Or where did your worst location-specific running experience happen?
Los Angeles. Concrete and pollution. Very little access to open space or even sidewalks once you are away from the coast. San Antonio was bad as well. Many of the same non-pedestrian friendly attributes plus miserable heat. Cities in general suck. Denver and the burbs were pretty nice.
I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the trail access when I was in San Antonio. There are reasonably nice river/creek trails spread throughout most of the city.
LA also has some great parks in the hillier parts of the city, but it is always astounding to me how awful everywhere between downtown and the ocean is.
US cities in general are extremely location dependent. I grew up in Philly with pretty close access to the Wissahickon trail system, which is a pretty amazing place to run. My cousins grew up a few miles away in south philly and had essentially no running options, just a huge concrete jungle.
My worst running experience is in the small midwest college town where my brother coaches. Looking at satellite imagery you'd think it's great; there are a bunch of rivers and creeks nearby with decent woods around them, and once you're a mile or two out from town you're in the countryside. I would have guessed there were some nice trails near the water and plenty of tiny windy dirt roads to run on, but no. All of the water and bits of wood are on private property and all of the rural roads are paved and perfectly straight with high speed limits and barely any shoulder before getting to the farm fences. The nearest park with more than a mile of trails is nearly an hour drive and isn't even particularly nice. My brother's students mostly do track workouts or endless loops around the soccer and baseball pitches.
Or where did your worst location-specific running experience happen?
Wheeling, West Virginia. Or some city really close to it. The road towards Wheeling had no trail or sidewalk, and there was a lot of mobile homes and dogs that made me feel uncomfortable running near to.
The most unpleasant- was running near the Indianapolis airport on a hot July afternoon.
It was very hot and humid. There was no pedestrian or bicycle infrastructure. No grass or trees. Lots of windy freeway type roads, with no exits and high fences, and lots of rude monsters trucksters.
The most difficult was rush hour in Paris. There were just too many pedestrians, cars, traffic lights and e bikes.
My experiences running in developing world cities has been better.
The airport is over 10 miles from downtown Indy and in the middle of knowwhere like many aiports. Why you running outside the airport?
Kigali is a beautiful city...very safe, pretty, and solid infrastructure.
My worst run was, of all places, Washington DC, just outside of the Mall. So many sketched out people around, bad roads. The Mall itself was nice though and it was epic to run to the Lincoln Memorial. .
Keep in mind that when I was in Nairobi & Blantyre Malawi I didn't bother run...just too unsafe (at the time) for a foreigner.
DC?! You were a nine iron away from paved and soft surface trails that follow Potomac/C&O for like 180 miles. Even just loops on the Mall or Hains Point can be nice. DC has the best running of any big city imho.
I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the trail access when I was in San Antonio. There are reasonably nice river/creek trails spread throughout most of the city.
💯.
Ignore silly comments that bash America's best city
This post was edited 17 seconds after it was posted.
One interesting trend: Recent Olympic Marathon Trials have been in really bad places to run if you're staying near the start/finish area without a vehicle.
Houston 2012: Buffalo Bayou park a little more than a mile away. On one run, the 10ish minutes of running to get back to the hotel took more than 15 minutes because of stoplights. For shorter runs, few-minute loops around the Astrodome.
LA 2016: MacArthur Park of song fame was a little more than 2 miles away. In the park you could cobble together a mileish loop. Otherwise up and down busy boulevards.
Atlanta 2020: About 2.5 miles to Piedmont Park via a busy road. Otherwise, 3-minute loops around Centennial Park or tooling around the University of Georgia campus.
Orlando 2024: Small loops around various and sundry lakes. Good sprint practice crossing any road so as to not get taken out by souped-up pickups and low riders.
Savannah, GA. Tourists and art students everywhere. Hot and humid. Nothing but hard concrete and bricks.
One quick thing for readers: if you have a car, just head over the Talmadge Bridge to Hutchinson Island and there are some good running roads near the golf club. It is like a total of one mile from downtown. Very few cars over there and while it is still hot as buns, you can at least knock out some miles. I used to be in Sav for work a lot and I would stay at the Westin on the Hutchinson side of the River so I could wake up and run.
One of the most idiotic decisions Savannah made was to NOT put in a pedestrian lane on the Talmadge. Boneheaded move. You can technically run over the bridge on the shoulder, but I wouldn't feel safe doing it.
C’mon man. Alamosa is a decent place to run. Nice paths along the Rio. Network of single track trails by the golf course. All kinds of dirt roads. There are far worse places.
Kigali is a beautiful city...very safe, pretty, and solid infrastructure.
My worst run was, of all places, Washington DC, just outside of the Mall. So many sketched out people around, bad roads. The Mall itself was nice though and it was epic to run to the Lincoln Memorial. .
Keep in mind that when I was in Nairobi & Blantyre Malawi I didn't bother run...just too unsafe (at the time) for a foreigner.
How this has 7 upvotes is beyond me. DC is easily one of the best major cities for running.
A couple years ago I ran out our conference championship in Monroe, Louisana. The place just sucks. They do have drive-through daiquiris though. If I wasn't there to race I definitely woulda got one.
I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the trail access when I was in San Antonio. There are reasonably nice river/creek trails spread throughout most of the city.
💯.
Ignore silly comments that bash America's best city