Do you miss your old running routes?

Yes, but sometimes while visiting a town I lived in a decade or two ago I'll run an old route by memory. One time it was pretty magical. If I had looked at the map ahead of time I wouldn't have had a clue where to go, but as I got to each turn it looked familiar and I still knew the route.

Of course! I often think back fondly of some places because of the running done there. I also have a special place in my heart for the places I started running oh so long ago.

Man, there was nothing like growing up exactly 1 mile from the 11 mile mark of the Jacksonville marathon course. Way out on Mandarin Road...still really rural back in those days. Covered in oak trees so it was shady, smooth blacktop with very little traffic (except at rush hour, but that was it). Between both my parents and me running at the same time, we came up with dozens and dozens of courses and permutations on those courses. All my high school team mates used to come to my house to run on Sunday long runs and for summer training because it was the best. I miss those days. I've found/made some good routes in my life since then, but nothing really ever did compare to that.

Sometimes when I can't sleep, I lay there and rerun an old favorite running route from the past in my mind. It's amazing how vividly I can remember some of them from 10 or 15 years ago. It can really help me go to sleep. Good memories.

Yes. Every time my wife and I visit our old college town we have to run a few routs. But if you are looking for some good routes, when I travel for work I always check out

http://www.usatf.org/routes/

There are some real gems (perhaps by your new place), and you'll grow to love your new place as well.

I absolutely miss some of my old routes - even the ones that I cursed every mile of while I was actually running them, because they seemed so uninteresting. I used to live in a medium-sized city and I loved discovering new neighborhoods and new connections between old neighborhoods; I can still remember the Lewis-and-Clark-ish excitement of popping out of a forested park into a neighborhood that I would never have expected to be there.

But now I live in the rural NE, and there are so many different pleasures: the quiet, the hills, the ability to run TO ANOTHER STATE and back, the cool state parks that pop up here and there...Everywhere you go, as you know, you'll figure out new routes that will inspire and motivate you.

Part of what you miss is youth - those runs are as unrunnable as your youth is ungraspable. It's natural to be melancholy about that. Keep reaching for the pleasures of the here and now, though. As Edward Abbey said, "Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now."Good luck with your move, man. Hope the trails are good and the memories you form there are even better.

(And a quick side note: I discovered a new route the other day near my house and as soon as I was in the most beautiful part of it I started to miss it. Pathological! When I got home I coerced my wife into driving back out there with me; we spent a gorgeous evening by the river I had stumbled upon that morning. All I'm saying is, I can relate.)

no, i took my treadmill with me

I miss my DC runs SOOOOOOO much all the time. C&O, Glover Park, Anacostia River. I had so many good loops.

My husband and I go to DC a few times a year for his work, but he won't let me run the loops anymore (he thinks it is too dangerous), so I basically stick to the Mall.

man i was just thinking about an old route that i cant wait to visit soon. my best summer of running was spent far away from home near the summer job i took. on my second or third day running down there i found a trail behind a hs, started exploring, and ended up with one 10 min loop and another 12 min loop that were right next to each other, all on firm dirt trails. they were practically always abandoned, except for me, my goals, and a heard (right term?) of deer. the deer got used to me eventually and wouldnt run from one spot when i came through. often it was monotonous, but it was pretty magical since i was running great, feeling great, and all on my own out there. im gonna be back there in a week or so for a few days -- cannot wait.

I miss *running*--haven't been able to do it for some decades, now--but can't say I miss too many of the old routes.

I was pretty unimaginative. Lived in the Ithaca, NY, area, where there were plenty of GREAT routes, but I just tended to run out-and-back on the same few loops. Sunday after Sunday, running north, out past the North 40, then turning around after an hour and running back--maybe that's one reason I wasn't a big fan of The Weekly Long Run when I was coaching.

I do miss taking a turn around Beebe Lake when running a warmup, but I understand that Beebe loops are pretty different now--a combination of erosion and paving...

I used run every day in Vancouver. Now I run on a treadmill in Toronto. What do you think?

Ellis Hollow, Genung, Snyder Hill - lived out there and would do 2-3 min hill repeats on Genung and then complete the loop in the opposite direction. Would be a pretty tough 10-12 mile workout depending on the number of reps.

Monkey Run was a favorite.

I liked driving out to Shindagin Hollow or Connecticut Hill (State Forest areas) and doing long hill runs on the weekends.

Used to do repeat miles and tempo runs out at the horsetrack, near the campus.

Also lived in Colorado for a long time but all the best courses either got cut off by traffic, pavement, or blocked off by some sort of adminstrative/security BS.

Miss some of those stomping grounds, but have good places; do miss the passing of youth/young adulthood and feeling really good.

I'm a washed up hack at this point and pretty much trot around 15'ish miles a week. About a year ago I moved to a new part of town.

Well, for about 8 years straight at the old place I would run this horrible 3.5 mile loop from my house. Probably 80% of my runs were on the worthless piece of shit loop. It was through the city on streets and sidewalks. Tons of traffic and tons of cars on the roads.

I now find myself wanting to drive across town to run that thing. It was so automatic to just zone out and put in my 3.5 miles. I don't know why it matters to me but I miss that shitty ass loop. I've always been the type that loves to run the same few loops over and over. Even back in the day when I was running 70+ a week I loved having just two or three loops and running them to death. Time passes faster for me for some reason.

I used to live in the Boone/Blowing Rock area of North Carolina. I miss the hell out of some of the routes I ran there. I've yet to find anything nearly as satisfying.

Behind my old high school there was a dirt road through an old field. It was about a mile long. We would warm up and cool down on it before and after practices and meets, and I used to run up the high school sometimes and run on it. It is now a housing development. I really miss it.

i kinda like running wrote:

I used to live in the Boone/Blowing Rock area of North Carolina. I miss the hell out of some of the routes I ran there. I've yet to find anything nearly as satisfying.

Where are you now? I may be able to offer some suggestions. jsk

I lived in a tiny mountain town for about six months with a frontage road along the river and 4 different roads that headed into the mountains. I could get everything from a flat 10 miler along the river to a hilly climb past cascading waterfalls right out my door. One 7-mile route lead to an open park of wildflowers with single track, four-wheeler trails, and a stretch of river. I never once saw another runner. I miss those runs, but man it was a weird little town.

asdfsdafsd wrote:

I used run every day in Vancouver. Now I run on a treadmill in Toronto. What do you think?

I did the reverse.

16 years in Toronto, then Vancouver. I miss Rosedale Ravine and the big$$ houses along the Rosedale route. And many winter days at the SkyDome Gym treadmill. Vancouver is beautiful, maybe the most beautiful city in Canada...but Toronto is the greatist city .

Boone, NC does rock. I used to go to running camp at Brevard.

As far as my everyday running goes, though, I moved to central NJ in 2004 and shockingly found myself less than a mile from an amazing trail (single-track, technical and great for running). That trail (8-9 miles depending on the segments you run) links up with a 34 mile towpath (groomed dirt road for bikes and runners), which then links with another 30+ mile towpath, which is across the Delaware Reiver from another 30+ mile towpath (plenty of bridges to cross). And I'm betting I could take one of the towpaths running parallel to the Delaware River and find trails to get to the AT. So I like to say I've got over 2000 miles of trail less than a mile from my house, and I live in the most densely populated state in the country. How's that for crazy luck?

Do I miss some old routes? Just a little, but more than the routes I miss running with old teammates and friends in other cities.