Places to run in Buffalo

Not much in the city. You can follow the river walk path a ways, but it's not very nice.

Other places: Forest Lawn Cemetery/Delaware park

Cazanovia park

And that's about it. There are some OK neighboorhoods near Delaware park, but you run out of road pretty fast.

Outside the city you can find some nice places...

thanks. food? towne restaurant?

Away from Buffalo.

Food?

Go up Elmwood Avenue. The wings @ J.P. Bullfeathers are supposed to be famous.

Are you going to have a car?

If so,

Chestnut Ridge Park

6121 Chestnut Ridge Rd. Orchard Park NY, 14127.

Groups meet there at 8am on the weekends, great place to run.

Pearl St Grill across the street from the games.

http://www.pearlstreetgrill.com/

the trails at the ridge are wrecked i've heard from the weather. food i'd say chef's is a must. it's cheap and one of buffalo's most famous places to eat. only other place with some trails might be Losson Park - aka Stiglmeier Park

810 Losson Road

Cheektowaga, NY 14227

For more info

http://www.wnyhikes.com/stiglmeier/stiglmei.php

No idea where to run, but to eat... wings at DUFF'S!!!!!!!

BJ wrote:

No idea where to run, but to eat... wings at DUFF'S!!!!!!!

You guys are obviously not Buffalonians. Wings were invented at "Frank and Theresa's"... if you're going to get wings while in Buffalo, that's the place (although I'm sure there are many other good wings around).

Also, if you have the chance, grab a jumbo hot dog at "Ted's" with fries (possibly onion) and loganberry juice. I know- who recommends hot dogs, right? You gotta try Ted's though: it's a Buffalo institution.

Gonna have to agree with other posters- not many good places to run in the city. You can do some decent loops at Delaware Park, but that's more Kenmore than Buffalo. Aside from that, you can get some solid miles in along the Niagara river- there's a nice bike path that parallels it.

If you'll have a car I agree that Chestnut is a good option. It is in a second-ring southern suburb called Orchard Park. (estimated 25 minutes from HSBC arena or the airport). As previously mentioned the trails are not in good shape for running but there are many roads within the park and they are mostly free of snow. Running within the park will not get you to 14 miles unless you double up on some road loops. You can easily leave the park and run on roads and get to 14 mi. The roads are not snowy anymore and drivers are relatively safe b/c of the quantity of runners out there. The main entrance to the park is on Chestnut Ridge Rd (aka NY 277). You can run north or south down Rte 277 and take any number of side roads (some common road names are Gartman, Ward, Scherff, Cole, Newton, Powers.) There are decent hills (just about the best in WNY) in every direction from the park.

Cazenovia park is in the city (South Buffalo) but does not offer a lot of trails/grass or road loops. You can definitely park your car there but you'll have to travel far out of the actual park to get a longish run completed. Caz park is about 10 minutes from HSBC arena (search for the street named Warren Sphan Way).

Delaware Park is also in the city and offers your best option w/in the city. Delaware park is split into two major sections

(1) a golf course with a loop around it - rough guess 2 miles around. The loop is a paved road, and there is also a cinder path adjacent to the road for much of the way around. There is parking/entrance near intersection of Colvin Ave and Amherst St

(2) a lake w/ concrete and dirt path around it - about 2kilo around. There is parking near interection of Lincoln Parkway and Rumsey Rd. This section of the park also has a few minor trails/paths that can make it easily ~3k without having to duplicate any part of your run.

These two sections of the park are split by a highway (The Scajacuada/198). There is a bike bath and a pedestrian bridge that will take you from one section of the park to the other easily.

Additionally - when you are at the lake section of the park - you are very close to Forest Lawn cemetery (main entrance at intersection of Delaware Ave/West Delavan Ave). This cemetery offers tons of intertwined concerete roadways and minimal traffic. You can run in there easily for 60 minutes without overlapping anything. There are 2 other entrances to the Cemetery outside of the one previously mentioned.

Furthermore - when you are at the lake section of the park - you are connected to a Parkway system that has large grass streches along the roadway. From the intersection of Lincoln Parkway and Rumsey Rd (previously mentioned) you can go south on Lincoln Parkway, then there are offshoots onto Bidwell parkway and Chapin Parkway. If you go down Chapin Parkway you are only a block from the entrance to Forest Lawn Cemetery. If you go down Bidwell Parkway you will run out of grass at Richmond Ave. The grass on these Parkway stretches is still sloppy but getting dryer every day.

