I’ve got to be in Irvine, CA on business for a week next week and also for a week next month. I’ll be staying right near the J. Wayne airport in Irvine. For workouts while out there I’ll probably be only able to run and I really want to keep up my weekly track workouts. I was wondering if anyone out there knew if of a track nearby that I could run on and do my workouts. It seems like a lot of people on this board are from California, so thought this would be a good place to ask (& being from FL I’m not too familiar with the area).
I am not from California( I live in Aurora, Ontario, Canada), but I do know that there is a great track at UC Irivine. Not sure if it is open to the public or not. This is the same track that Steve Scott became the great miler that he was on, as he was a student at UC Irvine. I suspect that the university has a web site and you could contact the department of athletics to see if you can get access to the track. I am sure other locals may have ideas about other tracks.
Hi UKat. I work in Irvine and Fleck is right. If you are staying near the airport, you are very close to the UC Irvine Campus. Anyone at your hotel will be able to give you directions. It’s about 10 or 15 minutes driving time from where you are. There’s also Orange Coast College in the other direction. Also very close. Good luck on your trip.
yup…if you head south on the 405 you can go to UC Irvine. I have yet to get on that track. I do, however, run on Orange Coast College track a couple of times per week, as well as Irvine High School track (close to Walnut & Culver).
If you run at Orange Coast College on Wednesdays, you could definitely have some fast company. The OC Track club runs there, and there are two guys who regularly clock 64-65 seconds 400’s, and mile repeats I believe around 4:40’s (I don’t remember their 400 splits, but they seemed to lose about 2 seconds or so per 400). It’s amazing to watch them run these with such ease…
Thanks for the information! I’ll try to make it to one of the tracks (UCIrvine or OCC or HS). Of course it all depends on the work schedule & meetings. Hopefully I’ll have time to make it over to one of them instead of just the 5 AM runs. (But don’t think I’ll be running with the 4:40 milers if I make over there on Wed Craig
Another option is the track at Corona Del Mar High School. It’s about 5-10 minutes from John Wayne Airport, and is open to the public in the early AM and from about 5-8PM during the week, and pretty much all day on the weekends.
Of course the other thing that the poster could do, and what I would do if I was there( forget the track - boring!), would be to head down to the beach and run along the beach. Running along surf impacted sand is just awsome. Huntington Beach to the north would be a good place to head for a run.
