Haha, spoken like a true FIB! Please stay out of my state and enjoy Illinois' "natural splendor".
Haha, spoken like a true FIB! Please stay out of my state and enjoy Illinois' "natural splendor".
I would take Utah off the list. The only races worth running are St.George Marathon & The Moab 1/2. Poor trail running, all races are on Saturday and no Running stores open on Sunday.
Aloha Warrior wrote:
I would take Utah off the list. The only races worth running are St.George Marathon & The Moab 1/2. Poor trail running, all races are on Saturday and no Running stores open on Sunday.
Yes. Plus the aesthetics, trail access, and crowds are murder. Hear Colorado is nice though.
York Elmhurst wrote:
Def Illinois.
Illinois High School All Time 1600m List (This was before Verzibicas, Driggs, Jager, Derrick, Withrow, Torres')
1. 3:58.9 Donald Sage 2000 Elmhurst York
2. 4:02.1 Tom Sullivan '61 - Evanston St. George.
3. 4:04.0 Dave Merrick '71 - New Lenox Lincoln-Way.
4. 4:04.1 Craig Virgin '73 - Lebanon.
5. 4:04.8 Jim Spivey '78 - Bensenville Fenton
6. 4:05.0 Stephen Pifer 2003 – Edwardsville.
7. 4:05.7 Andy Isla-Rupert '70 - Hillside Proviso West.
8. 4:05.7 Todd McCallister '77.
9. 4:06.1 Mark Deady '85 - Lincolnshire Stevenson.
10. 4:06.4 Ron Wartgow '76 - Belvidere.
11. 4:06.6 Bill Fritz '74 - Glen Ellyn Glenbard West.
12. 4:06.9 Mike Durkin '71 - River Grove Holy Cross.
13. 4:07.2 Robert Gary '91 - Evanston.
14. 4:07.2 Bob Hicks '77 - Orland Park Sandburg.
15. 4:07.3 Bruce Bowman '65 - Hillside Proviso West.
16. 4:07.3 Jim White '85 - Elmhurst York.
17. 4:07.9 Ken Popejoy '69 - Glen Ellyn Glenbard West.
18. 4:07.9 Tom Graves '77 - Orland Park Sandburg.
19. 4:08.0 Kevin Hedenberg '89 - Schaumburg.
20. 4:08.2 Tim Phillips '84 - Arlington Heights St. Viator.
21. 4:08.5 Matt Nolan '80 - Naperville Central. was 1600m
22. 4:08.6 Lee Labadie '68 - Des Plaines Maine West.
23. 4:08.6 Reo Rorem '76 - Gilman.
24. 4:08.8 Dick Babb '70 - Homewood-Flossmoor.
25. 4:08.8 Ray Cardinal '77 - Wauconda.
26. 4:09.0 Tom Stevens '79 - Deerfield.
27. 4:09.1 Ron Craker '76 - Elmhurst York.
28. 4:09.2 Marius Bakken '96 - Elmhurst York.
29. 4:09.4 Rich Elliott '68 - Hillside Proviso West.
30. 4:09.5 Jim Hurt '72 - Hillside Proviso West.
31. 4:09.5 Mark McAllister '78 - Deerfield.
32. 4:09.6 Rick Johnson '70 - Northlake West Leyden.
33. 4:09.7 Kip Smith '75 - Oak Park-River Forest.
34. 4:09.8 Dave Berg '71 - Decatur Stephen Decatur.
35. 4:09.9 John Sullivan '77 - Dolton Thornridge.
Well... Washington has had 35 guys under 4:09.9 as well, and has half the population...
But I'm not sure what having a good amount of high schoolers under 4:10 has to do with being states with great running opportunities (i.e. weather, terrain, altitude, etc.) ... :)
I hope that's a joke. Yeah, yeah, you can't get to a running store on Sunday, but for those of us who are well prepared, we don't find ourselves in sudden need of something that can't wait a day. Most races are on Saturday, but how is that a bad thing? Saturday and Sunday are pretty equal days to race IMO. As for the trails, I have spent a lot of time in quite a few states and raced trail races in many different states (UT, CA, CO, ID, MN, VA, MD, TX, SD, AZ, WA, etc) and the trails here are simply unparalleled. I took a Colorado trail runner up Neff's Canyon a few weeks ago and his quote from the peak was "Wow, this is way better than Colorado." Oh, and he lives in Boulder. Yes, we have silly Mor(m)ons, but our trails are the best in the country. Try running some Alta/Brighton loops and telling me otherwise.
Only haters would leave Kentucky off that list.
New England is not a state.
yes wrote:
1. California
2. Oregon
3. Colorado
4. Texas
5. Arizona
6. New Mexico
7. New England
8. Pennsylvania
9. New York
10. Washington
Honorable mentions include: Minnesota, Florida, and Virginia.
