Where to run
Running in New York
New York runs on a small number of very well used loops. Central Park and the Hudson River Greenway carry an extraordinary share of the city's mileage, and both are car-free, measured and busy at every hour of the day.
The ground
What running in New York is actually like
Manhattan is flat along both rivers and lumpy in the middle and at the top. The parks hold the gradient: Harlem Hill at the north end of Central Park is the hardest climb on the loop, and above 125th Street the west side rises properly, with Fort Tryon Park holding the steepest sustained hills on the island.
The waterfront is the other half of the picture. The greenway on the west side runs almost the whole length of Manhattan without a traffic light, and the East River esplanades cover much of the other bank.
Across the river, Brooklyn has its own loop in Prospect Park, and the Bronx has the cross country ground at Van Cortlandt Park, which is one of the oldest cross country courses in the United States and still races school and college teams every autumn.
Routes
Runs worth knowing in New York
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The Central Park loop
The full loop of the park drives, closed to traffic. Harlem Hill at the north end is the climb that matters and Cat Hill on the east side is the short one. Shorter loops cut across at the transverses, and the whole thing is measured, marked and never empty.
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The reservoir
The cinder track around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, counter-clockwise by convention, with the skyline standing over the water. Softer underfoot than the drives and the best place in the park to run easy.
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The Hudson River Greenway
The west side path from Battery Park north past the piers and Riverside Park. The longest uninterrupted flat run in the city and the obvious choice for a long steady effort, with the wind off the river as the only variable.
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Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Brooklyn's loop: shorter than Central Park, quieter, with a single long climb that shows up more than you expect on the third lap. The better choice on a Saturday morning.
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Brooklyn Bridge and the waterfront
Over the pedestrian deck at dawn before it fills, then down into Brooklyn Bridge Park and along the East River in Dumbo. Go early or do not go at all.
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Roosevelt Island
A lap of the island on the perimeter path, reached by tram or subway. Flat, almost empty, and the best view back at the Manhattan skyline you can get while running.
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Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx
The flats at the bottom and the back hills above them. Real cross country terrain inside the city limits, and a piece of American running history.
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Fort Tryon and Riverside Park
North of 125th Street the west side climbs. Fort Tryon has the hardest hills in Manhattan and the Cloisters at the top, with Riverside Park running the length of the approach.
Season
Humid summers, cold rivers, and November
Summer is hot and humid, and the heat index in July genuinely makes the middle of the day a bad idea. The parks empty at midday and fill again before seven in the morning. Water fountains in Central Park are seasonal, so check before relying on one.
Winter is cold and the wind funnels hard off the Hudson and the East River, which makes the waterfront paths ten degrees less pleasant than the sheltered park drives. The parks are ploughed after snow; the greenway is not always.
Spring and autumn are why the calendar looks the way it does. The New York City Marathon runs on the first Sunday in November through all five boroughs and finishes in Central Park, and the city's road racing schedule is the busiest in the world around it.
The app
How Waypath fits a New York week
A spectator link, not a chip time
Share a live link and whoever is waiting on First Avenue opens it in a browser. It shows roughly where you are. It is not timing and does not replace it.
Grade-adjusted pace for Harlem Hill
The published Minetti cost-of-running curve shows what the climbs cost, so a hilly loop and a flat greenway effort can be compared honestly.
Your data stays yours
Activities stay on your phone until you share one, direct messages are end-to-end encrypted, and a published route never starts at your door.
Keep reading
More places, and how the app works
Run it, then share the link.
Free to record, free to share live, and nothing to rent or install for the people watching.
Requires iPhone. Recording activities is free, with no limit on how many.