It’s about time we had a little New York flavor on this blog. Pleased to welcome, super duper fitness blogger Christine of Love, Life, Surf. I asked her to write about anything and she came up with a post that makes this San Francisco kid jealous of another cities running locations. Time for another trip to NY, I guess.

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Hi Pavement Runner friends. I’m Christine and I live in New York City with my two sons and husband. I blog over at Love, Life, Surf where I talk about the things in my life and that I love — primarily family, fitness and surfing.

UPDATE — Check out her blog, it was recently updated and looks fab! She is now self hosted at lovelifesurf.com

I’m excited to be over here at Pavement Runner’s place today — a place that I always enjoy visiting for some witty posts, great discussion, inspiration and motivation to keep running… and beautiful pictures of San Francisco. So I thought that I would share with you some of my favorite running spots in New York City. It wasn’t until I moved to New York City that I fell in love with running and running was a huge part of how I came to know and love the city that I call home.

http://www.visitingdc.com/images/central-park-picture.jpg

1. Central Park
Central Park will always be my first love. When I first moved to NYC for college, I lived near Central Park. There are so many routes you can take through the park and piece together to create whatever distance you’re looking to run. This is where I slowly started to put together mile after mile and began to feel like a runner. I have so many memories running through this park from my first 10K (roughly one big loop of the park) to a ridiculous half marathon that forced us to run Harlem Hill — a popular spot for hill repeats — 3 times (3 times!!!) to my first triathlon. During one long training run, my husband and I ran through a torrential downpour. Having survived that run together, I was convinced that we could survive our marriage!

http://hudson-river-park.com/3-2/hudson-river-park-downtown/

2. Hudson River Park
Hudson River Park is a gorgeous route. You can run the length of the west side of Manhattan — from Battery Park all the way up to 181st Street by the George Washington Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse. It’s pretty flat throughout — a great place to do a long run. When I first moved to the city, they had just begun to refurbish this path and make it a continuous stretch. It’s now beautiful with lots of amenities and an incredible view along the Hudson River.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ProspectParkReflections7957.JPG

3. Prospect Park
This is typically where you will find me running these days. While Prospect Park is about half the size of Central Park, I think it has the same number of hills smushed together over a shorter distance. At least that’s what it feels like to me. It’s also a beautiful place to run with lots of different loops and trails ranging from 1.5-3.7 miles.

http://rosemarinetheater.blogspot.com/2011/07/view-of-view-from-bridge-with-scenic.html

4. Brooklyn Bridge
Nothing is more iconic than running across the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge itself is a little over 1.1 miles long but you get to enjoy gorgeous views of the New York Harbor, downtown Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. I believe that running across the Brooklyn Bridge as part of my longer training runs helped me during the New York City Marathon and all the bridges we had to cross during the race. Bonus: you can treat yourself to a slice of Grimaldi’s pizza or an ice cream cone from Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory — both located at the base of the bridge on the Brooklyn side.

Photo: Dith Pran/The New York Times

5. Shore Parkway Greenway
The previous four running routes are probably no brainers and where most New Yorkers will point you if you ask where to run. But another maybe lesser known spot is the Shore Parkway Greenway where you can run along the shore in Brooklyn with views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. You can start near Owl’s Head Park in Bay Ridge and run to Bensonhurst Park along a great rec trail which is approximately 4.2 miles each way.

I hope that you all get a chance to check out some of the running routes next time you’re in NYC if you haven’t already!

Blog: Love, Life, Surf
Twitter: @cyu888
Pinterest: pinterest.com/lovelifesurf
Instagram: cyu888

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There you have it. Thanks Chrstine. I have run through Central Park, but have yet to run across the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve been on it a couple times and it wants me to run it. It begs me to run on it, but I have yet to do so. Like I said, I need another trip to NY.

Have you run in New York? What is your favorite NY location to log some miles?

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