I Ran Where Tourists Are Forbidden in Puerto Rico

Running in Puerto Rico took me to places most tourists never see. Everyone comes to Puerto Rico for the beaches, the nightlife, and Old San Juan. I came to find the one place tourists refuse to go and run through it. As a division one distance runner at LSU, I figured Google Maps and a decent pair of shoes would be enough to get me through anything the island threw at me. I was wrong.

The second I stepped out of my hotel room in San Juan, reality hit. I asked the front desk if there was a track nearby, and she told me there was not one, but that I could run around the mountain. Using Google Maps, I located a track just under two miles away, heading in the direction that leaves the touristy area of San Juan. My cameraman and I figured it would be the most underrated place to start our adventure.

Running in Puerto Rico: Running Through the Streets of San Juan

We had a workout planned for the day, so we laced up and headed toward the track. Within the first mile, I realized that running in Puerto Rico is nothing like running on the LSU campus. The humidity was immediately suffocating, the sidewalks were uneven, and the traffic did not care that two guys were trying to jog alongside the road. But once we found the track, it was worth the effort. It was this quiet, tucked-away spot that felt completely removed from the tourist chaos just a couple miles back.

After the track workout, we decided to push further out of San Juan. The plan was to catch a ferry to the island of Vieques, a place that most visitors to Puerto Rico never even hear about. Vieques used to be a U.S. Navy bombing range, and parts of the island are still off-limits due to unexploded ordnance. That combination of history and danger made it exactly the kind of place I wanted to explore on foot.

Getting to Vieques and Discovering Its History

Getting to Vieques was an adventure in itself. We nearly missed the last ferry of the day, and if we had, the entire plan would have fallen apart. We made it just in time, and the ride over gave me a chance to map out where I wanted to run the next morning. The island has a complicated history. The U.S. Navy used it as a live-fire training ground for decades, and there are still active landmines scattered across certain parts of the terrain. Old military bunkers sit abandoned along the coastline, relics of a time when this island served a very different purpose.

When we arrived, the difference between Vieques and San Juan was immediately obvious. There were no cruise ships, no souvenir shops, and very few tourists. The locals we met were genuinely surprised to see someone show up with a camera and running shoes. This was not the Puerto Rico that gets promoted on travel websites.

Running Past Abandoned Bunkers and Active Landmines

The next morning, I set out on what turned into one of the most intense runs of my life. The trail we followed hugged the coastline and cut through areas that were clearly not maintained for visitors. Along the way, we passed old concrete bunkers that had been left to decay since the Navy pulled out. Some were covered in graffiti, others were completely overgrown, and all of them carried this eerie, heavy feeling of a place that had been through something.

The most unsettling part was knowing that active landmines still exist if you wander too far off the main path. We made a conscious decision to stick to the most traveled trail and not explore any of the side paths, no matter how interesting they looked. At one point, we came across what appeared to be an old entrance to a restricted area. My exact thought was that it was probably an active landmine waiting to happen, and we were going to get blown to smithereens. We pressed on with the safer route.

The Coastline Run and Finding My Rhythm

Once we made it past the bunkers and back to the coastline, the terrain flattened out and I finally felt comfortable pushing the pace. As a competitive runner, I always have expectations when I go for a run, and this was where I was going to get the quality work in. My cameraman was clocking me at around 6:30 pace, and the views along the coast were unlike anything I had ever run through before. Clear water, no one around, and this raw, untouched landscape that made every mile feel like a discovery.

But the quality portion did not last long. The path eventually caved in near the beach, the footing got worse, and the terrain started taking its toll. I caught my knee on something and ended up bleeding pretty badly. My cameraman kept telling me it was fine, but my entire knee was covered in blood. After that, I understood exactly why most tourists stay on the resort side of Puerto Rico.

What Running in Puerto Rico Taught Me

This trip reinforced something I have been learning throughout my career as a D1 athlete: the best experiences come from going where nobody else is willing to go. Vieques was uncomfortable, unpredictable, and at times genuinely dangerous. But it was also one of the most memorable runs I have ever done. The combination of history, scenery, and physical challenge made it the kind of adventure that does not happen when you stick to the tourist playbook.

Puerto Rico has so much more to offer beyond the resorts and the Instagram spots. If you are a runner looking for something different, I would encourage you to explore the parts of the island that do not show up on the first page of a travel blog. Just make sure you stay on the trail, bring plenty of water, and maybe skip the areas with active landmines.

If you want to see the full experience unfold, watch the video above. It captures everything from the ferry ride to Vieques, the abandoned bunkers, the coastline run, and yes, the bloody knee.

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What is the wildest place you have ever gone for a run? Drop a comment below or let me know on my socials.