Leeds Uni Campus Track – We Need You!

What is the Leeds Uni Campus Track?

Leeds University is currently undergoing “Campus Reimagined” – a long term project to improve the university campus.

As part of this huge project, students and staff were asked to submit suggestions for “quick wins” – i.e. what could we do to campus realistically within a year. There were 184 suggested ideas, a shortlist of 12 were then put out to the vote, with the top 6 are going ahead.

One of the ideas that was highly voted for is a running track around campus – a route that will be available for all – whether you’re staff or student at the University of Leeds, or a member of the public just wanting a guided trail!

Why are Hyde Park Harriers involved?

As our club has an excellent relationship with the University, with the Edge generously allowing us to use their facilities. Many of our members are also staff or students at the university – it just seemed to make sense for us to get involved!

We, as a club, are really excited to bring our links with England Athletics to support the development and delivery of the track, as well as the voice of our runners & members.

We want your input!

We all use campus in different ways, and want different things from a running route. Therefore – we want your route suggestions!

We are looking for a route around campus that:

✅ Is accessible (i.e. no steps, and ensures dropped curb access to pavements)

❌ Has no sharp or blind turns (we don’t want to run into people!)

✅ Is in well-lit areas (think about night time too!)

❌ Doesn’t cross any major roads (ideally no road crossings at all!)

✅ Goes past The Edge (so people can drop off their stuff and go for a run!)

Things you might want to think about:

❓Straight section for sprints/reps

❓Fun/playful sections – not just boring normal paths!

❓Including fun parts of the campus (e.g. nature, art installations)

❓Adding shorter loops (e.g. options to do 1k, 2k, 3k etc…)

❓Perhaps this would be a good place to do Thurs interval sessions, or a Couch to 5K session, or one of Phil’s excellent Tuesday walks – what would you like in a route that would be useful for these….?

What distance should it be? At this point – we don’t know! It all depends on where the routes may take us! Plan whatever distance you like. There’s some really cool examples of active tracks here to give you an idea of what we’re aiming for (make sure to look at the “active track” section of the document!).

How to submit your suggested route

To submit a suggestion:
🏃🏾‍♀️ Run or walk a route that stays on Leeds Campus (https://www.leeds.ac.uk/campusmap), tracking it via your preferred GPS-tracking platform
✉️ Share it with us at hello@hydeparkharriers.co.uk with “Campus Track” in the message subject. Feel free to include any additional details or ideas you have in the email!

Please note – this project is in the early planning stages! Hopefully one of the Harrier-suggested routes will be used (or part used!) for the final plans, and credit will be given to the club for it’s participation and support in the development of the track either way.

We look forward to seeing your suggestions!