Discover Adelaide’s top running trails

Ready to give it a try? Trail Run­ning SA offers free social trail runs that are fun, inclu­sive, and informal:

• Tues­day nights in Belair Nation­al Park (begin­ner – inter­me­di­ate) with an ​‘away’ run (some­where near­by) on the first Tues­day of each month
• Tues­day nights in Cle­land Nation­al Park (inter­me­di­ate – advanced)
• Thurs­day morn­ings in Belair Nation­al Park (inter­me­di­ate)
  
• Sec­ond Sun­days at vary­ing loca­tions on the sec­ond Sun­day of each month.

We recent­ly spoke to Claire, who helped found Trail Run­ning SA, a com­plete­ly vol­un­teer-run, not-for-prof­it trail run­ning club that organ­is­es reg­u­lar social runs and a series of events each year. 

Check out some top tips from Claire below:

What advice would you give for some­one look­ing to start running?

Find a group to run with. Espe­cial­ly with these dark­er, cold­er morn­ings and evenings it helps to have a group to run with to help get you out of bed or out the door after work. It also means you have peo­ple to look out for you and lead the way.

Park runs are also a great way to try out run­ning and the 5km cours­es are acces­si­ble for run­ners and walk­ers or run-walk­ers alike. They are free and hap­pen on Sat­ur­day morn­ings start­ing at 8am at loca­tions across Ade­laide and through­out SA. Final­ly, so many peo­ple are not sure about trail run­ning because of the hills but trail run­ners love to walk, espe­cial­ly on the hills. If you’re wor­ried about get­ting lost, there are excel­lent, easy to use map­ping apps now to help with nav­i­ga­tion via your phone or run­ning watch. These apps show you where you are (like Google Maps) and if you’ve plot­ted out a route, you can upload it to the app and fol­low along. If you’re still wor­ried about nav­i­ga­tion, join a group run and remem­ber trail run­ners don’t get lost, they go explor­ing (and they don’t leave any­one behind). 

What is your favourite run­ning trail?

My favourite trail is through Waite Con­ver­sa­tion Reserve along the Wild Dogs Loop, Sheoak Loop and onto the Yur­re­bil­la Trail, but I also love Water­fall Loop in Belair Nation­al Park and any of the trails in the small­er parks in the hills includ­ing Mark Oliphant Con­ser­va­tion Park and Mount George Con­ver­sa­tion Park. If I’m after hills, Black Hill Con­ser­va­tion Park is my go-to, and fur­ther afield, Deep Creek Nation­al Park offers some amaz­ing run­ning along the Hey­sen Trail.

Is there any essen­tial gear required for trail running?

It’s worth get­ting advice on a good pair of shoes (which will inevitably end up being mul­ti­ple pairs of shoes). Trail run­ning shoes real­ly are worth it if you want to run on trails as they have more grip and are designed to offer the foot sup­port you need. It’s also worth invest­ing in a run­ning pack or vest to car­ry your water and food, along with a snake ban­dage in sum­mer and an emer­gency blan­ket year-round. Always go for a big­ger capac­i­ty as you don’t have to fill the pack and it gives you more options if you even­tu­al­ly start run­ning events with manda­to­ry gear require­ments. A head­torch is also a good invest­ment for run­ning ear­ly in the morn­ing or at night – we run all year round!

Can any­one join a social run? What lev­el of fit­ness is needed?

Absolute­ly. Social runs are a great way to try out trail run­ning and the trail run­ning com­mu­ni­ty is super friend­ly and wel­com­ing. Intro­duce your­self to the leader who will start the run by ask­ing if any­one plans to walk and what sort of pace peo­ple would like to go if they’re run­ning. We find small groups tend to self-organ­ise around pace and the empha­sis is on the social ele­ment, meet­ing like-mind­ed peo­ple and enjoy­ing being out­doors. Trail run­ners also love any excuse to eat so when we have time like on the week­ends, we head out for break­fast and cof­fee after the run and the final Tues­day of the month is pub night for our TRSA Tues­day run­ning groups. 

Keen to get started? 

You can find out all the details about the social runs on the Trail Run­ning SA web­site and on the Trail Run­ning SA Face­book page.

Learn more about the top nation­al parks in Ade­laide for trail running.

Head­er image of Hal­lett Cove Con­ser­va­tion Park.