Factors to consider are: Climate, geography, running community, air quality, and cost of living.
I live in Central PA and personally think it's a great place to run. Lots of hills, easy access to trails and mountains, predictable climate, good local running community with plenty of competition, and living in the capital area was ranked #2 as the best place to live.
If we are talking about the most quality of athletes produced from each state: Illinois, California, New York, Mass., Texas, Ohio are all right up there. Mostly because these are also the bigger states in terms of population.
If we are talking about weather, scenery, trails, etc. than California, Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon would all be right up there.
I'm from Illinois and I can tell you running is pretty big in this state and we host fantastic state cross country and track meets and produce a ton of good runners. The winters are cold and the summers are scorching, but there are good spots around the state for training. The Chicago area has some amazing trail systems available. I would say Illinois is right up there with any state.
I've lived in CA, CO, NY, PA and now MA and while it's true there are a lot of road races in MA, training just plain sucks. The trails are full of rocks, mosquitoes and deer flies; the drivers on the roads are insane; and the weather just plain sucks (Oct. is nice).
Plus, the politics here are just idiotic: the stupid voters reject lowering the sales tax but just get plain giddy when the state government announces a two-day sales tax holiday coming up in August.
Can't wait to get the hell out of here.
Facts to Truthers wrote:
3 of the last 5 Americans to place at a major marathon are from Los Angeles: Meb, Deena, and Ryan.
What on earth are you talking about? They don't live in LA and none were born there. Or do you just consider anything in California as LA?
Free Advice wrote:
If quality runners are the determining factor, number one has to be Illinois:
Luke V
Torres
Torres
Sage
Withrow
Broe
Jager
Derrick
Going back a ways:
Virgin
Popejoy
Wohlhuter
These are off the top of my head, I've probably missed a few.
Illinois definitely produces the best runners per population. And more, all those guys with the exception of Virgin and Broe are from the Chicago area. No metropolitan area in the country produces better runners. California's top guys are split between tons of huge cities. Almost every runner you've ever heard of from Illinois is from the Chicago metropolitan area.
And also, I haven't followed it very closely since, but my senior year of high school (2007) Chicago runners went 2nd and 7th at Footlocker, 1st and 4th at NTN, and Chicago teams took 1st and 9th at NTN. Illinois is the best state and Chicago is the best city.
I'll throw in a vote for OH, but I will limit it to the Northeast part of the state in which the mass of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is located. Hundreds of miles of trails (literally) to train on. The Burning River 100 Mile endurance race is taking place this weekend and is serving as the 2011 USATF 100M Trail Ntnl Champnshp. This along with many other ultramarathon covering the CVNP signify just how vast and runner-friendly the terrain in NE OH truly is. There are also many metropark systems around lakes and forest preserves throughout the NE OH and greater Cleveland areas.
1. Colorado
2. California
3. Michigan
4. North Carolina
5. Tennessee
6. Virginia
7. Oregon
8. Minnesota
9. New York
10. Washington
The best states for distance running are probably the ones that the pros and post-collegians continue to train in (after moving from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Texas, OKlahoma, etc)...
Oregon
Colorado
Arizona
California
New Mexico, then the leftovers...
Washington
Utah
Idaho
Virginia
Massachusetts
3 of the last 5 Americans to place at a major marathon are from Los Angeles: Meb, Deena, and Ryan.
You got that right. Meb, Deena, and Ryan are our L.A. kids.
1,000 of great runners are from L.A. and SoCal. Jordan Hasay, Steve Scott, Billy Nelson, Ruth Wysocki, Marion Jones, Allyson Felix, A.J Acosta, Lauren Fleshman, .... they keep being born and raised in L.A. and SoCal.....
1. California
2. Texas
3. Hawaii
4. Oklahoma
5. Arkansas
6. Arizona
7. New Mexico
8. Florida
9. Louisiana
10. Georgia
I prefer a warmer climate...anything below 60 is too cold for me!
yarbles wrote:
agree on hawaii NOT being the place to train. i did a lot of running on the big island (hawaii itself) and between the weather that you are frequently running on road are strikes against.
Hmmm, I dunno i'll take 75 and stormy in the winter over -20 with ice and wind any day of my life.
Delaware is the best running state bar none. Boom.
you've gotta be kidding me with texas and oklahoma in your top 4 and no washington/oregon. the south sucks for distance running unless you prefer 90-100 and 100 percent humidity...give my coolant rain, the ability to do workouts any time of day in the summer, the trails be it cougar mountain, forest park, manatash ridge in eastern washington, or anything in the forests that are abundant in both statse, the road runs like the riverfront in portland or around lake washington in seattle. i've lived in both and there's no comparison