My parents won't let me drive to run trails. "It's dumb to drive there when you could just run there"

you might want to try getting there by bicycle?

Go with someone else and offer to pay gas. You shouldn't be running there alone regardless of how you get to the area.

Go with someone else and offer to pay gas. You shouldn't be running there alone regardless of how you get to the area.

Bleu wrote:

Go with someone else and offer to pay gas. You shouldn't be running there alone regardless of how you get to the area.

Why is it so much less safe than the roads?

PortlandXCGirl wrote:

Why is it so much less safe than the roads?

You're seriously retarded. Why is an isolated, woodland area more dangerous than busy roads? Hmm i wonder....

Carry a dagger with you.

"If you're not familiar with Portland, these trails are located off of single lane roads that don't really have sidewalks and are narrow and a little dangerous, so I wouldn't feel comfortable running on these roads to access the trails."

Right. You told your parents this and they still refuse.

Possibilities:

1) You're a troll.

2) Your parents are morons.

3) You're parents want you to die.

I'm going with 1, but if you're not a troll, I'm going with 3.

PortlandXCGirl wrote:

Why is it so much less safe than the roads?

Because you are a high school girl running alone in an area where everyone knows you can find people running alone.

I'm from San Diego where local high school XC girl Chelsea King was abducted and murdered while running trails alone. Sorry to bring the thread down.

You are a target. Either meet up with other runners or run local as you parents suggest.

I sometimes run with my 8 year old daughter. We run about 2 miles. The other day we drove a mile and a half to a trail. My wife thoought this was dumb since we could just run there.

I just said "dont you have some laundry to do?" And left. Maybe you could try that?

Everyone here is dramatic. Just tell them something about running to much on the roads being bad for your knees, so you want to do more trail running. My parents are so scared of me getting injured I can do basically whatever I want if I can convince them it helps me stay healthy.

It's strange to me that some human beings can't seem to understand how environment influences the enjoyability of an activity. "Why travel to _____ when you can just do it at home" could be generalized to nearly any activity. Yet most of us continue to leave our homes and neighborhoods on a regular basis. Why? Because life would be absolutely miserable otherwise.

Hi!

I also live in Portland and run on the wildwood trails almost everyday. If you're talking about NW Thurman street and the neighborhood at the bottom of the hill, then running to the trails is actually quite enjoyable and there are sidewalks.

If you're talking about living on top of the hill like on Cornell or Skyline, then yes, it's dangerous to run on the roads to access the top part of Forest Park. I grew up on Skyline and would run on Skyline to Firelane 3 or Saltzman to get to the park.

I'm going for a run today starting on NW 24th and Thurman and running up to Leif Erikson.

Hope to see you out there!

PortlandXCGirl wrote:

So here I am, living a 10 minute drive away from Wildwood and a few other world class trails, but my parents refuse to let me use the car to drive to them. They think it's stupid to drive somewhere just to run when you could run outside your front door.

If you're not familiar with Portland, these trails are located off of single lane roads that don't really have sidewalks and are narrow and a little dangerous, so I wouldn't feel comfortable running on these roads to access the trails.

The roads and bike paths by my house suck and have tons of stoplights so it's obnoxious to run on them. They're also over-crowded.

How can I convince my parental units to let me drive to the trails? I'm still a HS student, so I have limited freedom.

Discus.

You are not a girl as your handle suggests. Are you a liar or is this how you identify.

Your writing style gave you away. That and teenagers don't go to message boards.

I was in Portland recently and ran from town to the Wildwood trailhead. It sucked. It is no place for pedestrians or even bicycles.

But then I noticed - there is a bus stop within 100 yards of the trailhead, so...

TAKE DA BUS

Show them this article (https://patch.com/new-york/huntington/woman-fatally-struck-suv-huntington). A lovely runner in NY tragically passed last week after being hit by a car while on a run in an area where there are no sidewalks and people notoriously speed (the article states that she was walking, but I know from mutual friends that she was actually on a run). I really hope runners and drivers can learn from this; it would be even more tragic to see it happen again.

But I also agree that if you are a female, you shouldn't run alone on desolate trails. Google Karina Vetrano, another NY running tragedy.

Get a running buddy to hit the trails with and either carpool with them or get their parents to drive you. Problems solved.

Having ridden the city bus most of my high school years, I can say for sure it is safer to run on the road than to ride the bus.

comedyrelief wrote:

Having ridden the city bus most of my high school years, I can say for sure it is safer to run on the road than to ride the bus.

This.

There are tons of runners in Portland. Do you have anyone you run with? If not, join a group. I'm a Red Lizard and we have several group runs, but also I've met friends through the club who get together throughout the week too. Not everyone drives. Some ride bikes to the start of the run, some carpool.

Plus even if you're driving to a group run, that might make more sense to your parents that you want to drive to a place to run with other people.

As far as running alone, the biggest risk factor is injury, especially on the trails (tripping, twisting an ankle, dog attack, etc).