If you are a running enthusiast and you are leaving for the Big Apple, inevitably you must have been looking for advice on where to run in New York. Indeed, Running and NY immediately bring to mind the mythical marathon, with all its symbolic charm, and Central Park. And if the large park in the heart of Manhattan is without a doubt the most iconic and New York place to run in the capital of the worldis certainly not the only one who can give priceless sensations.
Running in New York between Manhattan and Brooklyn
If you’re traveling to New York for tourism or business, most likely you’ll be staying somewhere between Manhattan and Brooklyn, at most pushing you into the Bronx. So let’s start with these boroughs and add some routes in Queens and Staten Island.
The best routes for running in Manhattan
Although Manhattan is densely populated, full of people and busy streets with narrow sidewalks, there are several green areas, especially towards the sides of the island and towards the northwith uninterrupted running paths.
There are excellent places to run in Manhattan and you are sure to see runners at all hours of the day and night – whatever the season, whether it’s scorching hot or freezing cold, New Yorkers love to run.
West Side Highway
The West Side Highway is probably the best running path you can find in all five boroughs of New York City. When you see those runner sequences in the movies with the river in the foreground and the skyline in the background, they’re squarely on the West Side Highway.
Here you can admire one magnificent view of the Hudson River and New Jerseyand you’ll have a real (mostly flat), well-maintained pedestrian path to run on.
On the West Side Highway and Hudson River Greenway, you may share the path with cyclists, but there are also pedestrian-only sections. Of course this means that there may also be tourists on foot and New Yorkers getting around on foot, in Lower Manhattan you will notice that the pedestrian side is crowded until you pass 23rd Street. There will be busier stretches as you get closer to certain attractions and major intersections.
Hudson River Path
L’Hudson River Path lies further north still along the west side of Manhattan. If you start at the George Washington Bridge and keep the Hudson River to your right, you can walk all the way to Battery Park at the south end of Manhattan. And if you really want to do a lot of km, you can even start near Fort Tryon Park, but be prepared because it will be a really long ride. To understand each other, they are about 15 miles, that is 24 km more or less.
Central Park
Discounted, trivial, but Central Park remains one of the most iconic places to run in the entire city. There are two main points of interest for running within the park: the Central Park Loop and the Reservoir Loop.
Il Loop through Central Park it is the entire running loop of Central Park and measures 6.1 miles, or almost 10km. You will share the road with horses, pedestrians, cyclists and other runners. Cyclists and horses are forced to turn counterclockwise, runners and pedestrians as they wish, but the crowding remains.
There are other variations of the route you can take to make it a little shorter. You can make a few smaller loops or walk certain segments of the route that make sense based on which entry and exit points you prefer, even cutting into the driveways that criss-cross Central Park. Of course, if you take a driveway, expect to find strollers of all ages, families with children, New Yorkers with dogs, the elderly and every other kind of humanity. So leave the performance alone and enjoy the experience.
Il Reservoir Loop (Shuman Running Track) it is much shorter, about 1.5 miles, and this too is frequented by other runners and walkers. Two laps and a few more steps give you a distance of 5km. If you’re new to running and looking for a goal, a 5K is a great place to start.
If you have any doubts or want to get a preliminary idea, consult the Central Park website for more information about the park and ride destinations.
Running course along the East River (FDR)
On the opposite side of Manhattan from the Hudson River is the East River. More or less below or next to the FDR Driveway are several segments of pedestrian paths that are interesting for running if you are on that side of Manhattan. It’s not as complete and fluid as the one on the West Side, in many places it’s more metropolitan and chaotic than the Hudson side, but the experience is definitely worth it. And then NY, with its grid of orthogonal streets, is decidedly easy to understand and to travel on foot: for example in the early morning or in the evening, when the crowds of the central hours of the day subside, you could make a detour inland and run on 1st or 2nd Avenues. Depending on where you are, and avoiding the busiest tourist hours of the day, you may also want to consider a ride that includes a ride to Brooklyntraveling through one of the points that connect the neighborhood to Manhattan.
Randall’s Island
A Randall’s Island no one thinks about running, except the real New York runners. The reason is that there are many wide paths and especially on the island there are no cars. Maybe it’s not exactly the first destination you think of if you want to treat yourself to a run in New York, but if you’re looking for something very local, without tourists, and you’re in the Upper East Side, South Bronx or Astoria in Queens is really perfect. To get an idea you can take a look at the routes on the Randall’s Island website.
