Nanaimo is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and is often referred to as the island’s ‘center’. It’s separated from Vancouver by the Strait of Georgia, and reachable by ferry via a private ferry from downtown Vancouver, and by BC Ferries from Horseshoe Bay and Tsawwassen. For a city of only 100,000 there’s a nice variety of running in Nanaimo, from coastal paths, 880 hectares of parks, and many wooded trail running options. For more, see our running guides for Victoria and other areas of Vancouver Island.
For coastal running, we’ve created two routes — the Harbourfront Walkway and a northern route anchored by Pipers Lagoon Park and Neck Point Park. A fun 7k loop combines three of Nanaimo’s central parks. One of the most popular places to run in Nanaimo is the 5.5k loop around Westwood Lake. For a longer distance multi-use path, there’s the 19 km Parkway Trail. Also worth it is the 22 km of trails at Newcastle Island Marine Park on Saysutshun island, reached via a 10-minute ferry from Nanaimo.
We should also mention that there are significant trail running options in mainly wooded, hilly terrain near Nanaimo, such as Mt. Benson Provincial Park. There are also many quieter, interior gravel roads and forest roads just inland.
