Atlanta - Piedmont Park. just beautiful and vibrant with activity, and Took a walk there once on a short business trip and sorely regretted not packing my running gear that day.
Louisville - Cherokee Park. Rolling hills and lots of trees. Several options for varying running surfaces. Stayed at an air BnB less than a half mile from here once and was pleasantly surprised that such good running was so easy to find.
I think Fairmount was "split" into smaller parks a decade or so ago, but some of these parks are still functionally connected. The major split was the Wissahickon that I mentioned earlier, which adds on another 2k acres.
Fairmount also used to include the 1,300 acre pennypack park, which would put it over 3k, but this inclusion never made sense since this park isn't anywhere near the other two.
It depends how you define a city park though, if we can include state parks in cities, or national forest sections in cities the answers will change. For instance Bent Creek Experimental Forest in Asheville is a research station sublet of a national forest, but its in or on the outskirts of a city.
It depends how you define a city too. 100k is probably a city, but is 50k? 20k? 10k?
Steele Creek is a beautiful gem. Run there every year when I go to the Nascar race.
Bristol and that area of Tennessee are super underrated trainign area IMO.
Abby d'agostino is training out of Johnson City I heard? Or was? She gets it.
Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx is the biggest park in NYC. It has Orchard Beach and access to City Island, which is like a New England seaport Great Place to walk, run, or ride horses.
Also, Ft. Snelling in/near Minneapolis, you've got Pike Island, Picnic Island and Snelling lake that all connect to the river trail system with Crosby farm and Minnehaha falls. Easy to get 20 miles in without repeating much and you can get hills or not.
There's also Theodore Wirth Park with at least 10 miles of trails, connecting to the trails northeast of Cedar Lake. That all links up to the rest of the chain of lakes, which doesn't have real trails, but there's a worn down dirt path next to all the bike paths. You can take Minnehaha Creek, which has some trails, all the way to the River Road and connect up to Fort Snelling/Crosby.
The Twin Cities would be a running Mecca if it weren't for the fact that all of this is typically unrunable Dec-March (and sometimes Nov/April as well). That's why a lot of runners in the area get into cross country skiing in the winter. A positive is that there are a decent number of bike commuters, so there are cleared bike paths in the winter.
My vote is Rock Creek. It’s actually in the city but gives you a rural vibe because of the animals there. You can straight up run from the DC/MD state line to Georgetown/the monuments without stopping.
Forest Park in Portland is amazing - 5100 acres and 70 miles of trails (both runnable like Leif and a little more curvy/slightly technical with elevation like Wildwood).
Connecting to Washington Park and Marquam trails adds at least another 20-30 miles of trails.
My vote is Rock Creek. It’s actually in the city but gives you a rural vibe because of the animals there. You can straight up run from the DC/MD state line to Georgetown/the monuments without stopping.
As someone who has lived in DC and NYC, Central park decisvely beats out Rock Creek for me. In Rock Creek it's pretty much always an out and back which is annoying for regular runs and especially for tempos. Also the only soft surfaces are steep technical trails... give me the crushed granite of the bridal path any day over that.
Sounds like we need a poll on the best Forest Park (Portland, St Lous, Queens)
The Portland version is great for running, but depending on what criteria you're judging on, I think it falls short in versatility. It's more of a forest preserve than a park, really. I think i got bit by a spider or stung by some other bug one of the times I've run in that area. (though seriously -- jealous of those who have access to this running on a regular basis!)
Forest park in St Louis has hosted a worlds fair, USA XC championships (as recently as 2013, i believe), regularly hosts road races, and is like smack in the middle of the St Louis metro area (check it out on a map. The location almost couldn't be more perfect for the area). Such a focal point. I didn't make it to the 1904 worlds fair, but I've run road races in Forest park, played softball, attended a wedding, ran, walked, visited museums, the zoo (for free!), attended beer festivals, not a big concert guy but they do have lots of concerts and plays there too, dropped off a christmas tree for recycling, done a winter training run because it was the only place not a busy road that had snow cleared (the paved path around the perimeter). They even have ice skating in the winter. It's centrally located - easy to walk to, run to, drive to, bicycle to, even public transit. Everyone who runs in St Louis has run there and every runner who passes through does as well (and give it rave reviews), but It's not too busy to run fast if you need to. The trail around the perimeter is approximately 6 miles, which is a convenient distance. It does have a golf course, which loses it a few points, yes, but it's a big enough park to acommodate that. All in all, my 2nd fav park in that city back when I lived there. Can't recommend it more. I mean, who is the fastest resident of these other Forest Parks? St Louis Forest Park has Cheetahs living within it's borders!
