By Frank da Cruz - Morningside Drive is the avenue east of Amsterdam. It goes from 110th Street to 122nd Street, a bit more than half a mile, so a round trip is just over a mile. Run on the sidewalk along the park, a panoramic view of Harlem, Northern Queens, and Laguardia airport. It is flat in the middle (113th to 120th) with hills at each end. The surface might have rough spots but it is a good place for beginners to start. Do the flat part first, then work your way up to the full round trip, hills and all. For some extra distance and hills, do the loop around St John the Divine. Or you can run the entire perimeter of Morningside Park (Morningside Drive, 110th Street, Manhattan Avenue, Morningside Avenue, 123rd Street, Amsterdam Avenue, Morningside Drive: about 1.6 miles).

Runners who live in the Columbia University area of Manhattan, New York City (Morningside Heights and West Harlem) are fortunate to have Riverside Park, Central Park, and Morningside Park nearby. The parks and the Hudson riverfront are in better condition now than at any time in the last one hundred years, especially since 2000 with the inauguration of the Greenway. The site Upper Manhattan Running describes some obvious and not-so-obvious runs that start in the Columbia area, but it is also useful for anybody who lives on the west side anywhere between midtown and Washington Heights or Inwood.

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