Hi everyone,
Moving to Huntsville,al, in a couple weeks, anyone know good areas to run there? Looks like nice weather.
Hi everyone,
Moving to Huntsville,al, in a couple weeks, anyone know good areas to run there? Looks like nice weather.
Dear Lord, do you still have time to reconsider your decision or is it already too late? Stay as far away from Huntsville as you can! I am putting myself at risk by even posting here, and I dare not go into specifics, but bad things happen here. I think they are on to me, must log off.
The trails in and around Monte Sano State Park are some of the best you will ever run. Huntsville has a very nice and friendly running community...everything from hard core training groups to recreational. Some really great races too...Cotton Row, the marathon, Mountain Mist...even the smaller races and low-key club runs are extremely well directed.
Not a lot of single females in Huntsville. That is the big drawback...well, for a heterosexual single male anyway. Also almost every person you meet will be an engineer or computer programmer. So it lacks the diversity of other cities in that respect.
But seriously. Huntsville is a great place to be a runner. You will love that part of it. I lived there for about four years.
I've run the Rocket City Marathon and really liked it. Seems like a really good running club that hosts it. That is my current PR so I'm biased.
We didn't see a whole lot of the town itself but what I saw, I enjoyed. Typical Southern hospitality in the hotel we stayed and at the restaurants we ate. With NASA and few other tech companies located there, these must be a lift to the local economy and standards of education. From my short visit, I wouldn't cross it off my list.
Very hot and humid in the summer, but mild winters.
Two "big" local races - Rocket City marathon and the Cotton Row 10k. Lots of smaller races throughout the year.
Local running club is great - for a while it really seemed to be "graying" rather quickly, but over the last few years there seem to be a lot more younger folks getting involved.
Nothing wrong with their older crowd at all - just now looks like a club with a solid present and future. Lots of local races - all well organized thanks to the surplus of rocket scientists in town. The town itself has its good and bad aspects - there's the science & engineering and medical communities and then there's everyone else - and the gap between the two seems to be significant and growing. Still, not the worst place to end up - good running scene and a decent town for a family.
I grew up around Huntsville. It is a great place to run. The HTC is well-organized and most races in the area are quality. The Rocket City Marathon, Cotton Row, and Mountain Mist are all great. University of Alabama-Huntsville is pretty involved in the running community, and they host a few smaller races that can be fun. The Monte Sano 10k and Eurocross are some other races that are must runs.
As far as places to run, Monte Sano has great trails that go for miles. Also, the HTC meets in the summers for Tuesday night runs at a running park in which all serious local runners meet up. That is a great place to meet people.
The city has enough to do to keep you from being bored, but is small enough to really feel at home.
I agree with what most people have said about Huntsville. I grew up there and I can say that if I ever moved back to Alabama that I would move back to Huntsville. It is a very diverse city (when it comes to Alabama) and there are a lot of smart people there. I also liked that it had its flat areas, but if you want to do some good hill running or courses that role you can find them. There are also two running stores there, a fleet feet and a independently owned store called first place athletics. There are road races all year long, which is always good if you are into that kind of running scene. The downfall to Huntsville is that it gets hot and humid in the summer which can be a pain to run in. The winters get chilly, but they are very mild. It hardly ever snows there, but when it does the whole city freaks out, but that is just the south. I don't know if you have kids, but the schools there are really good, especially the schools on the south end of town. I don't know where you are living, but if you are working on the north end of town you could always live in Madison, which is pretty much Huntsville now. Madison is a very nice city as well. Best of luck on the move and I hope you enjoy Huntsville.