I'll have to make a point to check out forest park in Queens next time i visit NYC.
The important question, is what other Forest Parks there are in the USA that are also good for running. There's got to be more than three!
Forest Hills Park in Queens is among the best park in NYC, and it has a track as well as hilly, woodchip, forest trails.
It's just "Forest Park." But yes, better than CP in my opinion. Way less traffic on the trails, bigger hills, more fun terrain.
While we're in Queens, Kissena Park also has miles of woodchip trails and grassy surfaces, and Cunningham Park and Alley Pond Park have the same, albeit with more hills. There's also the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, which despite the name is a 3-mile long vehicle-free stretch of hilly asphalt road surrounded by forests.
Sounds like we need a poll on the best Forest Park (Portland, St Lous, Queens)
The Portland version is great for running, but depending on what criteria you're judging on, I think it falls short in versatility. It's more of a forest preserve than a park, really. I think i got bit by a spider or stung by some other bug one of the times I've run in that area. (though seriously -- jealous of those who have access to this running on a regular basis!)
Forest park in St Louis has hosted a worlds fair, USA XC championships (as recently as 2013, i believe), regularly hosts road races, and is like smack in the middle of the St Louis metro area (check it out on a map. The location almost couldn't be more perfect for the area). Such a focal point. I didn't make it to the 1904 worlds fair, but I've run road races in Forest park, played softball, attended a wedding, ran, walked, visited museums, the zoo (for free!), attended beer festivals, not a big concert guy but they do have lots of concerts and plays there too, dropped off a christmas tree for recycling, done a winter training run because it was the only place not a busy road that had snow cleared (the paved path around the perimeter). They even have ice skating in the winter. It's centrally located - easy to walk to, run to, drive to, bicycle to, even public transit. Everyone who runs in St Louis has run there and every runner who passes through does as well (and give it rave reviews), but It's not too busy to run fast if you need to. The trail around the perimeter is approximately 6 miles, which is a convenient distance. It does have a golf course, which loses it a few points, yes, but it's a big enough park to acommodate that. All in all, my 2nd fav park in that city back when I lived there. Can't recommend it more. I mean, who is the fastest resident of these other Forest Parks? St Louis Forest Park has Cheetahs living within it's borders!
I'll have to make a point to check out forest park in Queens next time i visit NYC.
The important question, is what other Forest Parks there are in the USA that are also good for running. There's got to be more than three!
Forest Park in Queens is very nice, for NYC. I did so much training there a while ago. However, having Googled the other Forest Parks, you'll probably be disappointed in the Queens one unless you're willing to make a lot of concessions for the fact that it's in the middle of the largest city in the country. There's like 3 or so miles of nice rolling cinder trails. Then there's, idk, 5 miles of semi-technical single track, you can have a little fun on it. Then there's a road through the middle of it, something like 1.5 miles. THEN there's a track in need of resurfacing where you're constantly dodging kids on scooters.
Forest Park in Queens is very nice, for NYC. I did so much training there a while ago. However, having Googled the other Forest Parks, you'll probably be disappointed in the Queens one unless you're willing to make a lot of concessions for the fact that it's in the middle of the largest city in the country. There's like 3 or so miles of nice rolling cinder trails. Then there's, idk, 5 miles of semi-technical single track, you can have a little fun on it. Then there's a road through the middle of it, something like 1.5 miles. THEN there's a track in need of resurfacing where you're constantly dodging kids on scooters.
Yes, the section of Queens that Forest Park is in New York City, but the area surrounding the park is so drastically different from Manhattan and the city's other areas -with quiet, tree-lined streets- that it has a suburban feel, and you can get in miles of good running even outside the park: for instance, around the massive and hilly "cemetery belt" on the nearby Brooklyn/Queens border.