Best and Worst Places you ever trained

This is great info! So HELP! I'll be in the Outer Banks this summer (July, no less) despite my arguments to my siblings that there are far less expensive places (with better running ;-) )

I probably handle a couple of beach runs (though I'm not fond of running in Florida, either) Any other suggestions other than Nags Head (which I will check out)?

thanks!!!

Oh, for my places, of course I love Forest Park in Portland. I actually miss it when I'm gone and I almost never do stupid out & backs on Lief. UBC in Vancouver, BC is really nice as are many in/around Vancouver, BC.

Worst - Southern Florida. I once even found a nice loop at Walt Disney World (an 8 miler no less), but down where my relatives live, it's just awful.

Best-Lock Haven, PA (beautiful environment to train in)

Worst-Orlando, FL (too damn hot and too much highway where I was)

The Best Place: South Dakota

The Worst: The rest of the world

Gabriel,

Why trash Miami man? You grew up running there and now you're too cool? Weak man, really weak. You even won a few races there last year so you know there is a good running community. It may not be as nice as Kennesaw but we make the best of it. I hope you don't go around trashing your home town.

Best: Central Mass. - rail trails, HILLY!!! and flat areas, tons of routes on tons of surfaces, scenic, huge running club, lots of gyms, urban/rural mix, a lake in Worcester to jump into at the public parks, cross country series, local road races galore, plenty of colleges and high schools with rubber, dirt, asphault tracks...

Worst: Chicago. - Ya, they have the Lake trails and stuff but there is nothing but FLAT. and some of those Lake Trails are SLANTED CONCRETE! Plus, coming from New England, there's something really dry and "burny" about that air out there year round. Winter is windy as hell. Eh, the other seasons have some nasty wind too. Then you get smacked with the nastiest, oddly humid and dry all at once, nose bleed, crusty sunburn heat! Oh, and getting smacked by a chunk of ice blowing off the lake didn't help matters either.

Muddy Girl, I hope you like the Outer Banks, its a wonderful place. I wouldnt let the bad vibes here bring you down. They have a forest and trails, plus you can run on the beach. There is surfing, windsurfing and great fishng. If I may recomend a place to vist for the day its Ocacroke Island. Much fun !

Best-Qindao

Worst-Wenzhou

best: Waynesville/Maggie Valley/Asheville, North Carolina

-beautiful year round, A+ trails, community

worst: Lafayette, Louisiana

-it's obvious why John McDonnell left for Fayetteville, WAY too hot/humid for distance

James OBrien wrote:

To the original poster. I find it kind of humorous that you put Harrisburg because I just put a deposit down on an apartment to live there next year. Most of the city is horrible but I'm going to be much closer over to the Hershey edge and there are a bunch of good places to run around there. If you feel like getting in a car, Mt. Gretan is about 15 minutes away and has some great great trails to run on. I only know all of this though because I went to Lebanon Valley College for 4 years and have become accustomed to the area. In fact, I can't wait to move in in August and resume training down there. But to each his own I guess.

I lived by Colonial Park Mall. Running from my apartment was the pitts. You're right, though, that if you actually get in your car and drive somewhere to run, it isn't that bad. But who has time to get in their car for every run?

Sir William, so you are saying Las Vegas is on a par (a bad par) with Harrisburg, PA...is that correct? If so, you are nuts. At least Harrisburg has a river run through it.

