Home Athletics Running the Town: Top 5 places for Blackburn students to run

Running the Town: Top 5 places for Blackburn students to run

by Noah Daum

For me, running is a great way to stay in shape, relieve stress, feel better about myself and simply just get away from the daily grind of college. After being a runner for eight years and spending three of them in Carlinville, here are my top five sweetest spots to run.

All maps begin at Blackburn College

1. Nicholas Road
This is my go-to place to run. It is also very easy to pick how far one would like to run because there are options to do either six or eight mile loops. Alternatively, you could run even less than these by simply running out and back.

2. Blackburn’s Track
Close and convenient. The track hasn’t been used for competition since 1991; however, the soft cinders are great for runners’ knees and you can always calculate how far you have gone. Beware, however, that this track is not a traditional 400 meter track. According to my Garmin GPS running watch, the precise distance per lap is 0.27 miles, (close to 435 meters). I feel as though the best use for Blackburn’s track is to do speedwork on it. The track enables shorter, quicker repetitions close to the dorm.

3. Beaver Dam
This sweet spot is used by folks all around the area to camp out, hike and have fun. However, this is an underrated and underutilized place to go running. The beautiful scenery all around the dam makes the run a little more interesting and gives runners a chance to bond with nature. Sometimes you might even find the Carlinville High School track or cross country team running out there as well, as it is a personal favorite of Coach Charlie Helton. The only downside of this location is that it is pretty far out of the way, so one would need transportation there and back.

4. Loveless Park

 

Loveless Park has multiple soccer fields at it, however, you might find runners running around the fields. The park is used by Carlinville High

 

School to host their home cross country meets as well as a lot of their practices. The location is right behind the Wal-Mart as well, so you could hit them up if you wanted to kill two birds with one stone out of this trip. It is easy to make up different loops around the park for repetition workouts, or distance. There are varied surfaces to run on, including concrete and grass.

5. Woodward Fitness Center
Personally, I cannot stand running on a treadmill, but when weather doesn’t permit an outdoor workout, a treadmill might be the best option. Woodward Fitness Center just opened up to the college community and has multiple treadmills open and ready for student use. It is open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.

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