Forest Park

Forest Park in Springfield merits inclusion in our ‘iconic parks’ category, as both one of the country’s largest and most historically important urban parks. Dating back to 1884, the 734-acre park features the nation’s first public swimming pool, Victorian promenades, a formal rose garden, several ponds, gorgeous red clay tennis courts, and numerous sports & recreation fields.

For running, there’s a nice mix. This park map shows the network of sidewalks and trails in the park. The sidewalks make for easy running, and are generally around the fields and major park features, while the trails are more wooded and rugged in sections with some tricky footing.  A loop of the park, following N Greeting Rd., Pecousic Dr., & South Greeting Rd., is ~3 miles. There are numerous other roads and trails to add on. Note that outside the ‘Greeting’ roads, the park is hilly! There are also some killer stairs near the Gazebo if you’d like to get the heart rate up.

Pro Tip: Bright Nights is a famous holiday light display, consisting of 700,000 lights over a 3-mile drive. Unfortunately, one cannot generally run or walk it, however there is very popular 5k road race.

Add-On: The residential area just south of the park (Laurel Park area) is pleasant for running.