Sunday, October 6, 2024 • St. Charles, MO • Course Map
Note: A virtual option is available for this event. Registration details are included below.
When they learned in late 2010 that the Lewis & Clark Marathon & Half Marathon, which had been a staple on the local running calendar for years here in St. Charles, was being bought by the company that puts on the Rock & Roll Marathon series around the country and being moved across the river to St. Louis, several local and active community members didn’t lose heart.
Instead, they decided to found a brand new half marathon race event that they could be sure would remain in Saint Charles County for the long haul. And so, the “Mo’ Cowbell” Half Marathon was born, and is set to make its 10th annual running this year along a fast and mostly flat course that starts and finishes on the banks of the Missouri River, and takes runners through many of this city’s historic sites and places.
Taking a page out of Will Ferrell’s famous Saturday Night Live skit, perhaps — in which he famously played the Blue Oyster Cult band member whose sole desire was to bring “more cowbell” in the recording studio sessions — the race organizers plan to hand out cowbells to spectators and well-wishers who are out cheering runners on, especially when they’re coming in to the race finish line back in Frontier Park, where the race will start.
Runners will start at Frontier Park, the home of the famous statue of Lewis & Clark that commemorates their expedition into the West back in the early 1800s.
From there, runners will head out on what is roughly a counter-clockwise loop through the city’s downtown business districts and residential neighborhoods, the first three miles of which unfold almost entirely along the banks of the Missouri, along Riverside Drive, 2nd Street, Main Street and North River Road.
Between mile markers 3 and 4, the course turns away from the river and then heads west toward the residential development known as New Town, a newer suburb built to be an easily walkable neighborhood with retail shops and lakes mixed in with the farmhouse-style homes. Runners will make a loop around the roads that wind through New Town and then head back toward downtown St. Charles, toward Highway 370 and Fox Hill Park.
After runners pass along the edge of Fox Hill Park, the last three miles or so contain really the race’s only hills, as the first 10 miles are virtually all flat from the starting line all the way out to New Town.
As the course winds along the Mel Wetter Parkway and North 5th Street, past Blanchette Park, the course climbs about 100 feet in elevation between the 10th and 11th mile, and then drops again as runners get closer to Frontier Park, where they’ll cross the finish line to lots of cowbells clanging.
Race Weather & Climate
Located along the eastern border of Missouri and just across the Missouri River from St. Louis, St. Charles typically sees cool to mild weather in October, which has brought record temperatures here as low as 19°F (in 1925) and as high as 97°F (in 1953).
On race day (Oct. 6), the average low is 49°F and the average high is 75°F.
Past Results
- 2023 Results
- 2022 Results
- 2019 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2018 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2017 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2016 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2015 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2014 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2013 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2012 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
- 2011 Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon Results
Course Map
See the race route map for the Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon here.
Starting Time
7:30 AM
Fees
- $70 – $95 for the half marathon
- $90 – $115 for the full marathon
- $110 – $150 for the half marathon relay
- $35 – $55 for the virtual race
Registration
To reserve your spot in the 2024 running of Saint Charles’s Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon, register online at RunSignUp.com here.
Official Race Website
Comments
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