From the grass Parkways you can you run up and down tons of side streets – two major roads of interest would be Delaware Ave and Elmwood Ave. These are busier streets so you’ll be dodging people and may get stuck at a light or two. If you opt to run on these roads you will pass countless restaurants and bars. Buffalo has great food. A few places right near Delaware Park: Jim’s Steakout at Elmwood/Bidwell for a fast (sorta pricey) sub (get a Hot Blue w/ everything). Across from Jim’s Steakout is ETS (Elmwood Taco Sub). Along Elmwood there are at least 6 diners/greek diners where you can sit down and eat (including Towne restaurant which you mentioned, it is at the intersection of Elmwood/Allen) There are also at least 10 pizza places which will give you quality pizza and wings. Some ppl will tell you to go to Duffs or Anchor Bar for the best wings – but the truth is that you cannot go wrong at these other places, the price should be better, and the wait will not be as severe. The previously mentioned JP Bullfeathers is also very close to Delaware Park (just north of Jim’s Steakout and ETS and is well known for it’s food.

Back to running: Also in the neighborhood of Delaware Park is Buff State’s Campus which has a 400m track in it’s Northwest Corner. I have only been locked out of the track once in my life. Even if it is locked you can hop a 3’ fence on the home stretch at the wheelchair access ramp.

Back to the bike path that connects the two sections of Delaware Park – this bike path continues past the pedestrian bridge (previously mentioned) and goes along the Scajacuada Creek (this creek runs underneath the Scajacuada highway/198). The bike path is probably snowfree (I haven’t been on it lately) and offers another good option for running. At one point the bike path comes up to street level and hits Grants St. At this point you are very close to Buff State Track (it is just South of you on Grant Street). The path also continues further West towards the Niagara River. I cannot accurately describe how to follow the path after this point, but once you hit Niagara St (which runs along the Niagara River) you can find another offshoot of the path that goes along the Niagara River. You are far away from Niagara Falls but it is still a nice view. It is not really hard to get to along the path and get going along the river but it is not easy for me to describe in words here. If you are interested it is worth a shot. And you can always turn around and go back if you don’t find anything you like. If you take the bike path West towards the Niagara River you will end up on the West Side of buffalo. Some people will not run on the West Side b/c it is a mostly minority/Hispanic and there are elevated crime levels. It is not the safest neighborhood in Buffalo but I will also ad that it is not life threatening. I live on the West Side and run their daily.

Losson Park - aka Stiglmeier Park – this is in first ring-suburb of Cheektowaga but I cannot ad anything to the address that was already provided.

UB North Campus – in a first rings suburb (Amherst) just North of Buffalo. There is a 400m track there as well but I don’t know if there is access to it. There are lots of campus roads and also the Bike Path. I cannot offer much detail about the Bike Path but it goes for a long distance and I think would easily provide you with 14 miles (7 our and 7 back) of running distance. I just took a look at Google maps and it appears to me that the bikepath goes underneath Sweethome Rd just south of the intersection of Dodge Rd/Sweethome Rd. You can trace it’s path from there.

First sentence: Chestnut = Chestnut Ridge Park*

The "Parkway system" I mentioned is just regular city roads with long public grass on either side or between them for your use.

Last paragraph - I believe the Bike Path at UB North Campus is connected to the bike path that runs along the Niagara River which is connected to the Bike path going to Delaware Park. However for your purposes they are essentially different paths.

Good comprehensive post above. One thing to add.

Regarding the bike trail on UB North Campus. I believe the trail itself is about 5 miles, maybe 6. One starting point is on North Forest Rd. just north of its intersection with Maple Rd. There is a small parking lot here. The other terminus is at Niagara Falls Blvd. across the street from Ellicot Creek Park where you could continue your run and as the poster above mentions, I believe the park roads ultimately connect to the bike path along the Niagara River, but I am not sure--I used to live about 1 mile from the North Forest terminus, and got in some 15 milers on the trail and park roads, but never explored further.

In case you don't have a car...

