Hey All,
I'm going to be moving from Philadelphia to Portland in mid-late June and was hoping someone could give me an idea of what the running scene is like there. I know that there's a store in the area, and some trails around town, but that's really it. I was wondering if there is a local club associated with the store that does group runs? I was also wondering if anyone could point out some of the better places to run. I'll be totally new to the area, so any advice would be appreciated!
thanks for your help!
No Talent Drips
Somebody will reply with good info at some point. I live about 3 hours northeast of Portland, so not much help from me...other than to assure you that there seems to be a vibrant running community down there.
Dei Gratia
#2867
There are a lot of options for running in the Portland area.
Maine Track Club has group coaching for members on Monday nights in Portland (and on Tuesdays in Auburn) starting in the next few weeks, I think. There are also year-round group runs throughout southern Maine.
Trail Monster Running has weekly runs on Tuesday nights and Saturday and Sunday mornings. I think Tuesdays are still in Portland but will be switching to Twin Brooks Recreation Center in Cumberland relatively soon (once the snow melts.) Saturday mornings switch between Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal and Pineland Farms in New Gloucester depending on the season. Sunday mornings are usually at Bradbury Mountain.
Fleet Feet/Maine Running Company has group runs throughout the week from the store.
During the Summer, I put on a weekly 5k race series around the Back Cove in Portland every Wednesday night.
Starting within the next month or so you'll be able to find a 5k pretty much every weekend if you wanted through the Fall, and a few races of other lengths.
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oh wow, this is some great information! thanks for all of this!
I'm really looking forward to getting up there now!
If you don't mind, I'd like to pick your brain about Portland in general. Do you have any suggestions on what neighborhoods are best to live? My wife will be working at Maine Medical Center, and I will be telecommuting to my job in PA. From what we can tell, everything looks great there, but are there any places we should avoid? We'd like to be in as close to town as possible, having the ability to walk to places is pretty important to my wife and I.
thanks again for your help!
One day at a time
I have lived in the Portland area since 1986. I've lived in town, and also in Yarmouth and North Yarmouth.
Question: Is being in an area with a good school important to you? Knowing that will affect the answer to your question.
Teresa
That's a good question. We don't have any children and we will be renting for a year or so, so it isn't immediately important. However, if they are notoriously bad, I'd like to avoid that area.
If you want to be within walking distance of everything, then getting an apartment in the West End or up on Munjoy Hill would probably work out pretty well for you. I lived on Munjoy for about 4 years right across from the fire department and observatory; it was far enough out of the Old Port to be away from the noise, but close enough to walk everywhere and had easy access to the East End Beach trail and the Back Cove trails for running. In the West End, you'll have basically the same situation except that you can swap the easy access to the East End Beach and Back Cove trails for easy access to Maine Medical. In either case, it's not a big deal to get across the peninsula to the other.
ok, great, thanks again for your help!
Sounds like a good plan. You can think about school districts later!I hope you enjoy living here as much as we have. I'm a transplanted Texan who's been here since 1986 (there were no jobs in Texas then due to the steep drop in oil prices the month I graduated from college, so we ended up in Maine). Once we got here, we didn't want to move. Be sure to explore some of the inland lakes as well as the coast. We have a cabin near Mt. Bigelow and Flagstaff Lake - it's still pristine up there. Tourists don't wander that direction too often!
If you have more questions about the area, let us know!
Thanks for the information! We're very excited to get up there, the area seems to fit our personalities very well.
Just wanted to add my welcome. I'm Seacoast NH, about an hour south of Portland. There are lots of great races and great places to run throughout southeast Maine. The winters can be tough, but coming from Philly you'll acclimate soon enough.
If you want to try to connect with folks ahead of time, there are a lot of Portland area runners on twitter. Start with @MaineTrackClub, and branch out through their followers.
an amazing likeness
First, most people coming in from areas like Philly don't grasp how small Portland is in physical area -- it's a city on a peninsula that is about 2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. You can walk from the east end (Munjoy) to the West end (site or Maine Medical) in about 30 minutes -- the length of the peninsula.
Since you're planning on renting -- south of the city itself are the beach communities of Scarborough, Saco and Old Orchard where many summer homes on the water are rented from Sept to May. North of Portland are the "bedroom" coastal communities and if you're not set on living right in the city center, these are worth a look.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Our first home in Maine was a rental in Yarmouth, at the old Homewood Inn. Our unit was in a building on stilts in the water. It was such a great place for newlyweds! BUT it had only electric heat, and the bills were ridiculously high. We would turn the thermostats down to 40 overnight, then turn on the heat each morning in the bathroom alone. Brr! So make sure you check out the heat in the apartments or homes you look at!
Hey,
Thanks everyone for all the information, its definitely very helpful. We were in Portland this past weekend and did a marathon of apartment viewings. We signed a lease for a condo on Morning Street, East Promenade. We were really excited about it, apartments up there seem to be in high demand, so it was a stressful couple of days.
thanks again!