Comments (0) Best Running Stadium - 2010
Icahn Stadium
New York has lots of great places to go running, but, like everything else in our town, they often bear the marks of our city: cracks, uneven ground, broken glass, the occasional needle. Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island, built on the site of the former Downing Stadium (where Jesse Owens qualified for the Berlin Olympics), is a first-rate facility designed specifically for running. The five-year-old, 5,000-seat stadium is lit with lights taken from Ebbets Field, and hosts events ranging from amateur competitions to high school meets to Olympic trials. It's known internationally as a very fast track, and Usain Bolt set his (then) 100-meter world record there in 2008. More than 14,000 public-school children use the facility annually, and the brand-new seats for spectators and facilities for athletes give running a dignity it rarely has, making it a favorite for spectators and participants alike. And if you run there and get tired of being on a track, you can leave the stadium to check out the rest of Randalls Island, where you might catch Cirque du Soleil or see something even more interesting going on at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, a maximum-security mental hospital.
