Running in Alexandria

My son will need to continue his Cross Country training while on vacation. He needs to run 10-18 miles per day. We will be staying at the Lorien Hotel and Spa, 1600 King Street. Can anyone recommend a good running route or a good place to go to run? He can do multiple loops of a shorter route too. Also, is there a good place for him to run near Mount Vernon? Thanks for any assistance.

Running in Alexandria

People have jogged and biked this trail for years:

bikewashington.org/trails/vernon/vernon.htm

Sometimes you get people who don%26#39;t follow proper etiquette- hogging the road/out of lane/etc- but you get that anywhere so just keep a look out, moreso at twists and turns. It%26#39;s a beautiful route.

Running in Alexandria

That%26#39;s great information! Thanks!

He%26#39;ll see photographers some morning set up to catch the amazing sunrises over the Potomac.

when I trained for marathons, my wife and I would have an ';easy'; day just running from old town to the DC mall. It really is a great way to not only train, but sightsee. Lunch time was the most crowded time on the running/biking trail as all the office workers come out to train and we found early mornings to be the best

enjoy

Is it a safe run from Alexandria to the DC Mall? My son was mapping out the run and he thought it might involve highway running. He runs for his school%26#39;s NCAA cross country and track teams so we always have to fit running time into our vacations. He will love all of this great information! Thanks everyone!

(I wish with the new changes on the site they added a change so that you can actually see the other posts when you reply.)

I am a bit of safety nut, so I would not recommend that you son run after dark. Otherwise, the running/biking trail only crosses the highway in a few instances and it is much much safer and better set up now then when i ran marathons. The memorial bridge from Arlington cemetery has nice broad sidewalks. Still, as a parent, I can understand your concerns. My recommendation is to post a new message in the DC forum asking about running From the Mall to Old Town. The DC forum get much more traffic than this one and you will get the most current and helpful advice faster from a larger pool. However posters like Explorer 3 or Bbbyers are great sources of info,right on this forum

It seems your son might be younger than I thought. Just realize this is part urban rushrush and part suburban natural beauty. The Parkway is a main artery into DC for all the countless people who live in the many subdivisions along there. It is also an alternative for those in South Alexandria since Rt. 1 has lights and the Parkway has very very view.I have had friends wind up down a hillside along the Parkway because of oncoming human traffic out of its lane. During rush hour...should be hours...I have had a friend trying to cross from her residential area to the path to bike to DC to her job, which she did every day in nice weather, and a car hit her. It can be crazy. It is a little hard to understand all the traffic whizzing by on the Parkway, especially from about midway up into DC, while at the same time there is lovely parkland with families throwing balls and having picnics and looking for smooth stones and such beside the river on the other side of the path. When we lived there we often had picnic lunches in the green spaces.

PS. To clarify....as charm says, just stay in the corrent lane, keep an eye out for anyone out of lane and it%26#39;ll be a great experience.