Places to run
Places to run in the Bay Area and beyond:
We run all over the east bay, becoming bored with one route quickly. This is a growing list of runs within easy distance of Oakland or Berkeley, CA.
East Bay Hills Trail Running
Some of the best trail running in the world. Views. Redwood trees. Lakes. Why we run…
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Lake Chabot – Marina There’s multiple options at Anthony Chabot Regional Park for all distances of paved or trail running (mostly the later). We either start at the Marina for a loop of the lake (9M, 12M, 13.1M) or from Bort Meddows (see next). |
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Lake Chabot – Bort Meddows Starting from Bort Meddows (off Pinecrest Rd) is one of our favorite runs: a 14 Mile lollipop loop around the lake. Run clockwise and it has a minimum of serious hills but great single track and views and trees. |
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Redwood Regional Park – Xterra course Starting from Roberts Regional Rec Area (off Skyline) this course takes in some of the best parts of this our favorite east bay park. The Redwood Pk trail at the end is too steep though. |
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Tilden – Wildcat Canyon Starting at Little Farm in Tilden Regional Park, it’s a 9M run along the Wildcat trail. |
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Tilden – Inspiration Point Paved rolling 4 mile trail along a ridge line in Tilden Regional Park. Home of the Tilden Tough Ten. |
Alameda
Alameda has the advantage of being totally flat. We run one of two places here when we’re looking for flat and easy. Either we run the almost 6 mile loop around Bay Farm Island, or we run along the Alameda shoreline, or some combination of both.
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Alameda Shoreline Dr Flat, flat and flat. Easy 3 miles round trip along the bike path that runs between the road and the bay. 4 miles to the bridge and back. Or connect up to running on Bay Farm Island for 6 more miles. |
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Bay Farm Island Flat, easy, 6 mile loop with views of the bay, the Peets factory and the Raiders Headquaters. Plus, there’s colored fountains (?!) |
East of the Tunnel
I didn’t think there was much east of the tunnel (hwy 24) except a big shopping mall in Walnut Creek. That was until I started to run and realized there’s some of the best running in the bay over there. You can hit the hills for some excellent trail running, or run the many miles of canal trails to get in many roadless miles.
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Lafayette-Moraga trail The best of the paved runs east of the tunnel. Linear park with multi-use path winds its way along 7.6 scenic miles. |
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Briones Reservior Pretty nice lake created by a dam, but doesn’t give much impression of humans as you run around it. The loop around the lake is decently hilly, with a big hill around the mid point. You can also run the single track section between Bear Creek Staging Area and the dam, which provides about 6 miles of running round trip. |
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San Pablo Reservoir 10 mile run part on trail, part on old unused road, part parking lot (?!) along the side of San Pablo Reservoir in Orinda. |
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Waldon Park – Canal Trails From this park in Walnut Creek (near Treat Blvd exit) you can run all directions of the compass on the awesome canal trail system. Highly recommended for those paved long runs. |
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Brickyard course – Martinez Hill route along the Carquinez Strait on a closed road with nice views. |
Southern East Bay
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Alameda Creek Trail Not in Alameda, more like Union City/Fremont. Long, flat, and easy. You can run almost a whole marathon on this thing and never see a hill. It runs right out almost into the bay, which is the nice part. |
Race courses
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Oakland Marathon The route and elevation profile of the 2010 Oakland Marathon course. |
