Why Is Northern Arizona such a mecca for distance running?

My wife and I both ran for NAU. YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT IF YOU HAVE TO ASK THE ORIGINAL QUESTION.

Can someone explain what it means to be high altitude but low latitude? thanks

I think latitude is a typo. High Altitude/Low Altitude means you live at a high altitude and run most mileage at that higher altitude, but do faster workouts at lower altitude. Flagstaff is at 7000 feet and Sedona is about 3000 feet lower.

Wejo probably knows the history of Flagstaff's rise as a running mecca better than anyone, but I think Jack Daniels operated a high altitude center there for a while around the time elites and aspiring elites started going there.

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Low latitude are places that are below 30° N or S. Flagstaff technically fits mid-latitude but is very close to low latitude

idiotic thing is to use ALL CAPS to have idiotic take, please tell us more you high and mighty intelligence.

Low latitude means closer to the equator. As opposed to a high altitude place in for example Montana, Flagstaff will have comparatively mild weather for most of the academic year, when student athletes are there and focused on doing high quality workouts. It still gets cold, but not as cold, and longer daylight hours in winter.

I know some pretty dumb runners who went to pretty much all those schools.

2000 feet higher than Boulder and can get to 4500 in 45 mins, sea level in 2hrs. Those are all facts you should've googled.

Subjective stuff is that team culture is great and they are very professional in terms of ancillary stuff, driving down to Sedona to workout, etc.

You only have so many years to get after it, so why not go all in?

The people who are like "blah I was thinking ahead when I was 18 and got my engineering degree at some douchey Ivy league school with a bunch of other douches so we could golf at the same country clubs together and be douches for the rest of our lives harrumph" are dead inside.

Yeah, the fire thing has sucked recently, but as someone else mentioned, most Mountain West locations have the same risk (The Marshall Fire last December destroyed over 1000 homes in Boulder county, for instance).

As far as price, Flagstaff is starting to look more like Boulder on that front, unfortunately.

Ask Jakobing, why they regularly fly out to Flagstaff from Norway for training camp. You may not "get it" but the Ingebrigtsen's sure do get it.

Name me a high elevation training spot in the US that doesn't have forest fire risk.

Fun fact: the temperature in Flagstaff did not even hit 90 degrees this summer.

To answer the original poster's question:

-Flagstaff is at about 7000ft elevation, and studies have shown that to be just about ideal for optimizing the effects of altitude training. Going up in elevation is always a tradeoff between the pros (increased oxygen carrying capacity and greater aerobic stress while running) and the cons (more difficult to recover, slower running at the same intensity), and 7000ft yields a pretty good - maybe the best - combo of the pros vs to cons.

-Access to lower elevation - one of the ways to mitigate one of the cons of living at 7000ft is to do at least some of your training at a lower elevation (so it can be at a faster pace at the same intensity, better simulating racing at sea level). From Flagstaff, places like Sedona, Camp Verde or even Phoenix are doable. This also comes into play if/when Flagstaff gets a lot of snow in the winter. You can just drive to lower elevation to get out of the snow and into warmer weather.

-Training venues - There is a huge variety of good training trails, roads and tracks in and around Flagstaff. There are lots of single track trails, especially in the mountains. There are lots of forest service roads. There is the FUTS (Flagstaff Urban Trail System) of mostly soft-surface trails that connect through town. There are a couple of high school tracks, NAU's track, and NAU's indoor track. Access to the HS track in Sedona famously (and hilariously) became more difficult, though. Marathoners especially seem to like Lake Mary Rd as a place to do marathon-specific work on pavement.

-Balance - Flagstaff is a small city, so there is "stuff" around - decent medical resources, entertainment, jobs, etc. However, it is small enough that running can still be THE THING for people that go there for it. In other words, there is enough going on to stave off most boredom and/or make a living, but not so much that you get distracted.

I've been to Flagstaff. Why go there for college when you're so fast you could run at any college in America? Because Flagstaff ("Flag" as locals call it) is at high altitude, has great places to run (amazing trails), plenty of natural beauty, good running weather most of the year, and NAU has great coaches. And because once a team gets enough elite runners, recruiting becomes easy. "Don't you want to be part of a national championship team"?"

I understand why East Coasters are confused about this. They think the East Coast is the only good place to live in the US. I'm glad they're under that misconception, so it doesn't get too crowded here in the West.

A few replies are spot on. Falgstaff is at altitude, and has great trails everywhere. It's no coincidence that NAZ elite trains there, Abdi lives there. Plus, you don't have a school with a low acceptance rate. Add to this, great enviroment for American runners, running with American runners!

As has been stated repeatedly, great place to train if you don’t have a family in tow.

The public education system is ranked like 47th in the country, and the health system not much better. The median home price in Flagstaff is just under $600,000. It’s isolated. Arizona also has a lot of right wing extremism, white supremacists, etc.

Phoenix is nice as far as being a fairly large city, but it will be unlivable in 20 years due to extreme heat.

That's more live high/train low where you want access to low altitude for intense work.

Low latitude here is more about mild weather. Lake Tahoe is a beautiful place to run for half the year. Other half has you running through 3 feet of snow...

Good retirement homes then, one can surmise.

Doesn't the question kinda answer itself?

You need a place that is temperate, not really hot and not really cold.

You want altitude.

You want trails.

It needs to be affordable. That means it probably needs to be a small- mid sized town, not a city.

Sure you CAN have successful distance running in places like Washington DC, or Madison Wisc, or Gainesville FL, but they are not ideal.

Doesn't the question kinda answer itself?

You need a place for academics and athletics.

You want to learn forestry.

You want to learn agriculture.

You want to make $20k a year if you get injured and don't go pro.

Sure you CAN have success at other schools like Stanford if you were a top HS runner, but that's only if you want a "holistic" education. Yuck!