Anyone know a good spot to run at night near the NC State area / southwest Raleigh / eastern Cary?

Daylight savings is over, so my after-work run at the lake is no longer feasible until March or so.

I'm looking for something like an lighted outdoor track (perhaps at NC State, Athens Drive High, or Dillard Drive Middle...do those tracks stay lit and open at night?), or maybe a nice well-lit subdivision that can be made into a loop and I can measure the distance. Anyone willing to share their spot with me?

I'm not a student anymore so I can't use the indoor track at Carmichael, and I enjoy running outdoors whenever possible so I don't feel like joining a gym and using a treadmill.

Thanks for your help!

11/8/2010 10:55:02 AM

You could run up and down Harrison. Not a pretty run but it's well lit.

11/8/2010 10:57:57 AM

I usually run at night with a small light

I ran from Crossroads, down Dillard and Tryon, to Regency Park the other night and back, most of it was sidewalk and well lit

also, Crossroads shopping center parking lots are huge and well lit

11/8/2010 10:58:26 AM

I used to run downtown and at the NC State track late at night. It always felt safe and lighting was never an issue.

11/8/2010 11:04:13 AM

11/8/2010 11:07:29 AM

11/8/2010 11:09:50 AM

Centennial Parkway

11/8/2010 11:11:16 AM

Treadmill? haha

11/8/2010 11:46:22 AM

run downtown from bar to bar.

11/8/2010 12:07:50 PM

ibt "you gonna get raped" pic

11/8/2010 12:39:31 PM

combs elementary (near Kaplan) has a small outdoor track. It's nothing fancy. and to be honest, it's not extremely well lit. But it's in the middle of a decent neighborhood. I ran there at night a few times a week for about a year and was never bothered. If anything, there may be a couple of kids from that neighborhood riding their skateboards in the parking lot. The parking lot is very well let, just not the track area.


And FYI, you can pay to use the NCSU gym. I think it's by the semester. You may even get a discount if you're an alumn. I did it for a while. For all the stuff you get access to, it's a great deal. The only problem is that they're closed around the holidays and the winter/summer hours weren't great for me back then (i was working odd hours). If I lived on that side of the city, I'd probably still be using that gym.

[Edited on November 8, 2010 at 9:00 PM. Reason : ncsu gym membership]

11/8/2010 8:56:25 PM

11/8/2010 9:30:44 PM

I usually run after midnight or later through the ghetto. Don't carry my wallet, about all they can do is rape me.

11/8/2010 9:33:52 PM

Centennial Campus is pretty well lit and theres lots of space to run. Theres plenty of short loops to do, like oval drive, the block around Red Hat, and around Venture Center.

11/9/2010 2:42:26 PM

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Tonight I did 6 laps around the perimeter of the huge lighted intramural field on campus. Not sure of the exact distance but it felt like 4-5 miles total (anyone ever measure the distance of one lap?). I bet it gets muddy as hell after it rains though.

Next I think I will try some combination of Centennial Parkway / Centennial Campus. Running along Centennial Parkway, it's 1.5 miles from Mission Valley to the Farmers Market. If you wrap in some roads in Centennial Campus into that run, there's alot of good options for loops.

11/9/2010 8:36:22 PM

Lots of homeless men on Centennial in those woods. That's where that pregnant woman was stabbed last year. Tell your family you love them one last time.

11/9/2010 8:48:53 PM

Yeh, a treadmill inside a safe place.

11/9/2010 8:51:42 PM

They're going to be disappointed when they mug me and find out that I run with nothing more with a car key.

I'll be sure to put a cork in my ass before the run though. No butt rapes, plz.

11/9/2010 8:51:56 PM

wont' stop them from trying and then potentially hurting/killing you. criminals don't give a shit. random beatings/killings happen all the time

11/9/2010 8:57:23 PM

while i'm not scared to go out after dark without my weapons arsenal like SOME people in this thread, i wouldn't run down centennial pkwy at night alone. i am also female. but still, that is NOT a well lit area at all. and when you get toward lake wheeler you are entering some potentially bad territory.

i think a well lit neighborhood is probably best for night running (i'd run at night in my neighborhood, but i live in north raleigh and my neighborhood isn't scary at all...unless you're scared of deer). or the NCSU track. maybe the center of centennial campus, but not that cut through that goes by mission valley to the farmer's market. that is bad news bears. and not well lit at all (i don't think it even has ANY lights).

i think time is a big factor too. it gets dark early now, so if you are running between like 5-9 or 10, i'd say you could run on campus. but anything after that is sketchy. i had a friend get mugged really bad on campus running at night. you just have to be careful. if you aren't going super late though, then it is fine.

11/9/2010 9:43:21 PM

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… City Star, The : IL teen was killed over tennis shoes,...
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Man killed in quarrel over shoes
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Detective: Man Killed During Row Over Shoes .
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11/9/2010 9:55:12 PM

Quote :

"Tonight I did 6 laps around the perimeter of the huge lighted intramural field on campus. Not sure of the exact distance but it felt like 4-5 miles total (anyone ever measure the distance of one lap?). I bet it gets muddy as hell after it rains though. "

I'm pretty sure if you run a lap where you start at the first light pole and cut off the end with the pull-up bars and such then that it approx. 1 mile. And for every 3 complete laps (including the end with the pull-up bars) it's approx a 5K.

So you probably ran over 6 miles.

11/10/2010 8:03:55 AM

hey look, smc didn't get enough attention trolling in the cycling thread so he decided to take his act to the running thread.

11/10/2010 8:26:20 AM

Some people are slaves to fear in this thread.

11/10/2010 10:02:34 AM

sounds like rape waiting to happen

11/10/2010 10:06:34 AM

^^^^^Solution: Run barefoot.

11/10/2010 10:51:56 AM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure if you run a lap where you start at the first light pole and cut off the end with the pull-up bars and such then that it approx. 1 mile. And for every 3 complete laps (including the end with the pull-up bars) it's approx a 5K. So you probably ran over 6 miles. "

Nope, unfortunately it's not a mile. I ran that field twice a week for four years with the rugby team and I can tell you from pleeeeeenty of exp that it's actually closer to .7 miles, and that's only if you stay as far to the outside as you can and hug the fence around the short ends.

.7 miles (if you didn't cheat and cut off any of the full lap) x 6 = 4.2 miles, so NYMountnMan you were pretty close.

Also, does anyone know of a track somewhere in N. Raleigh that stays open/lit on weeknights?

11/10/2010 11:06:48 AM

11/10/2010 11:09:32 AM

^^ Yeah you're right, I was trying to remember from Run Conditioning why we ran just the light pole loop twice. Maybe we were just running a mile at that point... And for some reason I thought that it worked out that a certain amount of laps = exactly a 5K. So I guess my first post was full of fail

[Edited on November 10, 2010 at 12:43 PM. Reason : .]

11/10/2010 12:42:03 PM