Set for its 15th annual running, the Brazos County Museum of Natural History’s Buffalo Stampede races return to the Bryan-College Station area after running its first two years as a 10-miler and 5K race, and sees roughly 300 runners cross the finish line in both races combined.
The half marathon route takes runners on an out-and-back course that starts and finishes in the parking lot area of the museum, which draws more than 50,000 people each year to its fossil, artifact and art exhibits on landscape painting and on the ice age mammals and native American populations that once called this part of what is now Texas home.
Outside its doors, the museum’s Carter Creek Nature Trail lets visitors explore many of the plant and animal species native to this part of Texas.
Runners in the half and those running the 5K follow the same route as the half marathon for about the first 1.55 miles. There, runners reach the 5K turnaround and then head back to the museum for the 5K finish, while those running the half marathon continue on along Boonville Road/Farm to Market Road for the remainder of their course.
The race route follows what is roughly a U-shaped course, taking runners southeast along Boonville Road for the race’s longest straightaway stretch, between Bryan and College Station, perhaps best known as the home of Texas A&M University.
