Rock the Parkway or KC Half?? (Kansas City, Concord: apartment, city hall, houses)

[BostonJad]

Would like to make a trip out to KC but debating between these 2 famous races:

Rock The Parkway (2nd weekend of April)


KC Half (3rd weekend of October)

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/19387238

Which do you think gives a better depiction of KC. KC Half seems to hit most of the downtown landmarks while Rock the Parkway is just about the Ward Parkway, is it like a US version of the Champs-Élysées?

Obviously also the weather factor of April vs October.

[zach_33]

You would definitely see a more representative assortment of neighborhoods in the Garmin race, some pretty, others gritty, pretty much entirely "urban." Lot of commercial districts, including the CBD (obviously).

The Ward Parkway is taking you through uniformly residential neighborhoods, mostly pretty and upscale. You would also have a lot more shaded terrain along Ward parkway. Ward Parkway is just one of those grand old boulevards-- from the 50s (street number) down through the 60s, it is lined with impressive mansions and it sort of melds into more modest (but still nice) homes south of the 75th. Its a major thoroughfare but the speed limit is 35 so the locals try to maintain a bucolic feel to it.

So even though October is better weather-wise, I would probably choose Ward if I had to go with one. There may be others here who have actually run the races who could give a better breakdown.

[MarketStEl]

I'm not a runner but I am a Kansas City native.

If running through a cross-section of the entire city is a top aim of yours, which I think it is judging from how you worded your post, the choice is clear: you should run the Garmin KC Half.

It doesn't take you through the heart of the city's silk-stocking residential district the way Rock the Parkway does, but that's all that Rock the Parkway does: it doesn't even dip a few blocks north to take in its main commercial district, the Country Club Plaza.

KC Half, OTOH, does take you along the Plaza's main drag of 47th Street. It also takes you past, or in close proximity to, more of the city's well-known landmarks - the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Old Westport (the city's chief nightllfe and entertainment district) the National World War I Memorial, Union Station, Penn Valley Park (though you won't see the famous sculptures from the race route), City Hall and the Jackson County Court House, the Sprint Center, the Crossroads Arts District (you won't see the Kaufmann Center but you will pass right by the just-vacated home of The Kansas City Star and probably get a view of its printing plant, where its offices just moved), the Power and Light District (the artificially-fertilized companion to Old Westport)...

...and you will cross Troost Avenue, travel along the city's original grand boulevard, The Paseo, and loop through the 18th and Vine Jazz District.

Seeing both sides of Troost is IMO essential if you want to take in all sides of the city. (I grew up east of it and went to school west of it. I'm African-American, as are most of the Kansas Citians who live east of Troost. Most of those who live west of it are not.) Some of the territory you will pass through will look a little forlorn, and a large swath of it just south of the Jazz District will be emptied-out - this was the old heart of Kansas City's black community (the old Negro YMCA in the 1800 block of Paseo still stands, and you will pass it, but the residential district that surrounded it has largely reverted to prairie).

And you will see several attractive and historic neighborhoods along your route. Some of these you might want to come back and walk through after the race, for you won't actually pass through them, but some you will:

• the city's original high-rise luxury apartment district along Armour Boulevard (just past where the route turns off the street to go down Harrison Parkway)
• Hyde Park, home to a good chunk of the city's LGBT community and also the locus of its original 19th-century elite residential street, Janssen Place (off the race route, which skirts Hyde Park and Janssen Place via Harrison Parkway)
• the Pierce Street houses, built by William Rockhill Nelson for Kansas City Star employees; executives lived in the larger homes just north of these (just off the race route where it runs along Emmanuel Cleaver II Boulevard just before it passes the south lawn of the Nelson-Atkins)
• the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus (a few blocks south of this stretch of the race route)

And you could even walk up the hill on the south bank of Brush Creek from the Plaza to Loose Park, where the "Rock the Parkway" race begins.

(IOW, spend another day or two in the city and get to know some of what you ran past at a more leisurely pace.)

[MarketStEl]

Coda:

In terms of appearance, there really isn't a thoroughfare anywhere in America that matches the Champs-Élysées, not even the New Orleans boulevard of the same name (in English).

Many argue that Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway comes closest. (And where it passes through Logan Square / Circle, it does have two buildings facing it that are copied from the Place de la Concorde in Paris.)

Ward Parkway is hands down the most attractive boulevard in Kansas City, which is shot through with attractive boulevards - even the ones that pass through the rougher neighborhoods still look attractive. But it's totally different in form from the Parisian boulevard. If you've ever seen Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., Ward Parkway looks a lot like it, only minus the statues of Confederate generals. It's lined with large, graceful mansions on their own lots - and not hidden behind fences, either, a fact that preserves the street's linear-park character.

[Okey Dokie]

Originally Posted by zach_33

The Ward Parkway is taking you through uniformly residential neighborhoods, mostly pretty and upscale. You would also have a lot more shaded terrain along Ward parkway.

The Ward Parkway race is the second week in April. The leaves will barely be out then.

I’m not a runner, but I’d go with the Garmin race if you really want to see Kansas City. Ward Parkway and its houses are beautiful, but it’s a uniform beautiful.