My Favorite Place to Train for a Marathon

A passionate running enthusiast in Teaneck, Jennifer Heiner formerly served as a retail director for a New Jersey running company. She currently is an inside sales rep for a small company in North Jersey. Outside of the professional arena, Jennifer Heiner belongs to multiple running organizations including the New York Flyers, the New York Road Runners, and NYCRUNS. Welcoming runners of all skill levels and abilities, these organizations regularly sponsor programs and initiatives to help members in areas that range from marathon training to coached speed work.

Whether its training for a Half Marathon or a full 26.2, these groups often have in-person or virtual training programs to get you ready for your big race. Jennifer Heiner herself has run a half dozen marathons, and countless Half Marathons and shorter races. While you typically aim to run one of these distance races in favorable terrain (not too hilly) the best place to train for these events is with some degree of difficulty. Therefore, Jennifer Heiner’s favorite place to train for her distance races is none other than Central Park in Manhattan.

Central Park has so many options and running paths / trails for training, and also supplys challenging elevation gains and drops. If you can run in Central Park, you can run anywhere!

There are also so many amazing sights and sounds in Central Park, some famous, some not so famous. Jennifer Heiner has outlined some of them for you here:

For starters, in addition to expanding a full 843 acres, Central Park is two and a half miles long and half a mile wide. This makes it a perfect place not only for a race, but to log serious training miles over its rolling hills. In addition to the main run and bike path that you will be running on during the Big Apple Half Marathon, another popular place to get in some additional miles is around the Reservoir.

When you are standing on the West Drive of the park, you’ll catch a glimpse of the Reservoir, which in 1994 was re-named for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — who used to jog here. The Reservoir is surrounded by a 1.58 mile mostly dirt path, which is a popular place for runners to take in some skyline views and catch a break from the rolling hills in the remainder of the Park. According to the Central Park Conservancy, the Reservoir spans 106 acres and at 40 feet deep, it holds more than one billion gallons of water. At the time of its construction, it was the world’s largest man-made water body.

The Great Lawn is another one of Central Park’s most famous features. This Lawn expands over 55 acres mid-park and is a popular spot for locals and tourists alike to enjoy some greenspace during the spring and summer months.

While it may be one of the most famous Lawns in the world, the Great Lawn was actually not even in the original design plans for Central Park. The Great Lawn is a relatively recent addition and was only constructed in the 1930s to replace a large reservoir that pre-dated Central Park.

It is also the perfect place for summertime concerts in New York City, and has welcomed performances by New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, as well as other memorable performances by world-class acts, The Great Lawn was also the site of the Homecoming Concert, which featured dozens of world-renowned performers, to celebrate New York City’s resilience amid the coronavirus pandemic.