Agree or disagree: Podium Runner names Stillwater, Minnesota and Boise, Idaho as 2 of the 5 best running towns in America

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

If you are that intolerant of another political opinion you probably would not want to live in half the states, which seems pretty narrow minded.

I don't know about you, but for me it's more like 45, 46, 47 states I do not want to live in. Who are these people who want to live in most states?

I grew up right off the GW bike path, which is probably the best running in dc. Anywhere out west would be better and, just from experience, Madison, wi is much better too

S Christensen praise??? wrote:

If we were to do a serious analysis of good to great locations for runners in western hemisphere, we would analyze places like: Georgetown, CO, Cloudcroft, NM & Toluca, Mexico. Not too hot in summer time. Not too cold in winter time. It would be easier to make shoulders wide enough on roads and build trails in locations I just stated than it would be to make Stillwater, MN a great running location year around.

This is exactly why NAU is The School for XC and Flagstaff is on this list

I can’t say I disagree, it was more the political nonsense slant of the post. So partisan that everything is boiled down to party loyalty.

amchugh89 wrote:

S Christensen praise??? wrote:

If we were to do a serious analysis of good to great locations for runners in western hemisphere, we would analyze places like: Georgetown, CO, Cloudcroft, NM & Toluca, Mexico. Not too hot in summer time. Not too cold in winter time. It would be easier to make shoulders wide enough on roads and build trails in locations I just stated than it would be to make Stillwater, MN a great running location year around.

This is exactly why NAU is The School for XC and Flagstaff is on this list

Hot as heck in the summer, and snows a ton in the winter. I don't mind that everyone loves Flagstaff, but temperate it is not.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Idaho real estate has skyrocketed in the last year. Easily doubled in most markets around Boise. East Idaho less so.

You're saying the house prices have doubled in one year? Wow.

Yes, perhaps even more in some locales. One house in our neighborhood was bid up 30% and sold in hours.

Uh, not so sure about Stillwater. I haven´t run there, but went to other college in Oklahoma. The dirt road system there was very accessible, and things could have been worse. But the roads there are totally straight and boring, it is usually very windy, and summers are crazy hot.

My bad. I was the one that misinterpreted Oklahoma instead of Minnesota. I agree, it is crazy hot and humid in an Oklahoma summer.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I agree, it is crazy hot and humid in an Oklahoma summer.

I feel like 80% of Americans say that where they live it is "crazy warm/humid" in the summer, but you rarely hear people who actually live in crazy humid places complain about the summer.

Summers in most of the US feel very warm and humid to their residents because they have such nice spring and fall weather, so they're not prepared. If you live in Southwest/South Florida or the Carribean, you've had warm/humid weather for basically 365 days a year, so running at dawn in July is uncomfortable but very bearable.

Just to put it in perspective, October from Tampa to Naples to Miami is warmer and more humid than the warmest most humid month in any area of the US that's not right on the Gulf of Mexico. July in Oklahoma would not feel bad to someone who was used to warm humid weather.

Any way, all of this is to say that I still think the best year-round running weather would be way, way south of most of the responses on this thread. Tallahassee was a good suggestion, and I would guess something like Houston is good too. Tampa has never hit 100 degrees, ever, so all you have to do is not whine about sweating. Obviously miss out on the scenery of some of these places, but at least you can run every day. These other places are awesome to visit for a run, though.

I dont know why some people are so concerned with 'nice running weather all year long'. I have a treadmill with a TV mounted on the wall and a Roku stick. To me it beats even just road running on a nice day sometimes because I don't have to deal with any traffic etc... and can just focus on whatever pace(s) I want to run in a climate controlled environment. Also, in the winter sometimes it is nice running weather when the snow is either packed or cleared and the temps not too low, snow on the trees, its quite out etc... And having seasons in general is just nice. Its nice to switch it up and run in different conditions. I think it makes me a stronger runner. While most of them eventually move to the mountains we've had some great trail runners for example, come out of Minnesota.

I agree that if you can handle treadmill running then many of these northern places would be a great option. I would just rather not run than run on a treadmill.

