I’m going to be in the NYC Area this weekend, and plan on doing a 2 hour run at 6:30 am in Central Park. Years ago, I was able to park along 5th ave when I went down to do the Big Apple Biathlon in Central Park.
If I start at 6:30 am, will I find parking on 5th, or do any of you locals have any recommendations. What point in the park should I start from. I’ll be driving in from Larchmont in Westchester County.
I was planning to run at ~4.5 min/k pace or just over 7 min per mile, although I’ll likely be shuffling at 10 min per mile for the first 20 min before I get going. If any of you NYC studs want to come out and join me, post here, or send me a private message off this board.
Park will be hit or miss. However, at that time, the commercial district is as good as any place to look. If you do not find parking head up and to the west, there are a number of residential streets that should bear fruit on the parking front at that hour.
As for where to start, I look to start at 59th and CPW and run the first lap counter clockwise, because it starts out flat and is the easier of the two directions, in my view. Be sure to switch directions on your second lap. Assuming you are running 7 minute miles this should allow you time for two full laps and a lower loop over 2 hours.
Your start time is to early for Jenn and I, but enjoy.
Dude, if you’re staying in Larchmont don’t run in Central Park unless you have other things to do in the city.
Go to the Rockefeller State Park in Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown and run on the trails there. You’ll thank me for the suggestion. Best place I’ve ever run. It’s so good my h.s. x/c coach used to give me permission to train there at least once/wk. away from the team.
It used to be private property that runners knew could be accessed by runners, walkers, and horsemen (never saw the headless variety there), but the Rockefeller family sold it to the state for a buck and now it’s got official entrances and some basic restroom and visitor information facilities. But it remains pretty much unchanged and a great place to run.
Aeromon, I’ll check out this option, although I kind of enjoy running in the Urban Park environment of Central Park. Where I live, I can get to tons of running trails in pristine wilderness pretty quickly. That being said, I’ll strongly consider your option of the Rockerfeller State Park. I’ll be in the City anyway on Friday, so this might save me another trip to mid town.
If you’re going to make the trip down to run in central park on Saturday, don’t run at 6:30am.
When was the last time you went to a casual, weekend road race and 4,000 people showed up? That happens every weekend here in NYC, and it’ll happen on Saturday at 9am with the “Summer Kickoff 10k”. You can sign up online for $20, or pay $30 the day of the race. Go to www.nyrrc.org for more details.
My recommendation: if you drive in, get here early and find parking on the upper east side. Sometimes you can find parking on 5th ave, but it’s hit or miss. A surer bet would be to take Metro North in to Grand Central, then take the 4 or 5 express train to 86th street. Head west to the park, and enter at 5th ave and 90th street (engineers gate). Follow the crowds (which will start gathering at 8am) to the registration / number pickup / etc area.
If you want to make it a 2 hour run, and you’re doing 7 min miles, here’s my advice. The course is a full loop of the park plus 5 blocks, and ends at the 102nd st traverse. It’ll take you about 43-45 mins. Do another full loop of the park, which will take you to the 102nd st traverse at 85-90 minutes. Make a left on the 102nd st traverse and cut over to the west side. Do the remainder of the loop as far as 90th st (about 4.5 miles) for another 30-35 minutes, so you’ll finish the whole course to 120-130 mins.
Lee Silverman
JackRabbit Sports
Park Slope, Brooklyn
I’ll be in NYC for the next two weeks (during the week, tho’, i’m going home on the weekends). Looking to get in a few runs, other than “bring mace”, what can be said about running around the park on a weekday morning? (and how far is it around?)
It’s almost exactly 6 miles around the entire outer loop. The relatively big hills are on the north end of Central Park. Very crowded on the south end. There’s are two transverses: the lower one at 72nd st, the upper one at 102nd st. The “transverse” loop where you cut off the top and bottom of the park by running the transverses is about 4 miles. If you want to get off the ashpalt, the bridle paths are VERY nice running but remember the horses have right of way. The loop around the reservoir is 1.6 miles and is a fairly good cinder track.
I don’t think you need mace to run in central park these days if you stay on the main loop. The 102nd st transverse gets a little iffy after dark, though, as do the bridle paths. The cars in central park are FAR more dangerous than the people. The cyclists are a close second.
If you’re going to be near central park, I’d strongly recommend a trip out to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Get on the Q train at 57th & 7th and take it to 7th ave in Brooklyn. It’s about a 5 minute walk from there to Grand Army Plaza, which is the north end of the park. Or take the 2/3 train directly to GAP, but the ride is a little longer. 3.4 mile loop, some nice hills, less crowded, and most importantly no cars between 9am and 4pm. I’d say the subway trip on the Q train is about 25 minutes each way. And if you want to drool over some nice bikes, R&A cycles has the best selection of cool bikes you’ll find almost anywhere. If you’re planning on coming out message me and I’ll meet you for a run.
Lee Silverman
JackRabbit Sports
Park Slope Brooklyn
Thanks folks. When I was in NYC last weekend, I actually went for a long 2 hour walk with my 60 year old mother in Central park on Friday, so I ended up doing a 2:15 run in Westchester County, finding numerous single track trails in the Mamoroneck (sp?) area. Ended the run at a Park in larchmont and walked into the “not so clean” Long Island sound, waist deep to ice my tired legs
Unfortunately I did not get into the NYC marathon International Lottery (I’m from Canada), so I need to run a 3 hour marathon somewhere this fall so I can get a “guaranateed entry” into next year’s race when I turn 40 (Yikes)!
