Leuven, Belgium. It’s where many of the pros train over the summer as they’re racing in Europe. Great place to run some nice trails, bump shoulders with the pros, drink great beer, and explore Belgium.
Moses Cone, within 20 minutes of Boone - 25 miles of trails, most of them very hilly, but there's also a flat, fine gravel 1+ mile loop around Bass Lake that's very pleasant. I highly recommend running up Flat Top and climbing the fire tower for a great view
Watauga River Road, within 20 minutes of Boone - 7 miles point-to-point, 5 miles of which are dirt. Rolling hills, very pretty views but some smells from nearby farms. In the summer you can cool off in the river after.
Boone Greenway + Don Kennedy Trails, for when you don't want to drive out of town - about 4 miles of paved greenway, plus the App State XC course trails right next to it. Very easy to get 8-10 miles here.
Virginia Creeper Trail, within an hour of Boone - mostly flat (slight slope), soft surface shaded trail. Essentially unlimited mileage, great for an out-and-back long run. I like starting in Damascus and heading east.
Brown Mountain Beach Road, within 45 minutes of Boone - another great long run option. About 7.5 miles out, starting just past BMB Resort, almost entirely soft surface. Same with Watauga, wash off the dust in the river afterwards, if its warm enough out. The Resort also has a nice little coffee shop with great smoothies
Contrary to what Kvothe says, I'd argue there's plenty to do outside of running.
In the summer, you can find plenty of blue holes to go swimming in. In the fall, the colors are gorgeous and there are so many hikes you can do: Linville, Grandfather, and much more. If you don't want to hike you could just drive the Blue Ridge. App State has a great football team (maybe not this year) and the games are super fun. In the winter there's skiing at App Ski and Beech Mountain.
The town of Boone itself is awesome. Espresso News has some of the best coffee I've ever had. Venture is a nice wine and chocolate bar. Lost Province makes great pizza. Several good breweries in town. When school is in session there's a food truck on Howard Street that makes loaded biscuits.
Blowing Rock is more touristy, but is also pleasant.
Come to think of it I didn't get bored in the couple week long trips I took out there. It was kind of hard to do any long hikes after getting runner's high every day at moses cone though haha. If you say there is enough for a full time resident to do, I believe you,
I’m looking for suggestions for a running-focused trip that I could take. Not for a race, just a trip where I could run in cool places, though I guess if it incorporated a cool race that I could run unseriously rather than “race,” that would be okay. It could be one place the whole time or a multi-stop road trip. Bonus points if it also involves some non-running but still running related activity for when I’m not running (not actually sure what this would be). Has anyone done a trip like this? How was it?
Stay in Bar Harbor and run the Acadia carriage roads. Bonus if you're there mid/late October when the leaves are changing color and they run the MDI marathon and half, but any time other than winter is great.
It gets inundatef with tourists, esp in summer. If you run at dawn, you'll be ok, but if you go back to hike expext lines on some trails and expect a crowd anywhere on MDI you go. Off season, before the snow/after the mud dries is great.
Bar Harbor can get busy certain weeks of the summer. However, on the rest of MDI, 99% of the tourists don't venture beyond Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Cadillac Mtn, and Jordan Pond House. Anyone willing to put in even a slight amount of effort can easily escape the tourist crowds. I've run the carriage roads 7-8am during high season and aside from seeing people here and there on the Eagle Lake loop, felt like I had them all to myself.
I'm working up a trip next year that will be some Alps running. Start in St. Niklaus, Switzerland, and run to Zermatt with an overnight in a mountain hut. Once in Zermatt will spend a couple days running different routes as well. The hut system of the Alps makes it easy to run point to point for days without having to drag along a ton of supplies.
If you're looking for this fall then the Moab suggestion is a good one if you're ok with running from one central location. Lots of great trails but can be lots of UTV/MTB traffic as well.
If you want an urban adventure, DC is a great place to run. C&O canal and the multiple bike trails are wonderful, and you can see a lot of history along the way. It's a great place to be a tourist for a few days, with excellent museums of all kinds, national zoo, White House, Library of Congress, etc and most of them are free.
I turned the family road trip into a running vacation for me this summer. So runs in the following places:
-Black Hills SD (near Mt. Rushmore)
-Foothills of the Big Horn Mountains WY
-A couple of runs in/near Yellowstone
-Runs in Frisco/Breck area of Colorado
-An incredible trail run in Colorado National Monument Park (may have been the highlight)
-Monument Valley AZ, (took a pic at the Forrest Gump spot, but my run was just down the road)
-And definitely the lowlight, runs in Anaheim while the family was at Disney.
I got in about 60 miles total, it was awesome. We also stopped at Arches and Grand Canyon, but it just didn't work to get any running in at either park. Which was a bummer. But overall I'd highly recommend it!
Did the OP stipulate that he cannot leave the US, or is it just that nobody on the board has done so?
🤣🤣🤣
the op was the reddit copy paste spammer. Funny thing is I am bookmarking the thread based on all the good info in here.
The brojos probably did it for engagement farming, which is why no one took it down even though it was quickly called out on the 1st page and probably reported.
As someone who runs daily I usually turn every vacation into a runcation of sorts unless I am doing a backpacking trip or on a boat.
Ditto for work trips, I like to get a hotel 5 or six miles from the office so I can run there each morning (my company’s offices all have showers).
Some of my recent favorite are:
New Orleans, I really enjoyed running through different neighborhoods and felt I got to see much more of the city thsn I would have otherwise. The garden district in particular was fun from an architectural standpoint.
Minneapolis, the trails along the Mississippi River are well maintained and quite beautiful, even in winter. One can start anywhere along the river and run for miles.
Seattle has several urban trails like Burke-Gilman and waterfront trail that go through some beautiful neighborhoods. Discovery Park has sweeping views of the Puget Sound and Olympic Península.
Dublin Ireland has beautiful waterfront trails as well as well as some nice trails in various parks, watch out for tie cobblestones, I took quite the fall on my last trip.
In the Salt Lake City area I try to get in a few miles in each morning before skiing. In Ogden the show is usually cleared quickly on the various trails or packed down enough to run. The river parkway trail is beautiful and there are nice routes through Weber State or you can easily make it to Bonneville Shoreline trail. If you are hitting up the cottonwood resorts the Jordan River trail or Jordan and SLC canal path.
Eugene is the #1 answer if you also want running related things that aren’t actually running. Make it up to Portland and to wildwood trail. Tons of cool trails and such all around town.