Central Maine Running Routes

Whether it's on road, trail, or track, Central Maine has a great variety of places to run. Below are some of our members' top picks for where to run. Share your own recommendations for local running locations in our Facebook Group or by Contacting Us.

One of the best ways to find local running routes is to join our Strava group and see where some of our other members run.

​You can also view Strava's Global Heatmap project, which shows visually where users are running and/or riding locally or around the world.

The Quarry Road Recreation Area in Waterville offers year-round running. Trails meander along Messalonskee Stream, through the woods, up and down rolling hills, and around an open meadow. All 10 kilometers of trails are available for running spring to fall, with a specially groomed trail for walking and running in the winter separate from the groomed ski trails. Visit quarryroad.org for more info.

Mapmyrun.com and Mapmyfitness.com are great resources for creating your own running routes or finding running routes created by other local runners (click here for Waterville routes or Augusta routes).  The Central Maine Striders have created a few routes ranging from 1.2-miles to 13.1 miles to get you started.

Kennebec Messalonskee Trails promotes and helps maintains a network of trails spread across the Waterville, Winslow, Benton, Fairfield, and Oakland areas.  Some of our favorite trails of theirs are Benton-Winslow Centennial Rotary Trail, the North Street Recreational Area Trail, Quarry Road Trails, Thomas College Trail, and the Messalonskee Stream Trail.  Visit http://www.kmtrails.info/trails/  for maps and more info.

The 6.5-mile Kennebec River Rail Trail is open for running, walking, cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading, and dog walking. The flat trail parallels the existing rail bed along the Kennebec River, and stretches from Augusta’s Waterfront Park, through Hallowell and Farmingdale, to its conclusion in Gardiner, with several access points. Trailheads are located at the Maine State Housing Authority parking lot (off Water Street, Augusta) and the Hannaford grocery store parking lot (Gardiner). Visit krrt.org for more info

Colby College has an older, but still useful, pamphlet (PDF) of running routes from 3 to 7 miles that start and end on the campus.

The Colby track is also open to the public when it's not in use for Colby athletic events.

The Bond Brook Recreation Area is a 270-acre urban wilderness area within Augusta. Roughly six miles of challenging single track trails for running, mountain biking, walking, and snowshoeing have been developed to date. Visit http://augustatrails.org/bond-brook-maps/ for a map and more details

Thomas College has a network of trails and paved paths that are great for walking or running.  Click here for a map.

The UMA Outdoor Fitness Trails are a 2.2-mile network of easy wooded paths that include fitness spots, like monkey and pull-up bars, along the way. The trailhead is located directly behind the tennis courts, to the left of the Augusta Civic Center.  There is ample parking there.

Maine Trail Finder is a free, interactive mapping site designed to help Maine residents and visitors find hiking, walking, snowshoeing, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, and paddling trails across the state. Detailed trail description pages allow users to view the trails, get essential information, submit trip comments and photos, find nearby geocaches, and a whole lot more.  Go to mainetrailfinder.com to get started.

Winslow High School has a small network of trails that goes around their athletic facilities.  Their track is also open to the public when school is not in session and it's not being used by any of the school's athletic teams.​

Always run on the left side of the road, facing oncoming traffic -- it's the law.  Be safe.  Share the road.  Be alert of any vehicles, ATV's, cyclists, etc coming from either direction.  Be kind to other runners, walkers, and joggers.  Wear highly visible and reflective clothing whenever possible.  After dark, consider wearing a reflective vest and a headlamp.  The Central Maine Striders running club assumes no responsibility for your safety.

While we aim to offer the most helpful, accurate Central Maine running info, Central Maine Striders is not responsible for the accuracy of this information.