Forums >General Running>Staying in St. Louis near the arch, route suggestions?
I'm traveling to St. Louis next week and will be staying at the Hyatt. I won't have a car, but could possibly beg the use of one for my long run. I have to do an 18 miler while I'm there and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.
Thanks!
I don't half-ass anything
"I have several close friends who have run marathons, a word that is actually derived from two Swahili words: mara, which means 'to die a horrible death' and thon, which means 'for a stupid T-shirt.' Look it up." - Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning
That area is pretty close to where they hold the Rock and Roll half/full marathon and where the Go! St Louis half/full marathon start and end. You might be able to go to those websites and look at the course maps. I ran the Go! Marathon this past spring and we had a nice route, especially the parts through Forest Park, very pretty. Good luck finding a nice route!
MoBramExam
If you can beg the use of a car, Forest Park is nearby.
There's a pretty nice bike path along the river that appears to go for many miles. Do that if you want a flat route.
If you want some rolling hiils, go to Forest Park and run loops.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to look into trying to get to Forest Park. If I can't, are the bike routes pretty easy to find by the river? Or is there a specific place you have to go to access them?
yes... go down by the arch, keep walking towards the water. If your feet get wet, you've gone too far :-)
Good Bad & The Monkey
There is a train system that is fairly easy. I believe that there is a train that will get you from downtown/Arch to Forest Park/Zoo. The Forest Park loop is about 6 miles.
Alternatively, you could run to Forest Park, do the loop, then run back. Run down Olive, which becomes Lindell. This hits the corner of the park after about 4 1/3 miles.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
There is a train system that is fairly easy. I believe that there is a train that will get you from downtown/Arch to Forest Park/Zoo. The Forest Park loop is about 6 miles. Alternatively, you could run to Forest Park, do the loop, then run back. Run down Olive, which becomes Lindell. This hits the corner of the park after about 4 1/3 miles.
Since I'm training for the Monkey, I'm thinking about just running up and over the arch over and over.
You cannot train for Monkey.
We were just in St. Louis this summer and stayed down town by the arch too. I didn't run, we were only there 2 days - used the motel tread mill. Be careful though. We were told not to go out in the downtown area after dark. Crime is pretty bad. My husband and I did go out to dinner and for drinks and walked a few blocks to the restuarant and had no issues. Just be careful.
barefootin'
Trent is right about Olive/Lindell (or Market) to Forest Park. You can run throughthe St. Louis University Campus, the Central West End, then Forest Park.
For 18 you could keep going west to Clayton (nice area).
This would be a really good run. After Central West End you can runwest as far as you want without worry about sketchy areas.
I recommend against the Riverfront Trail if you are traveling alone.It is a wonderful trail - I have seen deer and wild turkeys out. However it is very isolated and vehicle access is few and far between.Here is a good route I use for Arch-and-back. Let me know if you can't see the map.
http://www.runningahead.com/logs/3069402c8a5f49dbaa1830ae730ac4fe/workouts/f109a0a3148d467fb60a9b5cdad26fdc/map
If you're there Saturday 22nd 7 a.m. the St. Louis Track Club has a group run on the Half Marathon course starting downtown.
29th is out at Creve Coeur park but you would need a car.
9/22RocknRoll Half Marathon course-15th and Market13.1 miles9/29Creve Coeur Park—Waterfall to St. Charles 13 miles
Bill Wagnon / stl