Those hick towns where nobody wants to run outside because they will stare at you like an alien, so they run in the gym. The sketchy, sparsely populated country places who don't cut their grass where people who don't work purposely let their aggressive/dangerous dogs astray.
This, but if we limit the prompt to major cities, my vote would be Vegas
I agree with this. Every time I visit Vegas I end up partying with Steve and find it hard to get up in the morning to run after banging 3 hookers, drinking a 1/5 and doing a couple lines.
The Miller section of Gary Indiana is great for running.
Six miles of very runnable beach on Lake Michigan, which is empty most of the year. Miles of trails in surrounding parts of Indiana Dunes National Park, including big sand dunes to run up. A 2-mile flat crushed gravel trail on an old rail line. Low traffic residential streets. You will never be kicked off the all-weather track at the high school- since the school is closed. There is a nice paved gently rolling bike path looping Marquette Park, and a one mile gently rolling grass loop in that park.
The Calumet Region Striders Running Club puts on numerous road races in the area. You can take the South Shore Railroad and for $9 be in downtown Chicago in about 45 minutes, where there are numerous large races.
We know the best ones, more or less, but what is the absolute worst? Lets limit this to hthe US and I guess Canada. I'm sure there are plenty of impoverished places with 0 trails or paths for running in the rest of the world.
I am going to go with Lubbock, TX here. Almost entirely flat...No trees outside of town. Always windy and if the wind is right you get to smell the feed lots. Weather can be extreme... and in the spring there are dust storms three days a week or more... and occasionally they are so bad you cannot really go outside to run. Lubbock can still get 1930s level dust storms on occasion.
Las Vegas isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be. Sure - running on the strip sucks but you could say that about most downtown areas. The weather sucks but there are some fine greenways in the more residential areas.
i’m not sure what you were going to supply after “but” to try to redeem the place as a running city. Is it necessarily the worst? Ok, probably not.
To add on to “running city”: It also strikes me as a way less than an ideal place to live in, unless I just wanted to live in the suburbs and never go downtown except for an occasional sporting event or show, and I’d still probably like that less than I would for another city, except for the fact that LV gets a higher number of good music acts than your average city.
Las Vegas isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be. Sure - running on the strip sucks but you could say that about most downtown areas. The weather sucks but there are some fine greenways in the more residential areas.
There's also world class trail running in close proximity and trail networks throughout the suburbs you can easily stitch together. Summer means running early but that's not horrible. Fall, winter and spring are mild. I've lived in some of the best like San Diego, Seattle and Boston and Las Vegas is on par with all of them. I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality and range of options.
Care to elaborate? I'm in Vegas for work a month or so out of the year and mostly rely on Strava heat maps and segments to try to find decent running routes to little avail. There's great options about 30 mins out of town, but that can be a logistic impossibility when working for the man...
Those hick towns where nobody wants to run outside because they will stare at you like an alien, so they run in the gym. The sketchy, sparsely populated country places who don't cut their grass where people who don't work purposely let their aggressive/dangerous dogs astray.
Lived in a couple hick towns over the years and it was never as bad as you describe. Sure some bubbas honk, yell random things, and rev their engines, but you get that in cities, too. The things you typically don’t get in the country is hobos with rusty knives, gang bangers and rush hour pollution (although you can get dust that is pretty bad).
Now it makes perfect sense why you give off hick vibes all the time
San Antonio but they do have big ole women there to make up for it if that's what you're into. Florida anywhere around Disney World is not runner friendly at all either. I'd attribute hot temps, lack of running infrastructure,focus on excessive traffic around those places. In a few runners friendly places like New Mexico, Utah there's simply nothing else better to do besides run and that must be noted.
Phoenix kind of sucks. They have a lot of paths, but here are homeless everywhere along them. Also, it can be 90deg at 6am.
Actually Phoenix is great. The paths are awesome for running. What you said about homeless people is a lie. Summers are hot, but it's tolerable if you get out the door early. We never have to worry about bad footing from snow and ice.
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