Let’s say you’re a runner who wants to get quicker. One of the best ways to do that is by intervals on a running track. By running at a faster speed over a precise, measurable shorter distance (say 200 or 400 meters), taking a jog break, and then running another swift interval, you’ll slowly get your body used to running at an accelerated pace.
But a San Diego runner looking for a place to practice on a track is going to have a very hard time finding many options. Most college and high school tracks are closed to the public. And, unlike in other cities, there are no public tracks.
It wasn’t always this way, though.
Ashley Harbecke, who used to help plan workouts for the San Diego Track Club, says the running group met for years on Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. at Balboa Stadium to utilize the track. But San Diego High School also uses that track, and when state legislation in 2019 changed high school start and end times to later in the day, after-school sports were also pushed back. The track club could no longer gather at 6 p.m.
“After that, the whole school district decided we have to rent out facilities. We used to be able to say, ‘Can we use this track?’” Harbecke recalls. “Then, they got very strict, where every single person has to rent out a facility. Every single school started doing that. Everything is now very by the books, whereas we used to be able to informally arrange using a track.”
For a while, the Track Club was nearly out of choices. North County members used the track at California State University, San Marcos, but city dwellers who didn’t want to make the drive had nowhere to go.
The club started exercising on a quarter-mile stretch in Liberty Station. After Covid waned, the group began paying to use the track at University City High School, but the price was steep (tracks rent for about $200 an hour using the website Facilitron). Recently, the club has utilized the track at San Diego State University. Joiner types determined to get access to a track can become a member of San Diego Track Club and run with them on Tuesday nights.
But if you want to run on your own, options are limited. Schools like San Diego State, Point Loma Nazarene University, and San Diego Mesa College don’t allow the public to run on their tracks. However, Grossmont College’s track is open to the public, and UC San Diego’s track welcomes anyone in the community who has an active Recreation Membership. Costing $55 a month for people not affiliated with the university, the membership includes access to all of the school’s indoor and outdoor facilities.
“The track is open seven days a week during daylight hours and when not in use by campus teams,” says Recreation Experience Coordinator Isaac Brandl.
But figuring out when it’s not occupied by a school team, and therefore available to a recreational runner, is tricky.
“We don’t post the hours as our NCAA and Club Sports teams have priority use and don’t have to reserve it,” Brandl says. “They’re out there at all kinds of hours, which makes it difficult to keep up with posting an accurate schedule. Only the track is open; all the field apparatus are locked up and unavailable for use.”
Of course, an individual runner could use the Facilitron website and pay hefty fees to run on a school track, says city spokesperson Tim Graham.
“San Diego Unified School District tells me [that], in theory, an individual could rent out a space but would need to provide a proof of insurance requirement, so it sounds like it’s not really something that is encouraged or happens regularly,” he explains.
Samer Naji, the facilities communication supervisor for San Diego Unified School District, says the school district has a joint-use program with the city of San Diego that converts school playfields into neighborhood parks whenever schools are not in session. That means they’re open to the public before and after school and on weekends for free.
According to Naji, there are 91 joint-use facilities totaling 340 acres, and 10 additional new facilities are under construction and 16 more are planned. He adds that you can permit a joint-use field during public use hours through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The problem is that hardly any of the schools that are part of the joint-use program have official 400-meter tracks. The city’s website lists just one: Mission Bay High School. Its track is open to the public before 8:15 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with longer hours on the weekends.
If Mission Bay High School doesn’t work for you, there are a few other possibilities: You can run on a dirt track that’s not exactly 400 meters at many of the middle schools with joint-use agreements, including Marston, Pacific High, or Farb, or work out on the even smaller dirt tracks at your local elementary school.
You can also go to Fiesta Island in Mission Bay—or anywhere along the Mission Bay path—and use a GPS watch to measure out 400 meters and run repeats. Other decent locations are Liberty Station, the Ocean Beach Bike Path, or your local park. Still, Harbecke says she wishes there were more options.
“A lot of people would like to have tracks,” she adds. “Other cities definitely allow it.”