I have run pretty much everywhere in the U.S.My crit of the statements are as follows:- Outer Banks: Agreed One of the worst - you've got pretty much one road to choose from with barely any shoulder and lots of traffic. Still I once did 30 x 1 minute sprints on it and a 22 miler. As far as hot-honey-viewing, get the boys together and bring some along with you.- So-Cal: I disagree. It's one of the best, probably the best in terms of weather. You have to see further South of L.A. and a little to the South East.-Atlanta: Agreed - one of the worst. There's only a couple parks and you've got to spend an hour getting to them by car even if it's only a few blocks away. You can always run, but then you have to deal with no shoulders, rock solid, concrete sidewalks, and strip mall auto-mobile chaos. -Alabama - Disagree: Beyuond the cities is incredible running country. One park in particular in Birmingham impressed me immensely.-Albuquerque, NM - Agreed. The Sandia Mountain foothills are some of the most amazing sites I saw in running.- Colorado - I don't think anyone would disagree. This is one of the greatest of all places to run.- A plug for upstate, NY: Try the Mohonk Preserve near New Paltz, NY. Amazing network of carriage trails through the forest, with gorges and water falls. Joh Korir trained there the year he swept the U.S. road racing circuit (Boilermaker, Falmouth, Peachtree, Bix 7) Also try the Adirondack Mountains: Miles of dirt roads. Immense green forestry. Watch the deer flys though! Also the strip of land between the Hudson river and the Massachusettes border is one of the beautiful parts of NY state and gets so little attention for it.

muddy girl wrote:

This is great info! So HELP! I'll be in the Outer Banks this summer (July, no less) despite my arguments to my siblings that there are far less expensive places (with better running ;-) )

I probably handle a couple of beach runs (though I'm not fond of running in Florida, either) Any other suggestions other than Nags Head (which I will check out)?

thanks!!!

Oh, for my places, of course I love Forest Park in Portland. I actually miss it when I'm gone and I almost never do stupid out & backs on Lief. UBC in Vancouver, BC is really nice as are many in/around Vancouver, BC.

Worst - Southern Florida. I once even found a nice loop at Walt Disney World (an 8 miler no less), but down where my relatives live, it's just awful.

Old Man by the Sea wrote:

If you can get over to Annapolis High School there are trails in the back, many are marked. Also check out Greenbury Point.

OMBTS, but you never ran there. You always ran that same 6 mile loop along the Severn River....yes?

Ive run those trails. Go there any weekday morning in the summer at 7am or so and Scott Eden will have a crew there, young Centro has been known to show up on occasion. Once or twice a week a workout is on the track , other days trails.

Worst: USS Forrestal - Trying to run in the hangar bay of an aircraft carrier sucked. There was about a quarter mile loop of dodging airplanes, trying not to trip over tie down chains and dealing with the fat f***s who are looking at you crazy because you're not eating junk food or watching porn videos. There was no glamour of running on the flight deck in the middle of the ocean.

best--Penticton BC mid August after a long summer in the Soutb

worst--Atlanta GA June-Sept

Where my inlaws go there is one road on and off the island--I believe it is Rte 12. there is no shoulder and the rednecks with pickups and SUVs and fishing equipment hanging off the front don't seem to think you have any right to the road. it is basically a game of playing chicken.

best is pretty much anyplace besides the OBX

I have never lived anywhere that didn't have great running (Harvard MA, Brunswick ME, Provo UT, Washington DC)... but the best BY FAR was Lenk, Switzerland. Hundreds of soft mountain trails and NO traffic. Plus, is there anything more beautiful than the Swiss Alps?!? I don't think it can be topped.

The worst, by far, has been Philadelphia. Gross, jerky people, repetitive, and the threat of getting shot in the face if you take a wrong turn. I hate that place with the fury of a thousand suns.

SD wrote:

The Best Place: South Dakota

The Worst: The rest of the world

Serious? Where at in South Dakota? It's a prety big state. Where I live out in the country it's all right, a lot of running on dirt, but I pretty much go out and back on the same dirt road everyday, because unless I'm doing a 30 mile run, there aren't a whole lot of turn-offs to take.

Best:

Eastbay Hills, western burbs of Chicago (amazing amount of trails...but flat), along the Potomac river on the Virginia side, Flagstaff - OK, Marin County,

Worst:

Central Rome, St Petersburg, Lisbon (worst drivers anywhere I have been), Puerto Penasco