Groundhog Day Brings Good News for Runners: It's Time to Go Outside

You might not be able to tell by looking outside right now, but if the old tradition is to be believed, Cranberry Township’s running community may be soon be able to get out of the and back on to the open road.

And it's all thanks to a groundhog from Punxsutawney.

Because of inclement weather and some overcast skies, the world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, failed to see his shadow at Gobbler’s Knob on Tuesday. This means we may be in for an early spring, or at least a mild last six weeks of winter.

That’s good news if you’ve slowly been going crazy doing lap after lap on the indoor track at the.

Inclement weather can be a to keeping your workout schedule. While the weather has not broken just yet, I have faith in that groundhog, and so I’d like to take this opportunity to share some of my favorite outdoor running spots that I’ll be returning to once Phil is proven right.

: This is an easy one for me. Living near Powell Road, I can easily jog up to these wide-open fields in less than 10 minutes. Even if you’re not as close as I am, it’s worth driving there to experience some of the most scenic and peaceful running Cranberry has to offer.

While there are housing plans on either side of the golf course itself, there still is enough open road to make you feel like you’ve left the suburbs for the country, at least for a little while.

I’m not sure ownership approves of non-golfers hanging around on the premises, but I will admit that the golf course’s clubhouse serves as a nice respite if you need a quick drink or a restroom break in between workouts.

: Cranberry’s third major park is clearly it’s most magnificent. Sitting on 115 acres off of Rochester Road, the park offers sprawling farmland that’s been converted to open fields for every outdoor sport imaginable. And when there’s not any youth activities going on, that’s 115 acres of prime running real estate.

The park also features 2.5 miles of walking and bicycle trails if you can’t get onto the fields. It also offers a restroom at the baseball area that is open and heated.

I wrote in an earlier column about how I started my with the track team. When I’m looking for a change of scenery from my usual running routes, I’ll hop in the car and take a trip down memory lane to my old stomping grounds.

The school’s track usually is open for runners, although you'll want to be mindful of any school activities that are going on. On a few occasions, I've been in the middle of a hard-speed workout only to have it interrupted by the 5^th period gym class.

When that happens, I leave the blue oval and head out to the open soccer fields and cross-country course. When I was in high school, Seneca Valley was known for having one of the more difficult cross-country courses in certain spots, and all of those ridiculous hills are still there for the taking today.

Oh, and one word of caution if you are going during school hours: you can’t just park anywhere.

Students at Seneca Valley apply for parking permits for the right to take their cars on campus, and any car without a permit is going to get a ticket from the campus police.

I’ve even tried putting up a nice, friendly sign asking them to not ticket me because I’m no longer a student. They were not sympathetic. There’s several spots across the street where you can safely park your car and then run down to the campus. Hey, you needed a warmup jog anyway, right? 

 Cranberry’s original park remains open during the winter months for running and the restrooms at the tennis courts are available for those in need.

While the park probably has the least open room of Cranberry’s three major parks for running, I see it as a personal destination to get to before turning around to go home. If you live anywhere near the Cranberry Highlands Golf Course, it’s about a three and a half mile run up to the entrance to Community Park. Do an out-and-back, and you’ve got a nice seven-mile run with a pleasant place to make a water or restroom stop at the halfway point.

 This park mostly is known for its community water park, but local runners know it’s got a gravel running trail that’s a little more than a mile long.

I’ve found this trail to be a very nice change of pace when I want something different than just more asphalt or grass. The course has several ups and downs across the circular loop. I like to run a few laps in one direction and then reverse course to get some different scenery.

So there you have it. Those are my five most frequented running spots throughout Cranberry and the surrounding area. I’m a creature of habit, and I can honestly say almost every run I’ve done in the last three years has been at one of these same five locations.

But what about you? Where do you like to run? Is there an awesome spot that I don’t know about? Hit the email the author link at the top of this page, and enlighten me. If I get enough interest, I’d be happy to start featuring other favorite running routes from local runners in future columns.