Has anyone ever tried to ask permission to use a private college's track?

Don’t ask, don’t tell. Just quietly use it instead of asking if you can quietly use it. If they don’t have active duty security 24/7, you could probably hop over the fence early AM and they probably won’t care as they’ve already covered their liability base with the fence.

I emailed a well known university on the east coast near my home asking if I could use their track and they said no, so now I just casually walk in and use it and no one cares. They don’t keep the gates locked or ever check ID though the sign outside says you need to have your campus ID and may be checked anytime.

Almost every high school track here is open to the public. Some 24/7 some just during the day if they are inside a bigger stadium.

College tracks are the opposite, all not open to the public. One requires you to belong to their rec but only students, faculty, and alumni are eligible. The other 2 make you also join the rec but anyone can join. The best one, which is D3, has a "walking only" membership that allows access to the indoor track but not the rest of the rec. It is designed for seniors to walk the track but they sell it to anyone. It is $25/month and the track is open pretty long hours. The only time you can't access it is if there is practice, a meet, or indoor tennis competitions since the courts are in the middle of the track.

See if there is something similar check it out.

A local community college has a track buried deep in the campus. It's a long way from street parking. There are only 4 guest parking spots. Even if the entire campus has no cars in it the rent-a-cop will give a citation for parking anywhere on the school.

Nobody in their right mind would think this kind of thing should be hoarded in our fat lazy society. If you want to walk in a safe place go to the shopping mall....just don't try running there.

Someone should sue their muncipality for making them get hit by a car while running on the dangerous roads, or by a bike on the dangerous bike path, and make the city build a public track.

By your logic then all tracks are wide open in red states. Bad logic.

Volunteer to work at a meet or two in exchange for track privileges.

Damn reading this thread makes me feel pretty priviledged with my city. University track is wide open, gate open, and no signs anywhere. Hope you all enjoy the sweet taste of my freedom 1k repeats as they shall be referred as from now on

Yea it sucks. I used to live a mile away from a high school track that was also a public park and next to a YMCA, so it was open the same hours at he gym, like 5 am to 9 pm maybe. It was a sweet deal.

I echo everyone's sentiment here that the local track used to be for the community to use, but some d bags see it as a private space to be rented and reserved and wanna kick everyone off. Once I was finishing up a workout and this guy told me i was gonna have to leave in x amount of time so his high school soccer refs could do their 2 mile time trial. He even said 'I have a permit' and in my head i was like 'shut up nerd'

NachoLibre wrote:

A local community college has a track buried deep in the campus. It's a long way from street parking. There are only 4 guest parking spots. Even if the entire campus has no cars in it the rent-a-cop will give a citation for parking anywhere on the school.

Ride a bike there?

Perhaps I am lucky but there are three (1 high school and 2 middle school) tracks within running distance of my home and all seem to be open at all times. I do know of one track that is probably locked (my former private high school) but it’s far enough that I’ve never even stopped by to check.

I sympathize with those who want to get on tracks, I really do. The problem is that once the track is open, all sorts of clowns use it for all kinds of purposes not including running fast. You get walkers, skateboarders, kids playing soccer on the track when the infield is wide open, even cyclists. Why the hell you'd want to ride your bike slowly around a track is beyond me, this guy wasn't training for velo races or anything like that, I was lapping him running miles. At this point the track is so congested that you might as well just do intervals around a soccer field. I suggest trying to find a soccer complex with an open field over a track. These don't get locked down like schools and plenty of parents walk/jog while their kids are practicing, so as long as you don't run around a field in use, they'll look the other way. Where I live there are no open tracks, at least none that aren't a pain to get to.

Reach out to the Athletic Director at the college and explain that you're a community member and competitive runner and were hoping you might be able to get access to the track when it wasn't in use. This worked for me at a local community college where they built a new track and kept it under lock and key. I had a good argument though, since my tax dollars were funding the college. You won't have that advantage for a private school, but you might build a good relationship with the AD and be allowed access.

They tried to kick me off a track while I was doing a beer mile in Michigan but I told them off and finished then burped in their face. I managed to strike up a conversation with a single mother due to the fiasco. She gave me her number but we never met up. Damn. I broke 6 minutes for the beer mile I don't know if that's good.

The worst part is people aren’t paying attention, they wander around zigzagging between multiple lanes, walk in groups of like 6 taking up all the lanes, walk in groups in the wrong direction, stand around in lane 1 chatting with their dogs trailing leashes and trying to jump on you, don’t move out of the lane when you’re coming up on them, and then are wearing headphones so they can’t even hear you when you’re yelling at them that you’re behind them, or wait until the last minute, you’re going around them, and then they lurch out of the lane at the last second right when you’re moving out…

Oh and my favourite, when you’re on a rest between an interval getting ready to go and someone walks up to you and is all, “are you training for a marathon?” And then tells you about their sister in law or whoever who ran Boston for charity or something…

Omg, that reminded me of when I used to do repeats on this hill with a nursing home at the top and every single time some random old man would say either “easier down than up!”, “boy I can’t even walk that!” or “That looks tiring.” Oh, or “running for the bus hahaha.”

Dang, i live in Canada and the NAIA level university around here has a four foot fence around the track and open gates. Everyone goes there, from people doing real workouts to seniors walking backwards clapping their hands behind their backs every three steps. They even put the big lights on for everyone, but shut them off around 10pm.

Even the longjump pits are left open now and then, and kids play in them while their parents get some exercise. There are hurdles sitting around and people use them for warmups, or others grab them and use them for small soccer games on the infield.

I didn't know it wasn't like this everywhere, I'll appreciate what I have more now!

'Open' doesn't equate 'no rules'. If it's a dirt track or an old worn-out one, maybe nobody gives a rat's ass. If the school spent some money to renovate it, they usually have rules posted on a board next to it. No bicycles and skateboards is the second most common after no nighttime use. If someone rides a bike and that really messes up your workout, you can confront them. I did that twice myself and they were like ah ok sorry, there was no need for someone from the school to actually enforce.

As for the seniors walking the lanes, well, that's intended use. Even though I'm not sure why walk the track instead of a park when you're clearly not moving fast enough to bump into someone and probably don't need precise distance. I always imagine they might actually be national or even world class athletes in M/F90 age groups and I'm actually complete crap compared to them, that helps to bear with it.

This is going to vary wildly by location and also by school. In our town, the public high school track is locked up tight, but at the onset of the pandemic, someone tied the gate at the public middle school track open so anyone could use it without even having to touch the gate.

We have a private college in town (where I teach) and in normal times, the outdoor track is open as long as the team isn't practicing. The indoor track is also open if you get a resident's pass. During covid, campus has been locked up pretty tight but community members are now welcome on the outdoor track again.

I'm from Ann Arbor and when I am home, I go run over at Ferry Field. Never had a problem and you never know who you are going to run into over there......

I live next to a private D3. They are amazing in never locking up the track and I have never asked permission in 6+ years and have never been kicked off, etc. The only issue was at the peak of COVID where they placed a DO NOT ENTER risk of ARREST sign and I respected it until it was finally removed.