I'm gonna be in Santa Cruz tomorrow with some friends & need to get a run in. They want to check out the Beach Boardwalk amusement park area for awhile, so I am gonna start my run from there.
Any suggestions on a route (I'm looking for a 10 miler or so)? Any cool parks and/or places to see nearby? Trails along the beach? A soft surface would be preferred, but I'll run on whatever. thanks in advance
Run along West Cliff Drive til you hit Natural Bridges State Park, You then will have to run down a residential street til you get near Long's Marine Lab. If you run toward Highway 1 you will find a path that parallels Highway 1, it will bring you to Wilder State Park where you can run trails to get your 10 miler in.
there are really great trails and dirt roads at the northern end of UCSC, which eventually connect to the upper level of wilder, the trails behind the campus were some of the nicest i've run on before.
Drive a few miles down to Aptos and run in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. That place is great in the summer since there is plenty of shade. You can run a lot longer than 10 if you want and not have to worry about cars and it is all dirt.
You could run the Wharf to Wharf course (point-to-point), then run back. That'll get you 12 miles.
Big Basin State Park is one of my favorite places.
The Beach Boardwalk is just about the single worst place to run from in the whole city. Although you are right next to West Cliff Drive (which is nice if you want a flat, paved run), you are miles away from all the trails, which can be found if you head a few miles west (Wilder), north (the upper UCSC campus), and east (Nisene Marks).
Tomorrow is Saturday, so Wilder will be overrun with mountain bikers. You would need a car to get to Nisene Marks, and you would be stuck in summer Highway 1 traffic. I suggest heading up to UCSC and running in the trails above the campus. If you have a car, it's just a 10-minute drive from the Boardwalk and parking is free on the weekends. If you don't have a car, you can take a bus up there (I think they run about every 15 minutes on the weekend).