

Take part in the annual tradition and then maybe go run your marathon somewhere else or vice versa, right? You're running somewhere else. A lot of people do that already,

Right. And then they run Dallas as a full, so we know that happens a lot. But hopefully by offering a variety of events, we're given folks the opportunity to participate almost annually if it fits within their schedule.

Chris Detzel: Look I have this Facebook group that has over 11,000. It's called DFW Running Group, and then I'm part of the White Rock running co-op and some other stuff. The the op. I don't think Dallas is gonna have any problems selling out, for the next several years, [00:24:00] only because.

There's lots of messages on these forums. I'm telling you about bib transfers and bi, okay, how do I get a bib Cal town's going through that right now? I just, because it sells out so quickly now, and you guys have done, just done an amazing job of really getting the word out there and doing exactly what you said is and look, I think.

You've got folks like yourself and Logan that, have family. It's a family thing. Back in the day, your mom did it and his dad did it, and things like that. And it is a family thing. It's been that way for a while and it's becoming more and more of that because when you live in Dallas, you think of the Dallas Marathon, if you're gonna think of running, in general.

Yeah. So I think,

Continue to do a great job of

Jason Schuchard: it. I appreciate that. At the end of the day, and I can speak for Logan here as well, I, he cares a whole heck of a lot about the BMW Dow Marathon, as do I, it's a full circle moment for me from here. This event's meant so much to me and my family for so many years and it's an honor for me to be in this position and be [00:25:00] able to carry on the annual tradition and Logan being a past winner and, being in the industry, with his.

His own personal business. He's got a vested interest in this event as well. And so I think what he and I, and really everyone on our board and advisory panel and our staff and everybody else affiliated with this organization, I, it is that we. We really wanna show people that we care a lot about this event.

Yeah. And we are invested in the future of this event and want to continue to improve and be able to impact more and more across North Texas. And so ultimately, we're very fortunate to be in these roles, but we're also, we feel like we're tasked with a big responsibility too. Carry the torch, so to speak.

We're entering our fifth anniversary this year, and it's crazy. It's been around for a minute, right? And so it's just it's great that, our team right now has the opportunity to continue the tradition and move it forward.

Chris Detzel: So let's talk a little bit about, what's coming up, [00:26:00] you guys.

Decided to dive into doing another half marathon in McKinney, and you're calling it McKinney Historic Half. Like I said, I've signed up, I've signed up, I've been a volunteer. A lot of people are, I talk about it all the time to people and the groups and stuff like that. But how'd this happen?

Tell me about it. What are you excited about? Why now? It's pretty quick to get to from the BMW Dallas to, to now McKinney Historic.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, so it's been a project in the works for quite a while. We haven't actually started a new event in over six years, and so it's been something that we've wanted to do for a while and I think.

Really what it boils down to is to provide us an opportunity to stay engaged with our audience now year round. Yeah. As you mentioned earlier, we've got, a small fun run series that happens in September and October in conjunction with the six BMW dealerships, which have been great. We've been doing those since 2016.

And then obviously we've got the marquee event in December with the BMW Dallas Marathon. We just felt like there [00:27:00] was a little bit of a gap in the spring, and we're starting to see not quite, but almost as much participation from Collin County running the Dallas event as we do Dallas County. As you can imagine with the growth in that market.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Jason Schuchard: We, we've. Cater to a lot of folks up there and the running industry is doing very well right now. We've been very fortunate to work with a lot of great partners that want to continue to support what we're doing and really support our beneficiary, which is Scottish for children, which is what we're going to benefit up in McKinney as well.

And so we just felt like the time was right, as you can imagine getting a first year event off. The ground is a lot of work and we've had to meet a lot of people within the city. Matter of fact, they've actually lifted a moratorium for us to host an event like this. And so our team is just working basically around the clock to, to get this first year event, up and running.

And it's coming together nicely. We're super excited about it. It's gonna have a totally different vibe than Dallas. I dunno if you've spent any time in [00:28:00] McKinney, but it's a big small town. It's got a great historic square. We've got a perfect host in ts. Brewery. So it's gonna provide a fun setting.

Perfect.

Chris Detzel: Some beer. M

Jason Schuchard: BMW is on board. There's just gonna be so many fun aspects to it. I've run the course already I've driven it several times. It's a great combination of road and trail. And it really is just gonna showcase some really neat areas of, I think,

Chris Detzel: I think it breaks some news here. You said trail, like just on a dirt road, is that what you're

Jason Schuchard: saying?

Not a dirt road. Not a dirt trail. They've got a pretty pretty significant trail system that cuts right through the city. Got it. And so we're gonna do a half and half, and it really will just show some nice areas of the city itself, but not going to like Irwin Park or any of that kind of stuff.

Got it. Just yet.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Says a guy never did a trail run.

Jason Schuchard: Yep. No.

Chris Detzel: So

Jason Schuchard: pave

Chris Detzel: paved

Jason Schuchard: trail.

