What is the best NON college running town in the US

dude you really need help -Boston sucks for running, repeat sucks - especially if compared to the Bay Areain Boston you are stuck with these options you listed below, none of which are all that prettythe charles you are next to freeways everywhere - fresh pond, not exactly what I would call nature, you can see concord ave with dunkin donuts and all the other crap from half of it,the minuteman biketrail, big dealI don't know if you have been too lazy or what but the running in the bay area is outstanding - i've lived in boston, sf and many other places and it does not get any better than the bay areain the east bay - go to tilden, sibley, lake chabot, even the strawberry canyon fire trail, further out go to mt. diablo all have breathtaking nature and hundreds, yes hundreds of miles of trailshow about north bay - ok where do we beginmt. tam state park, the lakes out by phoenix lakes, the headlands, frank's valley, pt. reyes national seashore - you could literally string together probably 1000 miles of uninteruppted trailssouth bay - more of the same...how about the city, presidio, golden gate park, run along the embarcadero, even twin peaksif bike paths are your thing go to lake in downtown oakland or the bike path along berkeley's waterfront - all of these things couple with weather that never drift outside of 50 to 80 and 8 months of no raindude get real ---

Lazy L wrote:

Well it does take a few brain cells to realize that there's a dirt path next to the asphalt for practically the entire length of the Charles, for a good part of Fresh Pond, for a good stretch of the Minuteman Bikeway, for much of the emerald necklace, and that there are plenty of dirt or gravel trails in Arnold Arboretum, around Jamaica Pond, around the Brookline Reservoir and Franklin Park.

But I guess not everyone can cut it in Boston.

I think it's also reasonable not to consider Boston a college town. I lived there as a student and as a professional. Frankly, the city is a lot more geared towards its working population than its students. On the other hand, it's fair to say that much of the working population depends on the universities in some way (especially the hospitals)

Indianapolis isn't bad, 'specially for the midwest. Lots of good trail systems and places to train. Quality running stores, excellent race calendar year round. Some winter but not enough to matter. Summer is hot but not like the south. We seem to get Nats or some other good event every couple years. Only downside is no real hills.

10k wrote:

south bend indiana

Where in south bend do you run? I think it's terrible to run, the only real good places are behind St. Mary's and along the river, plus it snows a lot in the winter. I would really like to know where you run that you think makes it a good running town.

Also, it is most definitely a college town.

gerr wrote:

Boulder, Eugene and Flag are all based largely around their universities but Boston is not really a "college town"

sure, buddy. Geb's not much of a runner either, I suppose.

Boston College

Boston University

Brandeis University

Cambridge College

Curry College

Eastern Nazarene College

Emerson College Boston

Emmanuel College Boston

Endicott College Beverly

Fisher College Boston

Harvard Business School

Harvard University

Lesley College

MIT

Massachusetts College of Art

Merrimack College

Mount Ida College

New England Conservatory of Music

New England School of Law

Northeastern University

Radcliffe College

Regis College

Simmons College

Stonehill College

Suffolk University

Suffolk University Law School

Tufts University

University of Massachusetts

Wellesley College

Wentworth Institute of Technology

Wheaton College

Wheelock College

It's a tough call-- either Mill Valley or Stinson Beach. Try running back and forth between the two, and see which one you like better.

Strong point maken. BOSTON IS A COLLEGE TOWN. Why don't we limit this to towns or cities that have less than 20 colleges? Besides, Boston sucks for a training environment.

half the schools you named are really nowhere near boston ("nowhere near" on east coast terms anyway, I wouldn't consider Beverly (Endicott) and Boston neighbors, but I suppose outside the east coast one might)...but I didn't chime in to go into that

1. Boston sucks for training it does, end of discussion

2. There are some other good towns in New England for running, they aren't huge towns but they are nice

Manchester, CT

Manchester, NH

Vermont has tons of towns that would be great for running, but there is not a whole lot to some of the towns

Maine also has a number of towns that you can find endless trails on without being extremely isolated

gorney wrote:

sure, buddy. Geb's not much of a runner either, I suppose.

C'mon, you know what he means. A college town is where the town centers around the university. Boston's not like that - no major city is. Look, here's a list of colleges in New York, but no one considers that a college town, do they?

