Mi ruta favorita para correr: Van Cortlandt Park

Did you know that parks make up 14% of New York City’s land—more than 30,000 acres? As a beginner runner, you may stick to the same routes day-in and day-out. To keep things fresh and engaging, let’s break that habit! With this new feature, My Favorite Running Route, we’ll get to know our city—in particular, those 30,000 acres of parkland, plus some great grid-running routes. 

To start the series, I’m sharing my favorite running route, Van Cortlandt Park’s 4K race loop. This route is locally used by high school, college, and post-collegiate runners as a cross country race course. In cross country races, athletes run over trail terrain, which can be hard to come by in the concrete jungle that is New York. As a result, athletes have come from far and wide to train and race on this beautiful course to better learn and experience what it’s like to run on the softer trail surface. 

Located in the Bronx right off the last stop of the 1 train, Van Cortlandt is the city’s third largest park, and it has everything a runner could need. There is a diversity of scenery, including the option to run some laps on a track, stick to a flat bridle loop, or explore the rolling back hills. The back hills are a particularly beautiful place to run, since you are completely surrounded by nature and can forget that you are really in the city.