I've known about Starkey Park in New Port Richey for some time, and I've even ridden my bike through there, but until today I had never explored running on the off road trails.
Today, Sean Kendrick led a group of us on an awesome trail run. I am so appreciative because I guarantee that, despite having a map in hand, I would have gotten lost for sure. Sean knows the park well, though, so he kept us on the trail and out of trouble.
Turns out most people who visit that park have no idea of the off road running opportunities. The park includes 27 miles of marked hiking trails, but the eight of us ran from 10 to 14 miles this morning. It will take many visits to explore that many trails.
Two rivers meander through the huge park, and there were quite a few areas of standing water, so don't run there at this time of year if you want to keep your shoes dry.
As for our group, no one was the least bit concerned about a little water; we slogged right on through. No worries. Actually, it did a good job of cooling us down. At one place the water was a foot deep, but there were dry miles, too. The trail surface was dirt and grass. With the recent rains, the dirt was packed and made for comfortable, relatively easy running; however, Sean said it does turn to soft sand in dry weather. That would provide quite a workout, I guess. And there were many areas where the grass on the trail was quite high, providing a very vigorous workout.
The miles of paved trails of the park are hugely popular with cyclists, and some park there and head out on the Suncoast Parkway for a long ride.
From my home in the Citrus Park area, we took the Veteran's to Hwy. 54; we took 54 to Starkey to the park. It took us 25 minutes to get there, and I have a feeling we will return again and again because it's a wonderful location for many miles of trail running.
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