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.
Who would run in MacArthur Park, especially in 2016?
It might be less seedy now, but it and that whole area were an open air drug market about the time of the trials.
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.
Who would run in MacArthur Park, especially in 2016?
It might be less seedy now, but it and that whole area were an open air drug market about the time of the trials.
I would, because I didn't know better and could find nowhere else to run. I didn't say it was idyllic.
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.
Haha I was pretty ignorant, then. My path was from my hotel across from the baseball stadium to the Mall. That was the section, as the sun was going down on a hot summer night, that I hated. The mal itself was great. And, fair enough, I had no clue about the other routes (I just wanted the experience of running at the Mall). If I'm ever in the area again I'll do better research and drive to a good running spot if I'm staying at one that isn't so great 😁
Yeah I never ran in Victorville CA, but stopped to get gas once. That was enough. Between me and Mrs FLINT we had 3 loaded firearms with us and I still couldn't wait to get the heck out of there. I feel sorry for Victor.
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.
Haha I was pretty ignorant, then. My path was from my hotel across from the baseball stadium to the Mall. That was the section, as the sun was going down on a hot summer night, that I hated. The mal itself was great. And, fair enough, I had no clue about the other routes (I just wanted the experience of running at the Mall). If I'm ever in the area again I'll do better research and drive to a good running spot if I'm staying at one that isn't so great 😁
Yep, that is a tough one and it makes sense. I can see where you'd get all caught up in that SW part of the city. You can make that a decent route by heading over towards the Wharf and cutting through L'Enfant, but even that is less than ideal.
Definitely check out the running in DC next time you are there. I lived there for a while and miss the options. Solid trails, loops, parks, etc. All of it right off the main area.
Ive been to Lagos 3x to recruit sprinters for the university here in san antonio where i coach.
By 2049, Lagos is supposed to be the most populated city in the world. Even with the hiv rate and terrorist group bolo haram, the birth rate still outweighs the death rate. Its sad.
Chicago, on the lakefront trail. Not the city's fault, though. I slipped on some ice in the dark and broke my arm nearly in two. Imagine trying to get back to the hotel or flag down someone on the Chicago lakefront trail at 5:00am with a bone sticking out of your arm. This was pre mobile phone.
I loved running in Chicago, especially along the lakefront, but I did the same thing - also predawn, in winter, with no one around and no one likely to come around. I was damn lucky I didn't slide right into the lake, as where I fell (near Fullerton) the path is very close.
I had to drag myself into Lincoln Park and walk until I was able to flag down a police car.
By far Schaerbeek, Brussels. A friend booked a hotel there without checking the neighbourhood. Full of garbage and misery. Thankfully it got better just a few minutes‘ run due south.
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