Up next to share her favorite run is Kelsey (@MsKelseyTara on Instagram). She shares with us her favorite place to run and her favorite places to eat post-run…
Favorite Run: Ballona Creek Bike Trail, Culver City, CA
Runner: Kelsey
Location: Ballona Creek Bike Trail, Culver City, CA
Address: The bike trail along the creek starts at Syd Kronenthal Park at 3459 McManus Avenue Culver City, CA, but there are also several other entrances along the trail.
Fun Fact: Ballona Creek and Lagoon are named for the Ballona or Paseo de las Carretas land grant, dated November 27, 1839. The Machado and Talamantes families, co-grantees of the rancho, heralded from Baiona in northern Spain
Distance: As long as you want! The path itself is 7 miles each way, but you can add on mileage on the beach bike path in either direction.
Difficulty: Overall the trail it pretty flat, but there are grades each time the trail dips below surface streets.
Why You Love It: I love running Ballona Creek because it allows me to tailor my run to whatever length I want. From the top of the trail to Marina Del Rey and the ocean is roughly 7 miles each way. At the Marina, I can continue on to the beach bike path and take it either north toward Santa Monica or south toward Manhattan Beach, adding on as much mileage as I need for that particular training run. And who doesn’t love running on the beach? And since the lower half of the trail winds through wetlands there is a lot of diverse bird life to view.
Parking: According to the Ballona Creek website (available here
http://ballonacreek.org/bike-path/), there is free parking near many of the entrances in residential areas.
Favorite Place To Eat Post-Run: I love to eat in Downtown Culver City, either at the Conservatory for Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa (
https://www.conservatorycoffeeandtea.com/) if I’m in a coffee and pastry mood or Cafe Vida (
http://www.cafevida.net/) if I feel like a full breakfast. Both are a little more than a half of a mile off of the Duquesne exit of the Ballona Creek Bike path. After food, have fun browsing downtown Culver City, the home of Sony Studios!
A big thanks to Kelsey for sharing her favorite run with us. We hope that this series turns into a list of super cool runs across the country and even internationally – that way if you are ever in the area you know of a recommended route from a fellow #teamsparkle member.
If you’d like to be featured on an upcoming Sparkle Athletic “Favorite Runs“ post, please email us at favoriteruns@sparkleathletic.com.