UPENN AND PHILLY

good 800 guys

i know some college teams in philly use wissahickon park, some good trails there.

Is that within running distance from the school, or do you have to drive there?

It's good to be fast in Philly now a days. People getting shot up left and right.

Lots of trails to run in Philly and they are easily accessible from UPenn (you can run to them).

penn runners go to wissihickon park, which has a trail system not dissimilar from a park in the rocky mountains. belmont plateau is also nearby. the schukyll river trail system is right on penn's doorstep, and that encompasses more miles than most can run in one outing, although it is blacktop. you need look no farther than how far some of the penn runners have come since high school to see how well that program and the training opportunities it offers have worked.

wissahickon is an excellent trail system, but it is only "runnable" from UPenn for long runs. you can run to wissahickon along the (paved" path that follows the schuylkill, but it is probably 5-6 miles until you get to the trails from there (about 4-4.5 miles to manayunk, where the park begins, and at least another mile north on paved paths until you get to forbidden drive, where the actual trails start). so you're looking at at least 11 miles round-trip just to get to the starting point of the trail system--too far for everyday unless you've got a car.

except the park in the rocky mountains has awesome views and wildlife, trees, no humidity, no cars around and is safer

where are you moving to upenn from?

if you are coming from the west coast with awesome trails you will hate it

when i did two years of grad school i lived there and there was some stuff to run, especially as far as cities go

but make no mistake penn is in the middle of a city, a rough part of the city at that

[quote]thistles wrote:

penn runners go to wissihickon park, which has a trail system not dissimilar from a park in the rocky mountains.

quote]

It's not UPenn. It's called The University or simply Penn.

Not UPenn.

jayruns wrote:

wissahickon is an excellent trail system, but it is only "runnable" from UPenn for long runs. you can run to wissahickon along the (paved" path that follows the schuylkill, but it is probably 5-6 miles until you get to the trails from there (about 4-4.5 miles to manayunk, where the park begins, and at least another mile north on paved paths until you get to forbidden drive, where the actual trails start). so you're looking at at least 11 miles round-trip just to get to the starting point of the trail system--too far for everyday unless you've got a car.

Long runs to Wissahickon are good and were a staple when I was there. The paved path along the river also frequently has dirt or gravel paths alongside of it which makes for some nice soft running. Since they extended the paved path down to the Walnut Street bridge, it's about 1/2 mile from the track to get on to the river path. That along with the enormous Fairmount Park make for some pretty nice running. Probably the nicest city running around. I had more options in Philly than I do now out in the Midwest.

they've got a really good team, a lot of young talent coming in. Expect to see great things from them.

Philly is probably the most underrated running city in America.

ANyone know anything about their Coach? How is he? Nice guy?

i met him at the relays, during the banquet sunday night. he seemed like a pretty good guy, very knowledgeable of high school athletes all over the country

I looked extensively at Penn as a high schooler from the area. I ultimately decided not to go (not because I didn't like the school or the area) because it was too close to home and my mother is an academic in the area and would have known far too many of my professors. That being said Penn is obviously a great option academically and they consistently have one of the better track and cross country teams in the Ivy League. Running in the area is good but not great. Contrary to popular belief (what Will Smith will have you believe) West Philadelphia is not a "bad neighborhood." It is urban. There are (gasp) black people there and some of the black people in the area might even be poor. However, if you are like most Penn students you will not be leaving University City much, and University City is great. As far as running goes, I'll agree with most of the previous posters. Good running for a city, but it's still a city, meaning grass and soft trails are hard to come by but not impossible to find. The main deterrent, which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned already, is the lack of an adequate indoor track facility (i.e. none). It is what it is. Many great runners over the past few years (NCAA champ Sam Burley, All-American Courtney Jaworski, Nolan Tully, Dusty Lieb, Tim Kaijala) have made due without the benefit of a banked 200 meter indoor track, but it is certainly something to consider. Good luck in choosing a college.

P.S. The coach, Charlie Powell, is a great guy. I recommend contacting him personally.

its awesome. you should go there if you can get in.

penn was my top choice summer before senior year. i was a highly recruited miler and the coach didn't beleive me that i would actually go there so he didn't even try to recruit me. seemed like a pretty wimpy/lame guy when i talked to him.

chose another ivy instead. best choice i could have made.

I'll disclose from the start that I'm an alum who ran all four years and lived off campus when West Philly was not nearly as nice as it is today. I turned down several partial and full scholarships to pay to go to Penn and don't regret it for a minute.

I can say that Wissahickon trail system is a bit too far to run to from campus, but that we ran on natural surfaces at least 4 days per week during XC season, less frequently during indoor and outdoor due to fading light and greater variance in training schedules. Large expanses of grass in Fairmont Park are less than 2.5M away and I frequently did 10+M runs that were more than half natural surface. Also, non-pavement can be found if you look for it. You just have to have a bit of an adventurous spirit and a willingness to backtrack, bushwhack, and get wet and muddy. If you run north from Fairmont Ave or the Art Museum and you run on pavement, you do so by choice rather than necessity, at least as far as Strawberry Mansion bridge on the east and past SureKill on the west.

Also, for the troll who said that no one calls it "UPenn," I recommend that s/he visit

www.upenn.edu