midwesterner wrote:
I haven't run downtown in a lot of big cities, but I think Lakefront Trail in Chicago would be pretty hard to beat. It's not confined to a single park but passes through many parks, and it simultaneously gives great views of Chicago's downtown buildings and skyline as well as Lake Michigan.
^Not this.
Easy, High Park in Toronto.
Forest park is probably the best urban park for trail running in the country and Leif Erickson is nice if you dont want single track. The only thing I don't like in forest park is that the trail is slightly slanted for drainage and nags my bad ankle.
I actually prefer to take a 35min drive down to scappoose to run on the CZ trail and avoid the crowds for long runs.
I live in Louisville, Kynow and Cherokee Park has solid trail running and a nice 2.4 mile road loop.
Cohomology wrote:
What are the best parks, weighted towards running quality, located in (and not just on the outskirts of) cities with a population of 500,000 +?
Central park is the obvious example, although I only really like the north woods area. The rest feels way too touristy and empty for my tastes, and I really prefer unpaved trails.
The only good park of this type I've seen in Europe is Tiergarten in Berlin. I'd rank it a step below the others I mentioned though.
Well, not exactly a park, but running in Berlin = Grunewald Forest
Balboa Park and Mission Bay in San Diego.
Hines Park from Dearborn out to Northville, MI.
Jardín del Turia in Valencia, España
Added vote for Stanley Park Vancouver.
I like Vondelpark in Amsterdam but it's not very big.
Love Park.
Lurker wrote:
Well, not exactly a park, but running in Berlin = Grunewald Forest
I did really like Grunewald forest the few times I've been there, but it definitely is more on the outskirts of the city than the types of parks I had in mind. Sure, if I'm in Berlin for a while or on vacation I'd definitely pick Grunewald over tiergarten, but if I'm there for work for two days without a car I don't know if I'd be willing to use my pretty limited time to get there instead of just running at the good but not great option close by.
Green Lake in Seattle
Lumpini in Bangkok
Rama IX Park in eastern Bangkok
Forest Park in St. Louis
Piedmont Park in Atlanta
Stanley Park, Vancouver.
Honorable Mention: Memorial Park/Elmwood Park/Elmwood Park Golf Course, Omaha NE
In Berlin, the Tempelhof Airport in the middle of the city got turned into a park. Really great place to run, skate, or even ride a road bike. Grunewald is easily reached in a 20-30 min subway ride. I also loved running in Gesundbrunnen park, you can do a 2km loop but also do hill reps (with a nice view over the city).
In Buenos Aires there are some nice parks for running, but you have figure out how they’re connected so that you can avoid crossing the streets with lots of cars.
In Munich there’s some nice running in the English Garden.
I also loved running along the waterfront on Manhattan, not quite a park but you can run for long stretches without having to cross roads (great for marathon training).
Oh no! It’s ^not this guy again... wrote:
midwesterner wrote:
I haven't run downtown in a lot of big cities, but I think Lakefront Trail in Chicago would be pretty hard to beat. It's not confined to a single park but passes through many parks, and it simultaneously gives great views of Chicago's downtown buildings and skyline as well as Lake Michigan.
^Not this.
Lol. Dude, that "trail" is freaking horrible.
Stanley Park in Vancouver is my favourite by a country mile. I also love Central Park in NYC, High park in TO, Mount Royal in Montreal, Villa Borghese and Villa Pamphili in Rome, and as of yesterday a new one on the list, Tivoli park in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which sneaks in on a technicality since the urban population is under 500k, but still it’s beautiful and compares with any major urban park anywhere.
I forgot Hyde park in London...
Aw damn I can’t believe I left off number 2 on my all time list, Gatineau Park.
Cerro san cristobal in santiago, chile. Middle of the 7 million people city ans it has over 40 km of trail/pavement roads, 600 m climbs from one side to the other and great views.
Central park is crap in comparison.
Forest park in portland :
https://forestparkconservancy.org/forest-park/maps/
The longest single trail there(wildwood) by itself is around 30 miles end to end.
My top 5
5 Lumpini park Bangkok
4 Mount Royal park Montreal
3 Hyde Park London
2 Stanley park Vancouver
1 San Christobal park Santiago
Griffith park has lots of running room......
Not going to pretend that it's a world class running park, but Piedmont Park in Atlanta is a pretty good one. If you're looking to get more mileage in it directly connects to the Beltline, a bike path which you could easily get 20 miles on going out and back. It's still under construction, so many sections are still dirt/gravel. Get on it before they cover the whole thing in cement.
In Vienna, Austria, I like running along the Prater Hauptallee.