I was there a few weeks ago and ran along the path by the Ouse from the centre in a north-easterly direction, up one bank crossed and back the other. There are parks and playing fields along the way which you could loop round for extra distance.
The city centre is very busy but might be OK early in the morning.
Toyed with running round the walls but I'm not sure how safe it would be as it's quite uneven and not fenced.
Actually i wouldnt recommend running around the racecourse at the moment as it flooded recently and the ground is really water logged. The parkrun is just a couple of laps around the inside of the racecourse so you won't really get to see much of the beauty of york!
Where abouts are you staying? What I would recommend to do is get up onto the wall and run for 15 mins then turn around and come back for 15 mins. You'll get to see some of the inner city from the wall and it's so much prettier than the race course.
How about starting at the southern end of Lendal Bridge at Station Road and running anti-clockwise along the wall to Cromwell Road or as far as you can get in 15 mins.
I'm staying bang central near where the art gallery is.
I'm a slow runner anyway and definitely prefer more scenic routes to just a track.
I'll have a look at that route on a map and keep it in mind.
I was also thinking about the walls but share some of the same concerns as wilmacgh about the lack of fencing. Sometimes I do get the heebie-jeebies just walking round some sections... :/
Hi there are some nice sections along the riversides to run if the river has gone down, if they are clear of everything the water washed up! Will stink if near stagnent water on fields. Running city centre will be a nightmare because of the tourists, unless youre up early. Also some of the roads are cobbled! Best to walk around and enjoy the sights. Have fun.
I was there a few weeks ago and had a lovely run round the walls. Not up on the walls themselves as they are just too uneven and I didn't want to spoil my run worrying about falling.
Instead I ran the pavements on the outside of the walls. I went early so it wasn't too busy but there were quite a lot of annoying traffic light stops to contend with. I didn't measure time or distance on that one- just ran for pleasure.
I was staying in Bootham so on my second run I ran along the main road through Clifton then turned down to the river and came back that path (a week before the floods!) to Lendal bridge then went up to the minster, ran around it and came back to Bootham via Lord Mayor's walk. It seemed a long way when thinking about it in advance but only took about 30 mins- just short of 5k.
I've visited York many times but it was great to see it from this perspective- I'm jealous. Enjoy!
If you have access to transport to get a little way out of York (maybe as far as the Racecourse) then there's a Sustrans route (National Route 65) which runs from York all the way up to Selby (and beyond). (sustrans.org.uk/map?searchK...
It's an interesting route all on tarmac but right through the countryside (it's a disused railway track).
I wouldn't try running round the walls as there's generally quite a few people on them and they're a bit uneven in places. I'm just outside York and so do my running in and around my village but you could probably do some nice running along by the river. Wasn't coming out when I was in York today although any more rain and I think it could start flooding again...
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