Living in running in Norman/Oklahoma City

Bumping this to keep it on the front page. Not many Oklahomans around here, evidently.

I'm up the turnpike so not the best source, but this is the OKC running group

http://www.okcrunning.org/

and Jaguar1 who posts here sometimes and ran in the Oly trials is in OKC and has a website

http://www.camilleherron.com

I stopped at the Norman running store once which is a nice place on the north side of town

http://ok-runner.com/

They might be able to answer running questions.

As far as living, the north side of Norman is newer and lots of people there commute to OKC from what I understand. There are lots of nice older neighborhoods near campus.

I don't know of any trails, but someone else on the spot might be able to give you better info. Politically, I think Norman is about as liberal as it gets in Oklahoma.

I'm far from an expert, but my parents moved to Blanchard (safe and boring, don't live there) a few years back.

Although I couldn't ever have imagined living in Oklahoma, since visiting, I've warmed to the idea that, getting the right University job (in my case) wouldn't totally suck.

I've jogged and road biked on country roads, which can be OK in sparse traffic, but otherwise not ideal, with rough shoulders, drivers not used to runners, and unchained dogs. Local knowledge seems to help there.

Done a race in Edmond (Frosty Five in Feb), good race and good group. The OKC Marathon is very well done, as is the OKC turkey trot. The latter two go around Lake Hefner, which seems like a good place for regular running in OKC.

Otherwise, Norman is definitely the place to be, culture-wise/food-wise and politically. I've ridden with the Canadian River Cycling/Racing Club -- you didn't ask about that, but the point is that they meet in Norman, and parts of their routes might be good long-run routes, since they survive the Oklahoma roads in spandex. You wouldn't be an outlier there, especially with a wife and kids. If you have a steady job and education, I'd look in Norman for sure. The other places to get a nice house seem to be creepy master-planned developments around the city with zero character, and while there seems to be a small contingent of condos in OKC, it doesn't seem to be at critical mass to be worth living down there, IMHO.

Visiting Tulsa doesn't suck, it's somewhat liberal and has some trails (Turkey Mountain) worth visiting. I haven't been to Stillwater.

Lastly, go for a long run and then gorge at Ted's Cafe Escondido for Mexican food. Good luck!

automaticslim wrote:

Thinking about a job at OU (not coaching). Anyone live in the area that could recommend good neighborhoods for running, living? Good schools--publics worth considering? My wife and I have young kids and are fairly liberal, so I suspect we'd be outliers, but anyplace with good communities and families would be fine. Thanks for any advice!

University of Oklahoma is in Norman, so there are probably places to run. Also, look at a map!

Sutton Park, Draper lake, lloyd noble loop, grass track out at the airport.

-univ of okla runner

we rock texas sucks

I've been there 3-4 times for work, and had nice runs each time. The Flaming Lips are from Norman, so I think you'll be ok politically.

Thanks! this is all really helpful. Well, most of it. Any additional views would be great.

I went to school at OSU and made it down to OKC several times. The climate is pretty good, except in the summer of course. It is hot and humid all the time... even at 5:00 AM it will be 85 degrees and 100% humidity a lot of days. OKC is very windy as well. This can get old but shouldn't be a deal breaker. Oklahoma actually has a pretty legit running scene, though I think most guys are concentrated in Tulsa. Tulsa is also a nicer city, IMO.

I wouldn't worry a ton about political thinking. If you work at a university, you're going to have plenty of intelligent people around you, many of which will be liberal. I never really dealt with rednecks when I was down there, but I never went looking for them either.

You may want to look at OK as a whole... I remember it being pretty poor in general and all the OK natives were probably two-three years behind me in education. A lot of my peers in my freshman writing class wouldn't have passed my 9th grade english class, and I knew many OK natives who had never taken biology, chemistry, etc and were taking geometry or algebra II for their math, subjects I took in 9th and 10th grade. Probably not the best state if you care about your kids' education, but I'd suggest you look into this rather than take my word.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I liked Stillwater and Oklahoma in general but left for various reasons. It certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a place to live, but I could be happy there. I was happy there.

