Best and Worst Places you ever trained

Best:

Rockefeller State Park, Tarrytown, NY

Trails near Independence, Ohio (South of Cleveland)

Worst:

Richmond, VA -- was there for a week, found only either dead-end subdivisions or 4-lane no-shoulder overtrafficked speedways

Among vacation-type sites...

Best was Nantucket. Probably 15-20 miles of trails in the bogs in the center of the islandand it is probably the only uncrowded place on the island. Plus there are runnable paths at Sanford Farm off of Madaket Road

Best: Valdez, Alaska (only in the summer, obviously)

Worst: Harbin, China...105 degrees in the summer, -35 in the winter. not to mention the pollution and total lack of parks or trails and streets filled with drivers who dont obey any traffic laws and are likely to drive on the sidewalk. i did run by some of the most interesting things i've ever seen though (people selling chipmunks, a guy putting on a show with a monkey and two dogs...)

Actually, the only place I've ever been on the Outer Banks is Ocacroke and we were there for 5 days -- and the running was decent and it was very beautiful. We're staying in Hatteras this time and I think that island is narrower maybe, with fewer places to get off the main road.

If you have suggestions where to run, let me know! I'd appreciate it very much!

Thanks for the encouragement -- I can't get out of this trip!

Best: Midland, MI - I think this was mentioned earlier.

Worst: Singapore - This was also mentioned earlier, and basically no real place to run, though I'm sure if I had been to Dhaka, Bangeledash, I would probably say that, as it sounds much worse.

Best Seasonal: Ithaca in the summer.

Best Year-round: Berkeley, if only because of the lack of extremes.

Worst: Basically any major city in China. I haven't been to Dhaka, but poor people and shop owners did follow me around in China when I wasn't running.

Biggest error on this thread so far: Someone put Princeton under best. I spent a summer at Princeton and ran with some of the locals, and I've got to say that as much as people talked it up, I was not impressed at all.

I've been stationed at two of the worst places in the entire world for running:

Johnson Atoll and Vostok Station.

Agree Ithaca best in summer--perfect, but worst in winter--cold, wind, and almost every day, clouds and rain or snow

MG. I will be there in June so I will know something then .

Best: Out my front door in Marin County, three all-weather track within 20 minutes running time, a flat rail-trial, and 100 miles plus of single track trials and fire roads of every kind. I can run to the beach in an hour and fifteen minutes or run all day and only cross a couple of lightly trafficked roads. Redwoods or open meadows at my beck and call. Plus the PAUSATF has a great racing schedule.

Worst: I've actually enjoyed pretty much every place I've ever run, although some of them were awful for running (Southern Florida, Several large cities were I had to run from my hotel in the midst of dense urbanity) I still enjoyed getting to see a new place on foot. I just wouldn't want to run in these places every day.

Asheville/Brevard NC is one of the best places I've trained at. Great weather, trails, plenty of decent tracks in the area.

Vegas is terrible, anywhere in Ohio or Kentucky is pretty bad

I don't think he was bashing Miami just teling the truth. Miami sucks for training. I think it's common knowledge and yes I train in So. Fla.

Best: The grasslands of Mongolia - no trails, just lots of grass.

Worst: North Korea - limited to a small loop just outside the hotel.

Best:

1)Huron National Forest, Michigan

2)Midland, Michigan

3)Smokey Mountain National Park

Worst:

1)Sweetwater, Tennessee

2)St. Clair Shores, Michigan

3)Saginaw, Michigan

Worst: Leeds, U.K. especially if you are not used to cars driving on the wrong side of the road. It is polluted. There are tons of cross streets, so you can't run more than a few blocks without stopping for traffic. Also, I kept looking the wrong way at intersections. Why are those cars going the wrong way?

I also liked Oxford for the week I was there, you get the added benefit of swinging by Sir Roger's first sub 4, makes getting motivated that much easier.

Cheers.

Best

1. Jasper - Banff relay

2. along Bondi Beach in Sydney, AUS

3. Diamond Head trail in Honolulu

Worst

1. almost anywhere in New Delhi

muddy girl

although the outer banks isn't a great place to run i would join you in a heartbeat to go back.

Best: Taos, New Mexico.

runner up Philadelphia, PA

Worst: TIE: Orlando, Florida and Sedona, Arizona

in leeds i enjoyed training in roundhay park and the countryside beyond.