Running paths nearby archived

There are walking paths you can run on, but the parks are so small (at least in Maplewood), not sure it's what she's really looking for. The paved loop in South Mountain Reservation is nice to run on and it's wide. This is the one at the entrance off of South Orange Ave -- right past "The Top" apartment complex. I think it's only about 3-4 miles long though. Everything else there would be trail running.

is the resveration path safe? haven't been there yet. and also, is it close to the dog park in the reservation which i heard was really nice.

It is smoothly paved and perfectly safe, just wouldn't go at night. Lots of walkers, runners, and bikes. It is near the dog park.

Yes, definitely safe, but as rbcole states - I wouldn't go there at night (you're not really allowed to anyway). It's nice and wide too, so it accommodates everyone on the path. Offers nice views of NYC and NJ as well and a nice glimpse of nature.

I don't think that the path from the parking lot to the overlook in Millburn is more than a mile at most. Since our daughter recently took up marathon running (she ran in her first, the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington last weekend), I doubt if that is long enough for a marathoner.

The portion of the paved road (Crest Drive) in the Reservation that is closed to traffic is just over 2 miles to the end and back. The paved road that is open to traffic goes in a loop (Crest Drive and Bear Lane) that is just over 1 mile. Put the two together and you have a nice 5K or do it twice for a 10K. From the parking area that over looks the city to the end of Crest Drive and back is about 2.5 miles.

I'm not a big fan of the trails in the Reservation, pretty rocky in some places.

The run around the perimeter of Flood's Hill going up the steep end of the hill is always invigorating. The entire run must be at least 1/2 mile.

You can run in the loop at grove park , where there are markers eg:1/4 mile. It is not as large as floods hill and flat. Grove Park is in Montrose near Marshall School.
Also you can run around the Duckpond there is a loop and it is mostly flat. hope these help your sister's decisions.

the loop at Grove Park is pretty short--only 1/3 mile around, i think. isn't there a track someplace? the high school?

Yes, there's a high school track -- take Prospect to Garfield Pl, the track is at the end of the street

Here's a great site for runners to plot a loop -

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

in the text box on the top where it says "Jump to:" put your zip code or "South Orange, NJ". Unfortunately you can't put an exact address.
When you're brought to your town click and drag the map to find your house or the starting point for a run. Zoom in using the slider on the left side of the map.
Once you've found your starting point click the button on the left side that says "Start Recording".
Double click on the map where you're starting the run. Now, anywhere else you double-click on the map it will connect these points with a straight line and the distance of your run will appear in the text box that says "Total Distance". It gets a little annoying making a series of straight lines to go around curves, but it's pretty neat.
Click elevation Small (or large) and you'll get a graph that shows the hills you've gone up and down.

Enjoy.
-graham

graham - I was just thinking of that site on my way to work this morning and was going to post it here. Great minds....:wink:

Actually an even better tool than gmap-pedometer is the route tool at http://www.usatf.com/routes. Click on find a route and enter Maplewood, NJ. You'll find ALL types of routes in the Maplewood area ranging from 3 miles to 21 miles long. It's very useful and based on gmap-pedometer.

There isn't a single running path that's more than 4 miles long in Maplewood. The reservation loop is about 3-4 miles long. So what we usually end up doing is running up to the reservation, doing the reservation loop and combining that with a run along Glen Avenue and Wyoming, continuing to Wyoming Ave North and back.

The reservation is very safe. Running on Wyoming is pretty safe too because of the wide hard shoulders.

Also Brookside Drive/Cherry Lane is closed on Sunday mornings from 8am to midday and that's a really nice run.

Ceidefields, that's a great link!

I've used G-map before, but I still can't figure out how to read where the actual route is on the map. I use it to log my running distances, but I have never been able to "see" the line of the route afterward. Am I missing something?

Gmap is cool. The perimeter of Grove Park is a half mile and Flood's hill is .57miles.

Ceidefields... cool site.

thanks for all the comments, this is great!!!

Anyone able to follow the "routes" on the local USATF/Gmap maps? When I click on say, "Wyoming to Rail," I don't see the route highlighted or detailed in text in any way. :confused:

guitardad - this should help - http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=601&highlight=route

Thank you grahamb!