Lower Manhattan Loop
The Lower Manhattan Loop is a creature of the New York Road Runners, who gave us excellent guidance on running in Lower Manhattan, since it’s their area. If you are already in the area, or you arrive from one of the bridges from Brooklyn (Manhattan Bridge or Brooklyn Bridge) the tour of Lower Manhattan is a great option. The distance can vary a lot depending on where you start and where you end, but consider a minimum distance of about 4.6 miles, almost 8km. Along the Lower Manhattan Loop you’ll see so many amazing points of interest to fill your NY memory box for a lifetimeand this is also a great way to lengthen your ride by starting somewhere on the East Side, walking the lower path, and continuing down to the West Side Highway.
The High Line
Basically, forget about running on the High Line. A lot of tourist sites include the High Line as a runner’s trail, but unless you go really really early in the morning because you’re jet lagged, this is a very touristy, very crowded and unsuitable for real running. Then, at dawn you can go for a relaxed jog enjoying the location, but you will still find someone walking or doing something else. New York is like this, it never sleeps.
If you want to make sure, take a look at the High Line website.
The bridges of Manhattan
Inevitably, if you find yourself running on the East Side of Manhattan, you’ll want to run across one of its bridges. The first thing to know is that they are generally very popular, indeed too much to really run there: Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge are real tourist attractions and you will always find tourists, stalls and even New Yorkers crossing them on foot, by bike or on a scooter. In reality all 3 have lanes dedicated to bicycles, but above all tourists pass them by pushing them by hand and stopping to take pictures. So if your goal is running, either you go very early in the morning or you expect to have to slow down often. If instead the goal is experience, then the Brooklyn Bridge is the one you must not miss: you have DUMBO on one side and Chinatown on the other and the view is spectacular.
On the Manhattan Bridge, the experience could be ruined by passing trains, or made even more metropolitan and New York-like, depending on what you’re expecting; the good news is that the Manhattan Bridge is the flatter one, or with more gradual slopeswhile the steepest is the Williamsburg Bridge as you exit Manhattan.
Where to run in Brooklyn
Running in NY basically means running in Manhattan, at least from an experience standpoint. But in many ways and for the ride itself, running in Brooklyn is much better: fewer people, less crowded sidewalks, streets with less traffic, less chaos and a “village” or residential neighborhood atmosphere.
You can find good trails at Prospect Park, with an effective route for the runner of just over 5 km to share with cyclists and horses. The advantage is that the park is right in the center of the borough and easily accessible from anywhere. About 1 km away is the Greenwood Cemetery around which you can make an interesting running loop without real interruptions (which otherwise, between traffic lights and crossings, you will have to account for in the neighborhood).
Just south of Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery is the Ocean Avenue, o Ocean Pwky as you find it on Google Maps: despite the traffic lights on every block, it’s an interesting running route for 2 reasons: the first is that there is a dedicated track for runners and cyclists, the second is that like a true “running warrior” it takes you to the Coney Island beach. That’s about 10km with the priceless experience of ending up in a real seaside location with a real beach, which is almost inconceivable when you’re in central New York. Moreover, in Coney Island you could also allow yourself to run along the Coney Island Boardwalk, another 5 km scarce with truly regenerating sea breeze. Obviously you have to avoid the hours and periods of the year that are most crowded by those who slipper along the beach.
Another iconic and instagrammable place to run in Brooklyn is the Brooklyn Bridge Park: non la Brooklyn Height Promenade, which is indeed one of the most scenic places in NY but is also short and not very practicable, but precisely the piers of Brooklyn Bridge Park with its soccer fields, basketball courts or green spaces scattered on the piers from which you can also enjoy a beautiful view of Manhattan. If the distance isn’t enough for you, you can take the Columbia Street Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway south and head towards Red Hook, which is another interesting part of Brooklyn to explore on a run.
More options for running in New York
If after experiencing all these classic and inevitable courses you still have breath and legs (or days of stay in NY) you could treat yourself to the whim of trying other locations for your run.
If you are staying on the Upper East Side a good experience is to Roosevelt Islandwhose complete perimeter is about 7 km, to which to add the scarce km of Queensboro Bridge.
If, on the other hand, you are in Queens then the perfect location for your New York run is the Flushing Meadows Corona Parkwhich is really full of people running every day at every hour.
If you’ve finally ended up in Hoboken or Jersey City, then it doesn’t get any better than the Liberty State Park, from which you have a fantastic view of Manhattan and on the Statue of Liberty, especially at sunset when the sun illuminates the windows of the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan with light.
READ ALSO: 5 running routes in NY parks
Photo by Harrison Mitchell / Jermaine Ee / Elizabeth Villalta / Redd F / Ethan Jameson / Joshua Leeman
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