We parked at the Dove Loop Road trailhead and went counterclockwise. We started just before 6:00 am to get over the dam before sunrise. Fairway Drive has no shoulder and can be fairly dangerous to run on but we had no trouble crossing that early on a Saturday. From there, we hopped on the Northshore trail just past Rockledge Park (mostly to avoid the fee). It rained the night before so there were no cyclists to contend with. We grabbed water from the bottle fill up near the MADD Shelter halfway through the trail. After leaving the Northshore, it is a quick road section to get to Rocky Point. This is a short trail but one of the trickier areas to navigate due to a lack of good maps. Fortunately, we had no trouble and made it to High Road in short time. High Road took us to Knob Hill where we, once again, encountered no bikes (a rarity on a sunny Saturday). Instead of running on 377, we opted for the rock road that runs parallel to it. The main drawback of this strategy is that you have to cross Denton Creek, which is pretty deep all year long. We swam across one at a time, trying but failing to hold our packs above the water. It was pretty toasty so we didn't mind taking a dip. We stayed at the creek awhile to filter some water. We then hopped on the Bobcat trail which was full of people much less disgusting than us walking their dogs. We were happy to get back on the dirt in Trophy Club Park but were disappointed that the water fountain was off and the bathrooms were closed. We were able to cross Marshall Branch at Camper crossing without getting wet but once again stopped to filter water. The Trophy Club trail system that eventually connects to Bob Jones Park in Southlake is the most runnable of the big three trail systems and my personal favorite. It is also the hardest to navigate so I was glad I did some scouting beforehand. We ran (but mostly walked) through a big soccer tournament in Meadowmere Park and got to the Horseshoe trail just as darkness set in. We used the water fill-up station there and whipped out our headlamps for the remainder of the run. The last bit on the bike trail through Oak Grove Park felt like it took forever and it got surprisingly cold in the dark. We were stoked to get back to our cars to complete the loop just after 7 pm. We celebrated our day with some burgers in downtown Grapevine, just a few blocks away.
Overall, this is a very accessible route with lots of runnable trail miles. There are definitely some tricky parts to navigate if you're not familiar with the area. The ones that come to mind are the western end of the Northshore trail, Rocky Point, the Eastern end of Trophy Club / Bob Jones, and pretty much all of Horseshoe. Lastly, I would make sure to plan ahead so that you can safely cross the dam without worrying about traffic and safely cross Denton Creek.