Why isn't Larmie a big distance running hub like Flagstaff?

It's in Utah what are you expecting?

OP, you already have your answers. Laramie is cold and windy, but mostly it’s the incessant wind that sucks for runners. I’ve always thought that town had a lot of potential, but it’s never been “fixed up,” so it’s just not that great of a scene. There are nice roads and trails on the periphery of town though.

A better question to ask is how is Santa Fe or Park City, both at 7,000+ feet, compared to Laramie for runners both wanting to live at high elevation but also to have fairly quick access to lower elevation for workouts. We all already know about Flagstaff.

Does anyone still train in Mammoth Lakes, California?

Honestly, if I were a competitive runner still chasing the dream, I’d probably want to live and sleep as high as I can while doing the vast majority of my running as low as I can. So, I would want the lower running to be within an hour’s drive. There are not many places that fit the bill, especially in winter.

High desert plains are rough places. If you are going to be out in that part of WY, I would rather be in Cody or even Casper. Laramie is just too hard scrabble of a town and the people can be pretty grizzled. And that is probably the best answer to the question. Most runners are at worst from comfortable middle class families with many coming from pretty wealthy families. If you are going to be a running pro and commit to a semi-monastic lifestyle of training, diet, etc., you will gravitate to training sites that will have nice restaurants, beautiful mountains, rivers, etc.

Laramie would be a fine place for a summer or fall training camp. It would be difficult to live there and train for a Spring marathon because the winters are tough. The people that live and run there generally enjoy it for its access to the outdoors. If you are not in school, there's not a whole lot going on for young people. But that could be beneficial for a training camp...

I suppose if you prefer windswept treeless high plains over a town smack dab in the middle of a forest... you might pick Laramie.

Beautiful spot in the country, but ... infrastructure and weather - winter starts in late October and ends in early May.

Everyone bases their running careers in L.A./OC/SD, some in Frisco/Silicon Valley. Flag, Park, Mammoth, St George, Mojave, ABQ, Raton, COLO, Boulder, SLO, are a places to train.

Ya gotta earn money somehow which is difficult in Laramie.

There's not exactly a melting pot in ethnic background which should serve the typical GOP leaning Letsrunner well.

What’s with your diversity obsession?

Per capita income by State, 2022:

#9. Wyoming 71,342.00

#39 Arizona 56,567.00

Per capita education spending by State:

#12 Wyoming 16,231.00

#47 Arizona 8,770.00

Average elevation by State:

Wyoming #2 6,700 ft

Arizona #7 4,100 ft

Natural beauty features in State:

Wyoming:

Yellowstone Tetons WindRivers Devil's Tower

Arizona:

Grand Canyon

Laramie ain't Flagstaff but Arizona ain't Wyoming either.

I can list another 20 natural beauty features in AZ. What's more important to me is if you can train there or not.

nobody cares

Laramie (albany county) is blue.

Here are 100 towns and cities in the U.S. at 7,930 ft or higher, most of them in Colorado, quite a few in New Mexico. Those states are further south and hence are likely to have warmer weather than Wyoming as well. I was surprised by how many cities of more than 2,000 people are at these altitudes. Surely, one of them would do.

I lived and ran in Laramie for 6 years in the late 1990's and still go back on vacation to run the mountain trails, which are incredible. From campus, you can head out on the praire for really nice long runs, or drive 10 minutes east on I-80 and be at 8,000', or 20 minutes west to the Snowy Range and be at 9,000'. The running there is really fabulous. However, as others have noted, the wind is tough, and if you want to do speed work, especially on the track, good luck. The winters aren't that bad (and I am originally from Long Island, so this was new to me): as they say in Wyoming, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. It is sunny most days, and in town, the snow melts quick.

The town of Laramie is definitely a love/hate kind of place. I had many friends come up from Boulder, to live, and hated it. It aint Boulder. It is literally a cowboy town, small, no privacy, everyone drinks at the Buckhorn, and if you don't know the Matthew Shepard story, look it up, as it may not absolutely define the place, but gives you a sense of life in Laramie.

Laramie is the windiest general area in the United States. The average wind at all times throughout the year is about 15mph. So a 'calm' day would be 10mph, which is a lot of places' windy day.

It also gets a lot colder there than Flagstaff in the winter.