Eisenhower Park

Eisenhower Park is located Westbury, in the heart of Nassau County. It is bordered on the North side by Old County Rd and Salisbury Park Drive; on the South by the Hemstead Turnpike; the West by Merrick Ave; and the East by Carman Avenue. There are various parking lots throughout the park.

The park is actually divided by a road (Park Blvd) which divides park into two sections. A golf course makes up the Northeast section; and the Southwest corner is what all but the golfers think of as the actual park.

Having snuck onto many a golf course in the past, it amazes me that I never have run on the Eisenhower Park golf course. Maybe because the rest of the park offers so much open space already, I have never felt for a surreptitious run over the fairways. Maybe the fact that I would be passing the Nassau County Jail at one point dissuaded me violating the golf course rules. For whatever reason, the golf course is still unknown running territory for me.

Eisenhower Park is the site of most if not all of the Long Island Road Runners Club races which are held on almost every Sunday morning from the field house near parking field # 2 at 8:30 am.

From this field house, if you look on the asphalt path, you will notice a few arrows of various colors pointing off in one direction. Each colored arrow lays out a course through the park of various set distances. I would love to tell you the distances for each colored arrow, but unfortunately I have no idea what they mean. I have, in fact, tried to follow a given colored arrow through the park at various times, but at some point I have inevitably lost my way. I have a feeling that where the arrows lead to, and how far they go is a secret known only to Fred Hasslet.

If you follow the path that roughly follows the perimeter of the park, you will cover about 3 miles. The park is big enough that you can go off on various paths for longer runs without too much overlap. The whole park is quite flat which is great for speed work or tempo runs.

After the above review was posted by me for at least two years, the one and only Fred Haslett responded as follows:

I just read your review of running in Eisenhower. It really isn't a big secret what the different colored arrows are. Starting near the Field House, there are 2 differently colored arrows. The white arrow course follows a 1 mile loop, and the red follows a 3 mile loop. These 2 courses stay within the confines of the park. The other colors, yellow (3.1 miles), blue (4 mile) and green (5 mile), were blacked out by the county (although you can see some of them where the black paint is wearing off), because part of each course goes outside the park, along Hempstead Tpke on all 3 and Merrick Ave on the blue and green. This action was taken due to insurance concerns. The LIRRC has other courses that we use for our races, and they are a secret. (Unless I'm asked).

Fred Haslett

President/LIRRC