Running and Training Routes in the South Bay

The South Bay trains outdoors year-round, and the routes are specific enough that locals name them the way other people name gyms: the Strand, the wood chips, the dune, the stairs, the Hill. Each has an owner, and the owner sets the rules, which is where newcomers get caught: the sand-level bike path in Manhattan Beach is a ticket for a runner, the dune takes a reservation, and the school tracks are not open to walk-ons. This page is the routes as the cities and County describe them, verified September 17, 2026.

Where do you run on the Strand?

The Marvin Braude Bike Trail is a 22-mile County bike path from Will Rogers State Beach to Torrance Beach, and in the Beach Cities the running surface beside it depends on the city. In Manhattan Beach the Strand is the elevated concrete walkway above the sand and it is pedestrian only; the bike path below it is bikes only, and the City has cited pedestrians on the path since 2013. In Hermosa Beach there is one Strand and everyone shares it: bikes, boards and scooters may ride it at no more than eight miles per hour, pedestrians have the right of way, and the block between 11th and 14th Streets becomes a walk zone when the lights flash. In Redondo Beach the route leaves the sand for Harbor Drive and the pier, then returns to the beach path below the Esplanade south to Torrance Beach. The County’s mile-marker map on its bike path page is the only official distance chart; the pier-to-pier figures people quote are not published by any agency, so we do not print them.

How does Sand Dune Park work now?

The dune at 33rd Street and Bell Avenue in Manhattan Beach is the most regulated workout in the South Bay. The City’s Sand Dune Park rules are worth reading in full, but the short version: anyone 13 and over needs an online reservation (no phone, no walk-up), one hour per person per day, $2 for Manhattan Beach residents and $4 for everyone else, non-refundable. Reservations open at 6:00 AM up to seven days ahead and close one minute before the slot; there are no reservations on Sundays. Arrive within ten minutes with photo ID or the slot is released to adults 55 and over, membership holders, public safety and military. Children 12 and under go without a reservation, no more than 20 on the dune at a time, with an adult for anyone five and under. Personal training of any kind is prohibited, as are fitness equipment and amplified music. Summer hours are 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM; from November 7 through January 31 the slots run 8:00, 9:30, 11:00, 12:30 and 3:00. It is 100 feet of sand with steps and switchbacks, developed in 1964, and it is why the rules exist.

Where are the stairs, the hills and the wood chips?

Veterans Parkway is the City of Manhattan Beach’s own description of a running route: a 1.5-mile jogging trail and par course on wood chips, running the old Santa Fe rail line along Valley Drive and Ardmore Avenue from Sepulveda Boulevard to the Hermosa Beach line, developed in 1986, with benches every quarter mile, no asphalt or concrete, the only Manhattan Beach park that allows leashed dogs, and since 2023 no bikes or e-bikes. It continues south as the Hermosa Beach Greenbelt between Ardmore and Valley Drive, open 5:00 AM to 10:30 PM, where the City replaced the wood chips between Pier Avenue and 8th Street with accessible decomposed granite and added fitness equipment at both ends in a project that opened in August 2025. E-bikes are banned from the Greenbelt.

The stairs are where official documentation runs out. Neither Manhattan Beach nor Hermosa Beach describes its walk-street stairs as a facility, so their step counts and names are folklore rather than fact. In Redondo Beach the County names the Avenue C stairs and ramp and the Knob Hill stairs as the beach access to use while the Avenue A ramp is rebuilt, a City project approved by the Planning Commission on March 19, 2026 with construction expected in 2027 and 2028. At the south end, Torrance Beach has a ramp and stairs from the lot on Paseo de la Playa down to the sand at the foot of the Palos Verdes cliffs.

Where is the outdoor fitness equipment?

Manhattan Beach opened a Fitness Court at Polliwog Park on November 14, 2024: seven body-weight stations for ages 14 and up, built on recycled rubber and steel, with a free app for guided sessions, and it is the only park the City lists with fitness equipment. Torrance lists a 0.91-mile fitness course at Wilson Park and a fitness course at Sur La Brea Park, both open 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Hermosa Beach has the Greenbelt stations above. Redondo Beach lists none at any park.

What does running on the Hill involve?

