Running in San Antonio, TX

Where will you be staying? Will you have a car? When will you be here?

My parents have lived in San Antonio for a long time and I dont know of any good places to run when I visit them either. Ive been to mcalister park but would like to know of some softer surfaces for runs...help me out too. By the way, I have a car, live on the east side of SA by 3009 and 35 heading towards Austin, and will be there during my christmas break.

Running in San Antonio is extremely limited. I lived there for a year and found it to be the least runner or biker friendly place in the states (of course I have lived most of my life in CO, so I have been spoiled). The only worth while trails were at Government Canyon State Park and McAllister Park. There are other trails at Eisenhower Park, Frederick Park and Brackenridge Park, but they are fairly short and consist mostly of washed out limestone. You can run along the river walk if you get up early, but for the most part I would stay off the roads as they are not pedestrian friendly and the driver's are not good at sharing the road.

Contact Roger Soler Sports, he's in the yellow pages, or just google him.

He has three stores I believe, he or Patti will point you in the right directions.

In terms of soft terrain in San Antonio, there almost is none, most of the trails are loaded with washed out limestone from the Edwards Escarpment. There are some new dirt / wood chip trails in Brackenridge Park, but they are fairly short (0.5-1.5 miles worth). Additionally, there are a couple of short wood chip trails (0.5 - 1.5 miles) in Frederick park, but the back side of the park is steep, rocky and washed out. Eisenhower Park has some longer trails, but they are either paved or rocky (when I was last there in July they had put down some wood chips on some of the trails which helped, but for the most part they were still rocky). McAllister has longer trails, and the west and south sides of the park on the Blue Trail aren't as rocky, but can be muddy. Government Canyon State Park has lots of trails, most of which are rocky on the back country side. However, the front country trails are fairly flat and not as rocky, but are a little windy (it seems they tried to put 6 miles worth of trails on 2 miles worth of land). One other place you might check out is OP Schnabel Park. The front side of the park is okay, and the back side of the park (once you get down to the Leon Creek Greenbelt) is fairly flat and smooth, but can be hard to find if you are not familiar with the area.

If you live on the east side of San Antonio, I would almost recommend driving to Austin and running along town lake or Barton Creek if you want to get on trails. Another good option is the trails at some of the public parks on Canyon Lake north of New Braunfels.

You should drive to Helotes which borders San Antonio. It's near UTSA. Great Hills. You would be running on road but the senery is nice and like I said you can't beat the hill work out if you run the right path. Kyle Seal also has some good hills. Not as good but still sufficient enough. It's also near UTSA. I know of a lot of routes near UTSA. But not familiar with the names of streets. The good parks have already been listed. I used to hit the parks in the middle of my run instead of starting there and finishing there.

I'll be there for 5 days next month for a conference. What are the options for those staying downtown by the convention center without a car?

Thanks for all the replys, Government Canyon is within driving distance and I do have a car so I think I'll give that a shot.

Well it's 100 degrees and hellishly humid in the summer, which is a nice distraction from the fact the the worst drivers and the fattest, dumbest people in the country all seem to congregate there. Place is like a shantytown/barrio with a million people. Amazing that a 3rd world citystate is so fast growing.

All you need to do is run the 6 mile trail they've got over in McAllister like I do. It's soo great...run it twice for a nice 12 miler.

How's it going Grim?

I'm about to study for an exam...it's 1 am. All is well.