Places I know or have lived, and would recommend for variety in town, around college areas, and great variety of trails within 30 mile radius:
Chapel Hill (costly, no drab cold winters)
Monterey area
Sac State area
San Luis Obispo (best weather in US, great town)
University of Delaware has a bunch of trails in three near by parks that are within running distance. White Clay state park has hundred of miles of trail but newark, de is also a college town.
Berry College, Rome, Georgia. No other place will compare.
U of Montana has many deer right on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Next to campus is a trail along the river (more deer) and a steep mountain with several trails (more deer). Some friends of mine once herded a deer into their apartment building. If you can't chase deer, there is always the elusive splittail.
American U. Fall downhill into Rock Creek Park.
Asheville is beautiful. It is in the foothills of the Blueridge mountains and the weather is nice, not too much snow. great old town with charm and several colleges and a vibrant downtown.
that sounds nice
All I know is that you should not even consider the Univ. of Colorado. Boulder sucks, the running is terrible, the girls are ugly, the trails are too rocky, it is cold all of the time, the Flatirons aren't that great, and you run much slower at altitude.
Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, or Thammasat University, north of Bangkok about 40km.
University of Akron. Once you are 3 minutes off of campus there are lots of crack houses, meth heads, and gang thugs. Gives ya quite a work out!
Don't know if you are serious with all those parameters, but if you are then Berry College in Rome, GA is unbeatable. Deer come right up to the dorms, it is the largest campus in terms of land area in the US and the city is a short distance away. I ran and graduated from there and actually touched a deer once. Tons of grassy field, trails and variety as far as flat, rolling and serious hills. Cost of living is low, but not sure of job prospects in the area. Come down and see us, you all hear now!
plaid wrote:
san luis obispo. best running you'll find on the west coast. great running community.
Ummm... ever heard of Jordan Hasay?
tiebreaker wrote:
Palo Alto = too much pavement unless I'm missing something
stanford has a bunch of dirt and trails throughout the actual campus, including the woodchip loop by the track. there are also more trails up in the hills near "the dish" (and i assume some deer), the golf course, a few parks within reasonable driving distance--huddardt (woodside), rancho san antonio (los altos), and nisene marks (aptos/santa cruz). nisene marks (30+ minutes away) and huddardt (15 min) are the best parks i've ever run in (i used to drive 45 minutes to go to them).
also in palo alto, you have the shops (university ave) and quiet residential neighborhoods with wide streets. i, however, wouldn't want to live there, nor could i afford to. living on campus is fairly affordable, though.
all you have to do is get into stanford...
Mr. Ed wrote:
Berry College in Rome, GA
I think the OP found his winner. Their Wiki page even mentions the deer problem. Looks like a sweet campus.
UCSD for sure
I have a few that I recomend, some of which have been mentioned before.
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Sac State, Sacramento California; A short jaunt across the footbridge over the american river and then you are connected to the American River Trail. Every type of running imaginable are avalible. I trained for my fastest marathon off of those trails.
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UC Santa Cruz;Lots and lots of redwoods. A very pretty area and some of the best running that I have ever done.
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McMaster, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; there is a medium nature area near campus and lots of deer can be seen.
McGill in Montreal. Awesome. Lots of trails on Mont Real with some decent hills, a historic urban centre, and a great downtown. Excellent place to run if you can last the winters.
Ohio State is a great campus for running. The campus itself is huge with a lot of varied scenery - the main campus looks like an old time college flick. Paths and walks eliminate the soggy problem. There are quiet paths and roads along the river. Bigger city running is just a couple miles away and some of the nicer residential areas with old, stately houses border the campus.
Going south and east you can also do the combat zone thing late at night after a few beers if you are feeling up to something a little more dangerous.
There are also several nice parks within 15 or 20 minutes of easy running.
Humboldt State
Chico State
UC Santa Cruz
are the top 3 in Northern California in my estimation. I'm not sure how you can list Sac State and the flat and boring river trail above what you have at each of the campuses listed above. Not even close!
A little know D2 school Mansfield University. Dirt roads, Grand Canyon of PA a nice bike path and a great XC course.
Washington State at Pullman
3 minutes from town and you’re off on rolling farm roads of the Palouse, cranking out a 10 miler on the old ‘Lindgren’ course, travelled by many including Kimombwa, Rono, Koech and Lagat. Nothing finer!