Best places to run in Philadelphia

It's on the other side of the Center City from where you'll be, but if you can make the trek the Schuylkill River Trail is the best place to run that's accessible from Center City. Basically runs along the River from about South Street all the way to the northern edge of the city.

There are hundreds of tracks available.

Thanks for the responses. The river trail seems promising.

Is one of those tracks close to Independence Hall?

There aren’t hundreds of tracks available. The closest Philly track would be UPenn’s at Franklin Field - that may not be accessible - that’s out past the Schuykill Trial. A better option would be to run across the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey - there is a great track on the campus of Rutgers-Camden at the Jersey end of the bridge. Running from Independence Hall to the RU-Camden track would be a nice 1-1.5 mile warmup. Camden is a tough city - however you shouldn’t have any real worries at the track.

Take the MFL Septa to Kensington and Allegheny.

Really amazing scenery and welcoming community. Prob one of the best areas to run in the city.

Lol dont do that

Valley Green. Wissahickon.

Try to get to Forbidden Drive/ Valley Green/ Wissahickon trail. It’s the same trail with 3 different names. It’s the nicest spot in the city and pretty save. It’s 5 miles of gravel along the Wissahickon creek in the woods. It also has upper trails on each side of the main trail. It’s a great spot.

You could also run the river loop that starts at the Art museum and is an 8.4 mile loop around. Not quite as save as it used to be though. It’s a paved bike trail that runs along the Schuykill river.

Schuylkill river trail is probably about 1.5 miles of straight shot city street running from independence hall so if you're going more than 4-5 miles then might be worth heading there. Once you hit the trail, turn north for an out and back run. If you're going more than ~14 or so then you might have to run on surface streets through the Manayunk neighborhood but the trail keeps going after that. Tracks are hard to come by. Temple in north Philly is (or was when I lived there a few years ago at least) frequently open to the public. From independence hall, you'd want to run the half mile to broad street, turn north, and it's another mile or so north on broad street from market. There's also a track in south Philly at bigler/10th street that is sometimes open too. That is about 2 miles from independence hall but hoursnare truly unpredictable. Pretty sure UPenn track has specific hours, if any, that it is available to the public, and is closed otherwise. Not sure what they are these days. That track is about 1.5-2 miles from independence hall though if you head west up walnut street.

away

Might be a good idea if he wants to run faster.

Part of that loop is currently closed for construction but there is another opportunity to cross over if you want to go to the other side, here is the current detour:

phila.gov

Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive Bridge rehabilitation project | Department of Streets

Documents related to the rehabilitation of the MLK, Jr. Drive Bridge.

Link:www.phila.gov/documents/martin-luther-...

Do not, repeat do not run with a Dallas Cowboys tee shirt.

BTW other Philly runners, are there any decent unpaved trails in the area that are longer? I know of a bunch of paved trails but I'm looking to branch out.

Unfortunately, there is not many unpaved trails that I am aware of close to Philly, beside Wissahickon. There are some trails at Valley Forge, but, overall, they are not longer than the Wissahickon loop. In Belmont Park, there is a trail starting from Parkside Avenue that goes to Belmont Plateau, where you can run the X-country loop. Overall, it is about 6 miles of unpaved trail out and back, which is not bad for being in the city.

Maybe about 3-4 years ago I ran a race for recovery. It started in Fishtown and went directly down through Kensington. For “recovery” thru there??? What was the race director thinking?

I’ve run in some pretty nasty places but this had to be the saddest place ever.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I ended up doing a meandering loop around Washington Square, City Hall, Rittenhouse Square, and then up the Schuylkill River trail to the Rocky steps at the museum. Did the tourist thing and ran the steps, then took the Schuylkill River Trail back to Locust Street to get me back to the Independence Hall area.

Altogether just short of 8 miles. Started at 5:00 a.m., so relatively quiet and low-traffic. The Schuylkill River Trail was a great suggestion!