TheShuffle wrote:

There was a reason Paula Radcliffe lived here when she was training.

Easy access to the juice.

Raysism wrote:

I agree that if you can handle treadmill running then many of these northern places would be a great option. I would just rather not run than run on a treadmill.

Agreed. I have lived in the south my whole life and am uses to being able to go outside for a run basically any day of the year with not too much more than a long sleeve shirt in the winter. Summers can be tough but I usually acclimate within a couple weeks after the humidity hits.

Best places I can think of for running would be chattanooga and asheville. Both have tons of trails that are relatively easy to access. Really like they mullins cove loop in chattanooga and anything up on the inglesfield gap side of bent creek near asheville. Chattanooga gets less snow than asheville so that's a plus, and it's in Tennessee so the taxes are better plus more affordable housing. While I can think of a couple places that I like running in the summer better (jackson wyoming and the front range of colorado), not being able to access the trails for 4 or 5 months out of the year is a huge detractor.

shootpost wrote:

The canal?

I would probably pick charlottesville over DC tho.

Charlottesvile? When the Reebok Track Club was formed, I was talking to someone with UVA ties about the Reebok Track Club being based there adn said, "I don't get why it's there - Charlottesville must great for running, is that true?" He replied, "No it's awful. There are no trails and every run is extremely hilly so you can't do good tempo work."

Was he lying?

I lived in DC and loved it. I could do a 20 mile loop and 75% of it was on trails via some combination of Rock Creek Park and canal and bike path.

rojo wrote:

shootpost wrote:

The canal?

I would probably pick charlottesville over DC tho.

Charlottesvile? When the Reebok Track Club was formed, I was talking to someone with UVA ties about the Reebok Track Club being based there adn said, "I don't get why it's there - Charlottesville must great for running, is that true?" He replied, "No it's awful. There are no trails and every run is extremely hilly so you can't do good tempo work."

Was he lying?

I lived in DC and loved it. I could do a 20 mile loop and 75% of it was on trails via some combination of Rock Creek Park and canal and bike path.

The city of Charlottesville isn't great but the area outside of it is awesome with a lot of dirt roads, which IMO may be the best running surface. If he was only in the downtown area then he may not have been aware of it. You are correct that it's hilly out there though.

That 20 mile loop of the canal, Capital Crescent, and Rock Creek Park is awesome. DC is a great running town.

No idea how this list was developed, but Stillwater is my favorite place to run. Part of it might be how supportive the community is. Find a local and she/he will show you some solid routes. Also, trails are fairly plentiful nearby - sunfish, lake elmo park, pine point, afton, William O’Brien.

This is Jim Kiler wrote:

I'm a 25 minute drive from a hundred miles of trails at 5-6000 feet, a mile from a track, a mile from a dirt track, a mile from a park with several 1K loops in hilly terrain, I can run straight uphill from my house for 6 miles, I can run lateral from my house for eight miles both ways so it's flat, I wear shorts every day, it never snows, and when it's not a global pandemic, I can choose from trail races, halves and fulls, 10 and 5K races, and track events every weekend of the year.

I only wish I'd figured this out 25 years ago.

Is this a joke? Where do you live?

Just for a fun comparison, here is a list of “The Best Running Cities In America” from the December 1984 issue of The Runner magazine:

#1 - Johnson City, TN

2 - Atlanta, GA

3 - Boston, MA

4 - Boulder, CO

5 - Eugene, OR

6 - Honolulu, HI

7 - Portland, OR

8 - San Diego, CA

9 - San Francisco, CA

10 - Durham, NC

11 - Harrisburg, PA

12 - Louisville, KY

13 - Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN

14 - New Orleans, LA

15 - Phoenix, AZ

16 - Seattle, WA

17 - Washington DC

18 - Austin, TX

19 - Chicago, IL

20 - Great Falls, MT

21 - Huntsville, AL

22 - Jacksonville, FL

23 - Kansas City, MO

24 - New York City, NY

25 - State College, PA

Much different from a list which would be compiled today by running enthusiasts.