From HSBC:

1)

From the front entrances to the Arena: Run North along the Metro/Subway/Trolly roadway. This is Main St. After a little (3k?) while the subway will go underground and Main St will have normal car traffic. Then a little while later (5k?) you'll get to the intersection of Main St/Delavan. You'll see a big entrance to Forest Lawn Cemetery here (on your left) and Canisius College will sort of be to your left. You are now also close to the intersection of Delaware Ave/Delavan where another big entrance into Forst Lawn Cemetery is located. From Main/Delavan if you turn left onto Delavan you'll get to Delaware/Delavan and the other main entrance to the cemetery. When you are at Delaware/Delavan you are only a little South of Delaware park. if you head North on Delaware you'll see the lake in the park as you run North from Delaware/Delavan.

2)

From the front entrances to the Arena: Run North along the Metro/Subway/Trolly roadway. Look left and you'll see some old Navy boats (within ~400m of the Arena). Run along the boats them and continue out the pier. This will only last you ~15 minutes but it is a decent start. After you come back inland from the pier you can work your way North along the river (continuing away from the arena)and there are parks and paths (the paths, once again, will connect to the paths discussed earlier but it is not an easy or straightfoward connection).

3)

From the front entrances to the Arena: Go behind the arena and run Southeast/South on South Park Ave. You'll run through the projects and the Irish Ghetto/Old First Ward (that is only a short portion ~1200m). You'll go over a bridge (maybe two) and through a brief industrial district. South Park Ave curves/snakes a little bit. When you see the Tops Market on your left you'll come up to a light. South Park Ave bears right just after this light but you want to stay straight onto Abbott Road. Then stay on Abbott Rd and soon you'll get to Cazenovia Park (discussed earlier)

the city is for racing, the suburbs are for training

clarksonxc wrote:

the city is for racing, the suburbs are for training

I love the Subaru 4 mile. Hope to be there this year.

Took me a while to track down the thread but wanted to sat thanks for your posts. I was wasting time lurking on the boards Friday morning and saw this thread - I managed to put together some good runs without ever having been to Buffalo. I travel a bit for work and it's often tough to get out the door for a good run when you don't know anything about an area. Fortunately my hotel was on Delaware Avenue and pretty close to some of the places you mentioned. Thanks again

thanks all, esp. did, whose post I didn't see because my hotel didn't have wi fi access just yet. I reinjured my calf doing jumps and plyos the day before the trip, so I took Friday off and just ran 3 miles each day, Saturday and Sunday, while I was in Buffalo before going back to 14/15 the past couple of days at home. However, I jogged (no calf pushoff) in Delaware Park on Saturday, a nice place to run with various trails and what to me look like hills because I live in a place that's as flat as a pancake. And on Sunday I jogged a loop around the hilly Forest Lawn Cemetery, maybe 2 or 3 miles, and saw the Frank Lloyd Wright building. That's a very nice course and you can even run on dirt roads in parts of the interior. If I lived in Buffalo, I could easily do a lot of my running there without getting bored, and it is great for hill sprints, plus very few cars to watch out for.

On the food angle, the city did well. On Friday, I got a hot dog and a sausage, both with peppers, from a street vendor on the way into the games. They were good. During the games, I got a "beef on Weck," which is a thin sliced roast beef sandwich on a salt roll. That was pretty good. Between games, we walked down Main past a lot of classic architecture down to the Anchor Bar. It was packed, so we ate around the corner at a sub shop called maybe Chuck's. I had a steak hoagy and a thick chocolate milk shake. Very tasty. On Saturday, we went to the Original Pancake House in Williamsville, where I got the outstanding "Dutch Baby," a sort of baked, stuffed pancake, rubbed with butter and powdered sugar and with strawberries and maple syrup. Very, very good, and it came out promptly. For an early dinner, we went to Anderson's for a beef on weck and another chocolate milkshake. The roll was good and the milkshake excellent. THen for a later dinner we went to the Buffalo Brewpub and got wings and stouts. The stout was good (not their own), and the wings were edible and not that hot, but certainly nothing like the Steelers bar in Elmira. On Sunday, I got two Italian sausages and a Polish sausage with peppers, charcoal grilled, and french fries and a chocolate milkshake at Ted's in Kenmore (since 1927). Outstanding! A very good low food city.