The Ten Worst States for Distance Running

Didn't NJ go 1-2 at Nationals last year in the 3200 with the Rosa twins?? And add cheserek to that mix, plus the other year andrews was lighting up the hs ranks and if not mistaken, still considers himself a NJ resident. NJ is definitely a top state in terms of running. Maybe not the best running trails, etc, but it churns out exceptional runners year after year. much more than most states. ya queer.

The Smartest Let's Run Poster wrote:

fast wrote:

In the past 2 years in Nj there had been over 10 sub 9 minute 3200m runners, and two of those were capable of sub 8:40 (Cheserek and Joe Rosa). I think that NJ belongs in the top five best states for distance running, at least for high school.

This isn't Dyestat.com. New Jersey ranks in the top 5 of states with the most reality television shows per capita. That's about it.

quebec?

Minnesota sucks the big one for distance running most of the year, period.

Tops the list of worst states to run in.

Anxiety

Depression

Feverish (to name a few)

[quote]beeen there wrote:

Oregon.... road racing there sucks balls for many reasons.

Enlighten us please.

He left out his own state.

4/10. much too confrontational, responds excessively. managed to get many responses and some controversy but overall this is pretty low quality stuff.

Anybody who says training in unusually cold or hot weather makes you tough is stupid. That's like football coaches from the seventies saying if you drink water during practice it makes you soft. The problem with American Distance Running is to many people think it's about being "tough" and "suffering" and don't realize you can actually minimize the suffering in a race by training smart and effective.

A lot of you also struggle with reading comprehension and will struggle to make decent scores on your SAT's and ACT's. The OP said to take into consideration more than just how good the high school running is from a state or how many top flight distance runners come from a state. There are a great many factors that go into making a state good for running, not just this misconception that somehow the genes of people in Wisconsin are more conducive for running than the genes of people in Kansas (home of Jim Ryun mind you).

A large portion of the Appalachian South is good for running because of huge amounts of trails as well as strong running communities, enough cities for competitive road races, and fairly decent weather year run. The same can be sad for the Pacific North West and New England. Other states in the mid-Atlantic and the Upper Midwest are flat and have to many "trails" that are mostly concrete, and have such large changes in weather that it makes consistent training impossible.

So sorry if somebody from New Jersey was offended. I'm glad there are great trails in South Jersey but your major population hub and the majority of your business is still centered in the northern part of the state close to NYC so that has to weigh heavier into compiling a bs list than anything else.

Lexington Steele wrote:

Missouri and Minnesota should not be on there. Tennessee and West Virginia are far worse running states.

Tennessee is a great running state. Nashville, Knoxville, and Johnson City and i guess chattanooga (never really been there) are awesome places to run who produce alot of good hs runners not to mention the womens mid d program at UT. Now as of west Tennessee... yea not much going on out there. The memphis area has produced some good talent but as far as training and the running community.. not so much.

joe9090 wrote:

NJ is the smallest state to produce the most sub 4 minute milers, which I think is 11. New Hampshire only has 1 4 minute miler. It seemed in the NCAA basketball finals a quarter of the player were from NJ.

Its also the most densely populate state, so that would only make sense.

Every one keep thinking North Dakota is an armpit. It keeps new people from coming here and keeps it the way we want it, crime and douchebag free.

I love that the defense of Mississippi relied in large part on Memphis and New Orleans.

Texas should be on that list. Barely any pro distance runners from there

The Smartest Let's Run Poster wrote:

From worst to tenth worst:

1. Nebraska

2. Mississippi

3. North Dakota

4. Louisiana

5. New Jersey

6. Alabama

7. South Dakota

8. Iowa

9. Minnesota

10. Missouri

Please don't respond to this thread. Comments about states on this list or not on this list are not permitted. This list is accurate and is based on years of research and is for informational purposes only.

You do have the right to disagree with this list and you also will be wrong if you do.

Factors considered are weather, terrain, quality of races, quality of runners, and other factors.

This is a great thread, and an instant classic. But if no on responded it would just float to the bottom. It's out of your hands now, smarty pants so you had better just hang on for the ride.

For one thing, some of the criteria might need better definition. Keep working on it and maybe a 2 or 3 D multivariate scatter plot can be developed and some sort of consensus

For example, weather. Pick your poison, south Texas where it's unbearably hot and humid for 5 months of the year or Minnesota where it's iced under? Which is worse? Maybe a table that classifies bad weather in terms of temperature (number of days above 90, below 10, etc), humidity, wind, snow cover, rainfall etc. Pick an ideal range of temperature, humidity, precipitation (frozen in particular) and then determine the criteria that deviate greatly from that (like above), and come up with some scores for each state. And then states can be classified accordingly.

Bad hot weather states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, etc.

Bad cold weather states: Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine.

Terrain is pretty easy. Usually empty prairie is pretty boring, and degree of urbanization can also be an important factor. Across the board, plains states lose: North and South Dakota (western parts are actually pretty nice), Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, much of Texas take the worst tier. Slightly better are prairie states like Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio.

Actually quality of races can be objectified fairly easily. What are the biggest/most competitive races, and what kinds of times do people run per capita. Find USATF championship road races and see how the top 10 or 50 men or women stack up, and weight that with total population so you come up with an index: 0.xx% of the population runs such and such time. But you have to consider outsiders into the mix. So while Iowa no longer has all that many 29 min 10K runners, they do host some big and fast races like Bix 7 miler and the 4th of July 8K in Cedar Rapids, plus Drake Relays, and etc. Those are quality races and should be factored into the equation.

Quality of runners. Maybe break that down to high school performance level (e.g., N sub 4:20 milers/100,000 people), college/university rankings, and quality and quantity of post college runners who make it to pro level. You also have to consider the quality of people. For example Minnesota does have a bevy of good runners, but people in the Twin Cities in particular tend to be somewhat insular and conceited about their state, so that's a mark against them. Same goes for Boulder. Now don't get me wrong, Boulder has some nice quality people, but for level of per capita conceit about where you live, nothing tops it.

So you have a lot of work to do before this project can meet the standards of peer review. Better get to it.

Your mom sucks.

[quote]Mr. Clif wrote:

Your mom sucks.[/quote

The start of school can't get here fast enough.

Smartest Poser on LetsRun wrote:

Sorry, no list like this is complete unless you include Kansas. Visiting Kansas is like finding testicles on a chick.

in that case i visited kansas with your mom last night.

The Smartest Let's Run Poster wrote:

fsdffsdfsd wrote:

Minnesota is one of the top states in the US for distance running.

I knew the folks from Minnesota would be out in full force. Get back to me in November to March when you have ice covering your concrete and it's too cold, snowy, windy, and icy to run outside.

It doesn't get too cold in Wisconsin or Minnesota to run outside. Maybe one day a year when there is -50 degree windchills or something. Get the sand out of your vagina.

The things people need to understand about New Jersey is that the turnpike, which is what a lot of you know, was built through the worst parts of the state, which are pretty close to being the worst parts of America. Seriously, there are nightmarishly awful places on that route. But by doing that, the best parts of the state were preserved, and there are plenty that are great. And it does have a thriving running culture.