Kansas Freaking City. Nothing but broken concrete and homeless toilets. (Note: There might be some nice outlying areas, but I was downtown and covered a lot of miles and never found a decent run.)
Visited Kansas City once and did a workout totaling 16 miles. Linked up to the rail trail south of downtown- it was great.
Everywhere I have been in India is tough running but I think that the worst was in Varanasi with no or marginal sidewalks and narrow, twisty, very heavily trafficked streets. Then add heat and dust. I gave up and used the hotel treadmill.
NYC. 5 teens tried to mug me on the northwest corner of Central Park. All looking over their shoulder at me suspiciously as I approached, then 2 guys went on either side of the path. The girl stayed on the left then pretended to accidentally step in front of me to stop me. I saw the guys closing in in my peripheral vision so I dropped my shoulder and sent her flying and took off. They gave chase for perhaps 50 yards but realized they weren't going to catch me.
Downtown Baltimore is....special. Saw a SWAT entry on an early morning run. Stuck to loops inside the Fort McHenry park after that.
I ran the Mumbai marathon (female in running shorts) and there were thousands of men lining the course, silently watching. No cheering. Trash burning on the sides of the streets. And thousands of men ogling the handful of international females in shorts. Weirdest race of my life.
Chesapeake, VA - where I grew up. It's not dangerous but it's super boring. There is one 17 mile paved trail with 2 curves on the border with nc. It was rated America's second least walkable city and that extends to running too. It's cookie cutter suburban sprawl and rural roads. I was stuck running there until I finally got a car at 18.
phoenix is so terrible. Zero trees even in the few parks, endless pavement, every road is 6 lanes. Every other place I've been to in arizona is pretty nice (depending on the heat), Tucson, Sedona, Flagstaff obviously. But Phoenix is just evil
You just didn't know where to go. The Phoenix metro area has an extensive canal system with more miles of canals than Venice and Amsterdam combined. The canals are lined with paved and unpaved dirt paths. Usually at least one side has a fully dirt path.
Portland along the River Trail. Ran into the police closing of portion of the trail because a homeless drug addict stabbed another homeless drug addict. Actually, homeless may be an incorrect term because they lived in an encampment.
Kemp , Texas!!! Wild dogs on every road. Nasty trash cans with rain water in them still on the street. A stupid cop that got kicked out of the military and his wife divorced him living in the garage of a repair shop. He stopped me when I was running and accused me of going door to door selling solar panels. And again more dogs on every road.
I attempted a long run before a conference/professional meeting and went early in the morning, as in just pre-dawn. It started out all well and good, but I soon exhausted a hospitable region of the town. I found myself in what felt like a Baltimore/“The Wire” dream - I went by a car recently burnt to a crisp, heard a baby crying, and saw a pit bull (not on any type of leash) staring at me at the corner of the next block. Needless to say that I found some good inspiration for some “strides” that morning.
I'm surprised there's no mention of winter destinations. For example I visited Iceland in the winter and running was basically a no-go. Ground is covered in snow and in many areas we stayed there was only one road (the one that goes all the way around the island).
outside of winter spots, others that came to mine:
- Costa Rica. Never saw a bike path, limited side walks, and crazy drivers
- Cusco. The combination of elevation (11K feet), hills, and lack of running paths did a number on me. Developed runners knee and had to take some time off
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