Thanks for all the helpful information. I've been interested in OK to but haven't decided on anywhere yet.

Stilly wrote:

I liked Stillwater and Oklahoma in general but left for various reasons. It certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a place to live, but I could be happy there. I was happy there.

Couldn't the kids have home and self education in addition to the regular schooling?

Would you mind elaborating on the various reasons, if they would be applicable to others?

more info please wrote:

Thanks for all the helpful information. I've been interested in OK to but haven't decided on anywhere yet.

Stilly wrote:

I liked Stillwater and Oklahoma in general but left for various reasons. It certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a place to live, but I could be happy there. I was happy there.

Couldn't the kids have home and self education in addition to the regular schooling?

Would you mind elaborating on the various reasons, if they would be applicable to others?

They wouldn't be applicable to others. Well, maybe high school kids considering running for OSU, but no one else.

as a liberal to moderate, it pains me to say but i've come to embrace edmond,ok where i've been coming to school at oklahoma christian university for the past 3 years after a freshman year spent in the northwest. it's a more expensive community, but it's almost all nice. there are many schools around and over half of the adults living here have degrees. i want to dislike it as a more liberal man, but if i had a family, i don't know if there's a city where i'd rather have my family. i mean i can, and have, gone on a run after midnight through any and all of the neighborhoods in town and felt completely safe.

as for looking for housing, i've been eyeing the housing area along 164th between pennsylvania and western for the past couple years as a dream location for a family;

http://maps.google.com/?ll=35.638534,-97.540398&spn=0.01702,0.084543&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=35.638503,-97.540418&panoid=QQ0SDWJIB1gJDd3exVuXXw&cbp=11,19.74,,0,0

automaticslim wrote:

Thinking about a job at OU (not coaching). Anyone live in the area that could recommend good neighborhoods for running, living? Good schools--publics worth considering? My wife and I have young kids and are fairly liberal, so I suspect we'd be outliers, but anyplace with good communities and families would be fine. Thanks for any advice!

If you're going to work at OU, you should definitely live in Norman. There's not really a "best place" to live or for running (but I wouldn't recommend living in East Norman). There's "pockets" of nice neighborhoods. However, I will say that my favorite (and maybe the best) neighborhood in Norman is Brookhaven in the NW. I run there a lot when I visit my parents. Plus, it's where they have the annual Brookhaven 5K, and the OK Runner is in the Brookhaven Village. It looks nice and I see kids, people, and parents around there all the time. I would say the neighborhoods between NW 36th and 48th (some to the West of 48th too) and Main St. and Tecumseh are great. The only downside is there really aren't any soft surface running options in the NW-- you're pretty much limited to neighborhood roads, sidewalks, and you can run on country roads to the West (Rock Creek and Tecumseh). There's a park with some dirt trails on Robinson called Griffin Park. I don't know the neighborhoods around here well, but I think there might be newer homes? If you live near the OU campus, the homes are older (busier too), but you'd get more soft surface options between the campus and a ~3 mile loop that goes by the Lloyd Noble basketball arena. I have a ~55 min. loop I do between the campus and the Lloyd Noble loop. There's nice neighborhoods south of Highway 9, and the Smoking Oak Rd. area (older, really nice homes). I'm not familiar with private schools in Norman-- not really necessary, and most everyone goes public. Norman High and Norman North are both great. I know nothing about elementaries and middle schools. I'd assume if you live near Brookhaven, the schools around there are nice.

Watch out for people in pickup trucks throwing objects at you while you're out running. Happened to me but not in Oklahoma, rather this was in southeast Colorado plains

What does that have to do with anything?

I'd like to move there as well.

Bizarreo wrote:

Watch out for people in pickup trucks throwing objects at you while you're out running. Happened to me but not in Oklahoma, rather this was in southeast Colorado plains

+1

On campus running is good.

Running anywhere else is pretty bad imo.