Chris Detzel: Paved trail. Got it. It makes sense. Yeah, but Kenny, look, I think Kenny's grown like crazy. I think they're putting an airport there, that's gonna be like another hub of sorts. And my, my brother, oh, she, he's a, [00:29:00] he works for the firefighter place over there investigator.

So he's, so he right there in McKinney does all kind of things in. Volunteering or whatever he does. He was a firefighter guy,

Jason Schuchard: no, that's great. We're, appreciative of all the support in year one, registration's off to a great start. And, it just, again it's so difficult to get a first year event off the ground, but things are going really well.

We're just. Putting together an incredible race day for all involved. Just can't wait. It's gonna be Saturday, March 28th and yeah, it's just gonna be a lot of fun. So definitely encourage your listeners to come out and join us and like you said, whether they wanna run or volunteer we'd be appreciative of any support one's willing to to give.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, and I think that, look, I think it's gonna be exciting. Anything else that, I completely missed that you would wanna talk about, whether it's your running experience, Dallas Marathon, what's coming, McKinney, those kinds of things.

Jason Schuchard: I think you pretty much covered it. I think, for us and our [00:30:00] team, we're just really excited to really get 2026 underway at this McKinney event is gonna be a great way to kick things off.

Registration for the 2026 BMW Dallas Marathon opens May 1st, so that's right around the corner. We'll have some other announcements in the coming weeks on our channels that will really showcase everything that we've got planned, but really appreciate. The community support. We really look forward to seeing everyone soon at an event coming up.

So yeah, thank you very much, Chris for walking through the the calendar with me there.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I appreciate it. I got two more questions, sorry, but they just so one is, how many people do you think will show up to the historic cap? What's the goal?

Jason Schuchard: We've got a cap by the city. So our cap for this first year is 4,000 and Okay.

We have a combination of a half and 5K, and we're gonna have a kid's a hundred meter dash as well. Nice. We've always gotta bring the little kiddos out, but

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah great first year event for us, and with the industry doing well right now, we could [00:31:00] easily seeing this thing scale quickly, but as a first year event, I think, every, everybody's just wanting to see how things go and like I always say, like with Dallas, we've grown up with the city over 54 years with this event.

Now we're going into an established market, simply dropping a 13 mile course. And so you're really having to work with local businesses and residents to just really, hopefully not have a huge impact. So we're gonna start a little bit earlier, and Jody and team are putting together a great communications plan, and we're working with a lot of different groups up there to make sure that we have a smooth event.

So it's gonna be great.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, it's super exciting. 4,000 seems quite a bit of people in the first anyways. I'm sure any race director would be like 4,000 and you guys have such a great team that you know what you're doing. I'm, it's a different place, so I get that. I'm positive things will go smoothly.

Look, from what I heard, McKinney is pretty amazing to work with, and so city of McKinney and people there, so that's, and I think they're wanting something like this. Yeah.

Jason Schuchard: Yeah, [00:32:00] they've been great. McKinney does events very well. From the Byron Nelson to October Fest. They have a arts festival.

They've got all kinds of events throughout the year. Farmer's market, gosh, they do so many things, just seems like almost every weekend. And we really want to be a part of that. Moving forward. We're looking midterm long term here and really want to be a part of that kind of annual event offering that McKinney does so well.

So that's our hopes for this and like I said we fully see this event scaling quickly. And yeah, look forward to working with a number of our current partners from Dallas and certainly new partners that want to get involved and be a part of something special here.

Chris Detzel: So everyone, make sure you go sign up for the McKinney Historic Half Marathon, but do that now.

And then, don't wait till the last minute to sign up for Dallas Marathon. Look, it opens up May 1st. Jason said, you know what happens is you're not gonna get a bib if you wait too late because what, three months in it's gonna be sold out or so it has been for the last few years. Yeah,

Jason Schuchard: [00:33:00] definitely wanna get on board early.

We hate disappointing people. It's, it for those that are not. Close to the business. It's not easy just to add, a thousand or 2000 more spots at the end. 'cause we get those questions all the time. Like you sold out in August, why can't you just add, 500 more spots or a thousand and it's just not that easy at an event this size.

Yeah, I definitely recommend registering early if Dallas is in your plans for this year. We've got an insurance program, we've got a transfer program. We've got other ways that, if your training's not going the way you had hoped or plans, change, work life, whatever, we'll work with you the best we can, but at the same token, we'd hate for you to get shut out, but.

Again, we offer 12 event. If you get shut out of your first choice, maybe you'll consider one of our other events. 'cause I'd tell you they're all fun and offer a little bit different experience for each event.

Chris Detzel: Jason, I really appreciate you coming on and telling a little bit about your story and journey and running and then all about, BMW Dallas Marathon and then the [00:34:00] historic McKinney half.

It's a lot of great events. Really cool. So thank you so much for coming on. Thank you everyone for joining another DFW Running Talk. Please go to DFW Running Talk, do substack.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We also have Instagram and TikTok and Facebook group and everything else.

So please look it up. Jason, once again, thank you so much,

Jason Schuchard: Chris. Thank you for your time. We'll see you out there.