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Barnard College

Baruch

Berkeley College

Bronx Community College

Brooklyn College

City College of New York

City University of New York

College of Staten Island

Columbia University

Cooper Union

Fashion Institute of Technology

Fordham University

General Theological Seminary

Hofstra University

Hunter College

Jewish Theological Seminary

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Juilliard School

Manhattan School of Music

Marymount Manhattan College

The New School for Social Research

New York City Technical College

New York Insitute of Technology

New York University Washington Square Park

Pace University

Parsons School of Design

Polytechnic University of New York

Pratt Institute

Queens College

Rockefeller University

St John's University Queens

Staten Island School of Visual Arts

Union Theological Seminary

These schools alone are hugely influential and significant

Boston College

Harvard Business School

Harvard University

MIT

Northeastern University

Tufts University

University of Massachusetts

Wellesley College

I don't know--you sit around and read letsrun long enough and someone will say Washington DC isn't much of a political town--and they'll have their chest thrown forward and say it like they really believe it. Go figure.

RENO has that reputation but the surronding area of Reno is very pretty. Lake Tahoe is only 20 min drive, the city is surronded by the Sierra Nevadas, there are some killer trails that go all the way to over 10,000 feet...lots of open land out there too. Very underated in the running community.

tahoe is amazing and there are some great trails right there...going east out of reno there didn't seem to be too much but i definitley want to check out the other trails near reno besides those closer to tahoe

dert mac wrote:

RENO has that reputation but the surronding area of Reno is very pretty. Lake Tahoe is only 20 min drive, the city is surronded by the Sierra Nevadas, there are some killer trails that go all the way to over 10,000 feet...lots of open land out there too. Very underated in the running community.

It will never become a great running town, but if a group was never to get started in the Greenbrier County/Pocahontas County areas of WV they would be set with great running. Dirt roads, Scenic Highways, State Parks, Mountains, Hills, 77mile Greenbrier River Trail(awesome spot), Snowshow Ski Resort(summer months), 26mile West Fork Trail, Allegheny Trail, Cranberry Wilderness Area, Cranberry Backcountry. So many more backroad, dirt road areas. Like I mentioned before it will never be a running town its too hidden right now but i think people that checked it out would be quite surprised. Highest point in counties is at roughly 4800 feet.

http://www.pocahontascountywv.com/home.aspx

1. San Francisco (do I even have to explain)

2. Oakland (great trails, lots of runners races around)

3. Sacramento (weather not as good as SF or Oak with the summer heat, but has a strong running community and some decent places to run)

4. Reno (smaller running community, but awesome trails especially as you get closer to tahoe)

Santa Cruz, CA is also very good, but does that count as a "college town" since it has UCSC?

Not even a good example of some of the backroads but a picture I found while doing some more looking back at my Pocahontas county days.

Eugene is. They don't have to carry books at UO, it's not a real college.

dude looks nice and all but have you ever run here

http://www.danheller.com/marin-muirwoods.html

EVERY runner should, then they will know what trails mean

Yes use to run there a lot. This was a good years back though. Like I said that picture isn't even a great idea of what the "Great Runs" look like their just a idea to the beauty(atleast to me) of the area. Most of my runs where Trails or dirt roads leading to Great Fishing spots. Would love to have better proff of pics to show but I don't..like I earlier said this place will never be a running town and probably can't compare to all the areas you and other's have included. I do wish some group would check it out sometime I think they would be surprised..but they better be prepared for life far from shopping malls and large grocery stores becasue they won't be found in Pocahontas County WV.

sounds nice, what are the trails like?i spent a lot of time in pennsylvania and I liked some of the trails around the appalachian trail - only problem was the rocks made running nearly impossible

once trained here wrote:

Yes use to run there a lot. This was a good years back though. Like I said that picture isn't even a great idea of what the "Great Runs" look like their just a idea to the beauty(atleast to me) of the area. Most of my runs where Trails or dirt roads leading to Great Fishing spots. Would love to have better proff of pics to show but I don't..like I earlier said this place will never be a running town and probably can't compare to all the areas you and other's have included. I do wish some group would check it out sometime I think they would be surprised..but they better be prepared for life far from shopping malls and large grocery stores becasue they won't be found in Pocahontas County WV.

"C'mon, you know what he means. A college town is where the town centers around the university. Boston's not like that - no major city is"

You must not be from Columbus, Ohio...they are crazy about "The Ohio State University" and Columbus is the 17th largest city in the U.S. Yet there paper writes storeies about the football team 300 plus days of the year....