Where is the worst place to be a runner in the US?

urban southeast actually is one of best places in US for running -- winters are great, no snow, little traffic and congestion compared to cities in NE. Summer heat/humidity oppressive, but training in those conditions is an advantage like training at altitude. If SE wasn't so focused on having best athletes play football, SEC would dominate distance running on collegiate level like it does with football now.

At night any running Black man is a suspect. If you live in a hot climate and you prefer to run after sundown, you will be harassed as a Black man.

Alan Bennet wrote:

Prison.

Mental hospital.

Having visited 48 of the states and lived for at least a year as runner in 9 of them, the southeast was the clear leader in worst place to be a runner. Now, I get that the Midwest weather can be brutal and their sidewalks seen mythical, but the Alabama in particular took it to another level.

Instead of just verbal abuse hurled my way as in many states, I had objects thrown (think beer empties). I had several cars menace me by driving an aggressive line in areas with no sidewalk, but the capper was the one that steered over the white line and got it's tires on the dirt shoulder at 45 miles an hour at 3pm in full daylight to make me dodge even farther off the shoulder.

Naturally, I adjusted by switching to running at night whenever possible... Can't hit what you can't see. That worked fine until i got pulled over during an interval workout at 10pm. Tried to ignore the officer, but when the lights went on and I was the only soul in sight, well it was an interesting conversation as I explained how experience has taught me that it was safer not to be seen by these locals when running.

Have only run in Mississippi and Louisiana a half dozen days, so they might be worse but those are the only other contenders with Alabama in my experience.

North Philly is rough. Not much soft surface, very few trails and as a white man, they assumed I was lost and/or mentally ill, which I was on both counts.

brain problems wrote:

Alan Bennet wrote:

Prison.

Mental hospital.

Where the heck were you, WTR, in terms of cities, when you got bottles thrown at you?

Alabama can be rough. I lived south of Mobile until I graduated from college. Moved out West as soon as I graduated. For the most part, I never had too much trouble with crazed rednecks, I just hated the heat, humidity and bugs.

Wyoming - Laramie/Cheyenne ... If the wind isn't blowing, you're not in Wyoming. ;-) No/few trees, snow, cold, rednecks.

Houston - hot, humid, Texas. ;-)

I've done a fair amount of running in two locations - ND and CO. I've lived in ND almost all my life so I've put in thousands of miles there. To some (like Mr. I-can-only-run-in-October) it might sound like the worst place to run. It is windy year round, the winters are bone chilling, and when the wind blows across the windless plains in January it can be downright dangerous to go for a run if not prepared for the conditions. Heck, if a blizzard brews up you could actually be in a pickle finding your way home on a gravel road (although you shouldn't be stupid enough to go running outside when a blizzard is forecasted). Spring is quite nice and I believe most would agree with me. You'd think summer in ND wouldn't be bad either, but not everyone realizes that ND summers can be extremely humid, making days in the 90's-low 100's seem much worse. All that being said, I love running in ND. When I lived out of town I could go for a 15 mile long run on a gravel road without seeing another person. The solitude is amazing, although maybe not for someone who needs to run with a group. As for the weather, I see it as a nice way to keep things interesting. A challenge you might say. I've run in everything from -40* wind chills to 110* humidity. Sure, I enjoy the 50* days in fall and spring, but some extreme weather here and there keeps it from getting too boring and is good mental training as well.

As for CO, I was lucky enough to get to run near Estes Park this summer. At 8k' it offers great altitude training and endless trails and mountains to run up, including many in Rocky Mtn. National Park. I loved to run the trails there but quickly found out my ankles aren't especially strong. I rolled my right ankle numerous times over the summer, even while wearing a stiff ankle brace, on trail runs. Other than that though, it was an amazing place to run - I could've run every day of the summer on a new stretch of trail within a half hour drive.

Consider this.... wrote:

Las Vegas sucks. I ended up running around the UNLV campus.

Not really. There are plenty of relatively quiet suburbs in the northwest end of town where you can comfortably do some road work, and there is very rarely any humidity so even summer the heat is tolerable after the sun goes down.

Florida.

You pussies don't know heat till you solo 14 miles in 103 heat with 90% humidity. Not to mention theres snakes and alligators everywhere.

Captain Nemo wrote:

brain problems wrote:

Mental hospital.

Submarine

Trump rally.

Do any of these people dumping on Alabama have a link proving it? Here is a link proving otherwise: http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/in-birmingham-southern-hospitality-shines-through-to-help-runners

Akron, OH

Boston is by far the worst. It's filled with legal seafood loving, democrat voting pieces of trash who have repulsive accents.

Boston is by far the worst. It's filled with legal seafood loving, democrat voting pieces of trash who have repulsive accents.

Boston is by far the worst. It's filled with legal seafood loving, democrat voting pieces of trash who have repulsive accents.

Boston is by far the worst. It's filled with legal seafood loving, democrat voting pieces of trash who have repulsive accents.

Boston is by far the worst. It's filled with legal seafood loving, democrat voting pieces of trash who have repulsive accents.