Palos Verdes Estates keeps pedestrian paths in the medians of Palos Verdes Drive North, from Via Valmonte to Malaga Cove Plaza, and Palos Verdes Drive West from the 1300 block to the south city limit, plus bluff-top trails along Paseo del Mar from its 1300 block south; the beach access at the 300 block is a paved emergency road the City calls extremely steep and walking only. The loop out Palos Verdes Drive South is a different case. Rancho Palos Verdes has prohibited bicycles and other two-wheeled vehicles on two miles of that road through the Portuguese Bend landslide since June 2024, and its Land Movement Updates page, as of September 9, 2026, says regrading of the section near Altamira Canyon may require temporary closures. No pedestrian prohibition is stated, but that page is the one to read before a long run through Portuguese Bend.

The trail running is in the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, roughly 1,400 acres in reserves managed by Rancho Palos Verdes with the Land Conservancy, which counts more than 30 miles of trail. Reserves open one hour before sunrise and close one hour after sunset, and the whole Preserve closes for at least 48 hours after rain. The Del Cerro trailhead is the catch: the 39 spaces on Crenshaw Boulevard south of Crest Road take a ParkMobile reservation, $10 plus a fee for a block of two hours and 45 minutes, free with a reservation from 7:00 to 8:45 AM on weekdays, with a $110 citation for the wrong plate; parking north of Crest is free and unlimited. The City publishes no running-specific rules for the Preserve beyond obeying posted signs.

Can you use a school track?

Not on a walk-in basis. Every district in the South Bay routes community use through a permit: Manhattan Beach Unified through the MBX Foundation for Waller Stadium at Mira Costa (school days generally after 6:00 PM), Redondo Beach Unified and Torrance Unified through Facilitron, and Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified through CivicPermits. El Camino College’s Murdock Stadium has a community walking track for residents alongside its nine-lane competition track, with no public hours posted. The one city-owned track, the lighted 440-yard oval at Aviation Park in Redondo Beach, is rented by application. The way most people get track time is through a club: two of them hold weekly workouts at Mira Costa under permit.

Who runs together, and what do they train for?

The South Bay Runners Club, an RRCA and USATF club, runs speed work Tuesdays at 7:00 PM on the Mira Costa track, an easy run Wednesdays at 5:45 PM from Redondo Beach, a 5:00 AM Thursday run from 190th and Anza in Torrance, Thursday evening runs at 5:30 and 6:30 from downtown Manhattan Beach, and a Sunday 7:30 AM recovery run from Valley Park in Hermosa Beach, for $50 a year. Club Ed Running does Monday tempo runs from the Manhattan and Hermosa piers, Wednesday track night at Mira Costa at 6:00 PM, Saturday 7:30 AM trail runs on the Hill from the Malaga Cove fountain, and Sunday 7:30 AM wood chip runs from Valley Drive and Gould in Hermosa. Village Runner lists store runs Tuesday and Sunday from Riviera Village and Thursday from Manhattan Beach, and names the others, PV Runners at Malaga Cove, Runner’s Hiii at the Manhattan Beach Civic Center, the Friday 5:30 AM Coffee Club at the pier; its page is undated, so confirm at the store.

The calendar they train for: the Manhattan Beach 10K on Saturday, October 3, 2026, its 49th year, from Valley Drive to the lower lot at the pier; the Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10K and 5K on February 14, 2027 from Seaside Lagoon; the Village Runner Fourth of July 5K in Riviera Village, 33 years old in 2026. Conquer the Bridge, the Labor Day run over the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, was cancelled in 2025 and 2026 for Caltrans bridge work and is running as a virtual 5.3-mile event through November 7, 2026 with medal pickup aboard the Battleship Iowa. Full details for each are on our 5Ks and 10Ks page.

What we could not verify

Pier-to-pier distances on the Strand: the County’s map carries mile markers but is an image, so we print none. Sand Dune Park’s spring and summer slot table and the current membership price did not render on the City’s page. The walk-street stairs in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, the length of the Esplanade and the total length of the Greenbelt appear on no official page. The Palos Verdes Half Marathon operator’s site was unreachable and the only listed 2026 date is a placeholder that falls on a Wednesday, so it is not printed. Hermosa Run Club and PV Runners exist on social channels we could not read; their schedules come secondhand. The Rancho Palos Verdes Council’s September 15, 2026 vote on the Palos Verdes Drive South restrictions had not been posted when we checked.

What does this mean for a home search?

Runners buy proximity. A Tree Section or Hill Section address in Manhattan Beach puts Veterans Parkway at the end of the street; East Hermosa and the Valley have the Greenbelt; the Esplanade is the South Redondo draw; and on the Hill the Del Cerro and Malaga Cove trailheads decide which neighborhoods start a run from the front door. The button below runs a live search across the sixteen Beach Cities MLS areas, and every community page on this site carries its own.

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