How do I find new long-distance running routes? [closed]

Question

I'm training for a January marathon but I've just moved across country for graduate school. My immediate neighborhood is not exactly set up for long distance runs (a luxury I left back home, it seems). Does anyone have a favorite way to find new routes?

Answer 1

I travel a fair bit and always want to run in the places I visit, so I have the same problem. I usually try the following:

• Google for runs using the search terms "running in <your location>" - that will very, very often come up with a site or two for official running clubs in your area. And they usually have a number of suggestions.
• For the US, I have successfully used Running in the USA.
• On a more global scale, I use MapMyRUN and Endomondo (you must log-in first).

Answer 2

Yes - what about a Garmin Foretrex 401.

It's the old-fashioned "military" Garmin you wear on your wrist - boxy looking. It includes a map-chart screen.

Note that the more modern, trendy wristgps are smaller, but have only data numbers, no map display.

(By "map" I mean not a carte, but a white screen with a black line showing your own trail, and also waypoints, lapmarkers etc you save.)

(I guess, you could go running with a garmin Dakota, which you hang around your neck (or just shove in your pocket I guess) and that has actual map maps. But it's not as good as a 401!)

BTW ..... other than the chart, another HUGE advantage of the old-fashioned 401 over the newer models, is that, you can click to an display of your heartrate (or indeed distance, time, speed, or whatever) that is shown in ENORMOUS, HUGE digits. The digits are much, much, much bigger than on any other wrist-instrument. Perfect for glancing at when pounding along.

Answer 3

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned this, but if you have some sense of orientation, you can just give yourself a time limit, which will give you approximate distance to run and then just go out and run!

I usually do this when I want to go for a midnight run in the city. Just pick a landmark within a reasonable distance and run towards it. Don't set out a specific path, try to figure it out. That way you can get to places you would never get into otherwise.

Answer 4

I have found that WalkJogRun.net is a great resource for finding new routes. The site lets you search for routes by city. Then you can filter the results by distance. You can see each of the routes from your search overlayed on google maps so that you can scroll to the area where you are or want to run to find the route you want to try. Also, each route can be exported to GPX which can be used on a Garmin Forerunner.