Providence/Rhode Island Running and Jogging

[Garris]

Hi everyone,

I thought I would start a thread on walking, jogging, and running in Providence and RI. From recreational strolling to those on their 15th New York City Marathon, hopefully we can make this forum a decent little resource for tips, advice, and notice of local races.

As for me, I've run 5K's, 7K's (which seem to have been a Midwest thing), and 10K's. I'm training for my first marathon this year with Jeff Galloway's 27 week, low impact program (I had two injuries trying to train for a half marathon last year).

As for my favorite places to run: Blackstone running path, Lincoln Woods, and East Bay Bike Path.

As for local running links, here are some of the sites I've found:

Race schedules:

Cool Running.com

Rhode Island Road Runners Calendar

Need to Race.com

Our local running store on South Main (with a branch in Smithfield):

Rhode Runner

Running Clubs:

Rhode Island Road Runners

Rhode Runner's running club

New England Road Runners

Tuesday Night Turtles

The biggest local races:

CVS Downtown 5K

Good Places to Run:

Blackstone Ave Running Trail

East Bay Bike Path

Lincoln Woods

Other local running links:

Local Running Links

"Runners World" article on Providence: "Providence is a hilly little gem of a city that offers way more than you'd expect for its size."

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033...-0-5957,00.html

Where do you all run? Feel free to contribute links and information!

- Garris

[Recchia]

Finally a non-donut topic that I can weigh in on!

For us Bucketeers out there, may I recommend a run down Armistice (anywhere from George Bennet and east is great) and then onto the Ten Mile River Greenway to its end in East Providence. Armistice is nice because since it's divided, there's few chances for left turns into you while your crossing a side street. And if you hate stopping at lights, run down Newport Ave to the pedestrian bridge near the baseball fields and then back up the other side.

In Providence I used to run loops around the State House (Gaspee, Smith and Francis). It's .65 miles I think and you won't have to stop (and its up and down hill).

[Garris]

...may I recommend a run down... the Ten Mile River Greenway to its end in East Providence.

Oooh... I forgot about the Ten Mile River Greenway. That might be a good marathon prep course... Are the miles marked there?

- Garris

[Recchia]

Oooh... I forgot about the Ten Mile River Greenway. That might be a good marathon prep course... Are the miles marked there?

- Garris

There are starting in East Providence, but they end beyond the 1.5 mile mark. And the whole path is only 2.1 miles long anyway...

RIDOT should extend it south along the East Junction line (hint hint)

[BBascule]

Garris-

You forgot a biggie. Local running club:

Tuesday Night Turtles

I love running the East Basy Bike Path. It's great for marathon training and it has mile markers. Not for people who don't like "out-and-back" routes. Watch the headwinds in the winter - can make for a long and brutally cold run home.

East Bay Bike Path

A page of other regional running links:

Local Running Links

[runturtlerun]

Garris, I did one of my 20-mile training runs in Newport ... if you google "ten-mile drive" it gives you a beautiful route that takes you past the mansions on Bellevue Ave, along Ocean Ave, etc. (I carried a map and notes with me.) Doing the loop twice seems a little crazy now, but I found myself absolutely sick of the same old routes by then, so it was great to change things up a bit. FYI, there are some locations along the route that don't have shoulders, so you have to be careful, but the traffic wasn't too big of an issue when I ran it.

[runawayjim]

i haven't been running in over a year, but i've had knee problems. i had been running regularly for a while on the east bay bike path and on high service ave in NP (used to live up there). i have since discovered the blackstone river bikeway for biking. it might make for a decent running path for a marathon as there is a hill. i'm not sure if they've gotten all the mile markers in yet or even if it's finished so you can do the whole thing (they had a section in the middle of it closed off). it's basically flat for most of it with a hill just after you cross the river in cumberland (not the first crossing at the lincoln/cumberland town line). it's a decent sized gradual incline.

i tried to run a 5k in boston about 2 years ago, but it didn't work out because of my knee problems. i have since turned to biking for outdoor exercise because there's much less impact. once i lose some weight, i should be able to start running again.

EDIT: forgot to add... there aren't any street crossings on the blackstone river bikeway that i know of...

[Garris]

Garris-

You forgot a biggie. Local running club:

Tuesday Night Turtles

I love running the East Basy Bike Path. It's great for marathon training and it has mile markers. Not for people who don't like "out-and-back" routes. Watch the headwinds in the winter - can make for a long and brutally cold run home.

East Bay Bike Path

A page of other regional running links:

Local Running Links

Thanks for the links. I have edited my initial post to include them.

Garris, I did one of my 20-mile training runs in Newport ... if you google "ten-mile drive" it gives you a beautiful route that takes you past the mansions on Bellevue Ave, along Ocean Ave, etc.

Wow, sounds fantastic. When (if?) I get to the 20 mile mark, I'll make a point to try it! Do you still run marathons?

- Garris

[xine]

Here's a fantastic tool for planning routes, especially in places where the miles aren't marked:

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

It's a great way to find reasonable routes in a strange city while traveling within the US, too, especially if you turn on the elevation indicator and the satellite/hybrid mode to get an idea of the visual terrain and neighborhoods.

[brick]

for anyone who travels, here's another gmaps plug-in, this one done by the USTF

Running Routes

I haven't actually checked it out, someone linked it on another site I visit.

[Garris]

I'm just curious: Is anyone else doing the Green Mountain Relay team race this weekend? 36 legs and like 200 miles over about 24 hours. It should be fun. If any other UP'ers are doing it, I'd love to pop over and say hi...

- Garris

[Garris]

Well, I ran the relay this past weekend and enjoyed it tremendously. The only thing that got me was that my 4 runs of about 6 miles each were classified as "Hard-Moderate-Hard-Hard." Hard meant that these were generally all up hills, and I wasn't as well trained for that as I thought. My last run was 2.5 miles up a 700 foot incline, then it leveled off...

Well, does anyone have any suggestions where in RI I could go to train on hills like these? Certainly there aren't any around here. Would I occasionally need to go to Newport for these types of inclines? Suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!

- Garris

PS: I asked this last summer (a bit off topic), but does anyone know where there is a concrete or brick wall I could practice hitting some tennis strokes against? Sometimes schools have them, but I haven't found any around Providence...

[runawayjim]

Well, I ran the relay this past weekend and enjoyed it tremendously. The only thing that got me was that my 4 runs of about 6 miles each were classified as "Hard-Moderate-Hard-Hard." Hard meant that these were generally all up hills, and I wasn't as well trained for that as I thought. My last run was 2.5 miles up a 700 foot incline, then it leveled off...

Well, does anyone have any suggestions where in RI I could go to train on hills like these? Certainly there aren't any around here. Would I occasionally need to go to Newport for these types of inclines? Suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!

- Garris

PS: I asked this last summer (a bit off topic), but does anyone know where there is a concrete or brick wall I could practice hitting some tennis strokes against? Sometimes schools have them, but I haven't found any around Providence...

try running up smith st in elmhurst... it's flat until you get to gentian and is all uphill there until you get by the shell station (where smith intersects with homewood ave) in north providence. i'd say it's quite a bit longer than 700 feet. also, you could run up admiral st, starting at the shaw's. it's steeper than smith and is up, flat, up, flat, etc. it's like that until it reaches high service.

i don't know if you noticed my post in the parks page... but there is a park in wanskuck. it's on corina st, which is off of hawkins, which connects admiral to branch. after a nice workout of hitting some balls against the wall, you can go to mr lemon, which is right there (corner of admiral and appian) for the best frozen lemonade in the city.