Best and Worst Places you ever trained

all sand (south) or traffic (north) extremely hot in the summer. i spent 4 week long trips out there at cape lookout--all beach runs. but i loved it. quiet, no tv or phone. great place to get away.

transplant . wrote:

Best: Forest Park, Portland Oregon

Out and back the same trail is your best? What a sheltered life you live.

To the original poster. I find it kind of humorous that you put Harrisburg because I just put a deposit down on an apartment to live there next year. Most of the city is horrible but I'm going to be much closer over to the Hershey edge and there are a bunch of good places to run around there. If you feel like getting in a car, Mt. Gretan is about 15 minutes away and has some great great trails to run on. I only know all of this though because I went to Lebanon Valley College for 4 years and have become accustomed to the area. In fact, I can't wait to move in in August and resume training down there. But to each his own I guess.

I second the outerbanks for terrible running. Great place to vacation, but not so much for the running. The roads are hot even in the morning, and birds kept trying to peck at my head. Maybe it's just because I've never liked running on the beach.

best- highbanks metro park in delaware, oh. Tough, but amazing.

shizzy wrote:

worst- Outer Banks of North Carolina

I second the Outer Banks as the worst. My parents live just south of Atlantic Beach. High Humidity year round and very very boring long flat straight roads. Even beach running gets dull because of the lack of bikini clad sweet young things.

3 Bests:

Corning - Painted Post, NY though I haven't run there since 1981.

Bend, OR. Spectacular long runs in the Cascades.

Blowing Rock, NC. Great trails in Moses Cone Park and great running partners in the ZAP women.

If you ever go back to the outer banks, check out Nags Head Woods. Beautiful trail system starting just north of Jockey's Ridge.

Best:

1. Acadia NP, Maine (hundreds of miles of trails, beautiful scenery)

2. Princeton

sshhhh

Best - Lake District National Park in the North of England. Although I enjoyed Running in Austria in the Heilengblut area, and Boulder Colorado is ok.

Worst - Bodrum, Turkey. Hot as hell and a nightmare for traffic.

Sir William Focker wrote:

no... wrote:

Worst- 1. Anaheim, CA, 2. Salt Lake City, UT neighborhood, 3. Las Vegas

Las Vegas DOES SUCK!

Sir William, so you are saying Las Vegas is on a par (a bad par) with Harrisburg, PA...is that correct? If so, you are nuts. At least Harrisburg has a river run through it.

Salt Lake has no trail system ?

Best

Leeds, England. Loads of parks, trails, runners and a few decent tracks.

Clumber park, Notts. Right next to parents house, glorious tails. More than enough for a 2 hr run all off road.

Monte Gordo, Algarve. Been in both winter and spring and pefect weather both times. Great track and good trails although theres poss not too much more than 10 miles of trails so could get boring if going for more than 2 weeks.

Worst

Taba, Egypt. Choice was treadmill or 1 mile loops of the complex as weren't allowed out as it was percived to be too dangerous.

Best - Portland, OR, basically because of the weather and Wildwood Trail.

Worst - Dhaka, Bangladesh, absolutely cannot run outside b/c you will be followed and begged at by the locals, and if that is not enough, the smells will kill you.

best: eugene, asheville,

worst: atlanta, i hate atlanta.

Best-Belle Isle State Park in Richmond, VA (viper's arc is grueling to run up in the summer)

Worst-Ruggles Mine in Grafton, NH...way to many falling boulders to contend with!

Best: Kennesaw, GA; Glen Spey, NY

Worst: Houston, TX; Miami, FL

houston's not that bad... memorial, herhsey and hermann parks all have soft paths.

if you want bad, go to singapore. a week of running on stone or concrete paths wondering how it was still so damn hot and humid at midnight nearly killed me.

Best: The trail system in Ohio's Cuyahoga Valley National Park and surrounding areas. Take advantage of a long towpath, plus lots of side loops, hills, great scenery, terrific running community.

Worst: Indianapolis. People consider the Monon Trail (an over-rated, paved, boring straightaway) the cat's whiskers. To run a trail, you have to pay admission to get into a park.

homesick buckeye wrote:

Best: The trail system in Ohio's Cuyahoga Valley National Park and surrounding areas. Take advantage of a long towpath, plus lots of side loops, hills, great scenery, terrific running community.

Definately a nice trail system, but

Best: Midland, MI (Midland City Forest, Emerson Park/Titibiwasse River Road, and Pine Haven)

Worst: Basically anywhere in Alabama