What is the worst city or town you've gone on run in?

Work trip to LA but had to stay at an airport hotel. Running down Sepulveda Blvd to make the left turn down Westchester to get out to the ocean is one of the worst stretches I've ever run.

Flipping coasts, honorable mention to a conference at Roger Williams University in Bristol RI. I love RI + Bristol, & there are so many good running spots in that town but starting from that university is miserable. It's maybe only ~1/2 mile to a mile to get to a decent running spot but the road is Metacom Ave. 2 lane road with a not big enough shoulder on both sides. I believe it's 45mph but people go 60+. It's pretty bad.

Springfield MA was pretty disgusting for a half iron. Race course was alright once you got out of town. It's just such a heavy commuter city full of cars & built for cars.

These personal anecdotes are all when I haven't been able to run easily from where I was staying. Pretty much every major city I've been to has been great for running. It's usually pretty designated where people go to get in their runs.

You didn’t look hard then - Houston has memorial park, as well as a massive network of bayou trails that go through downtown. The weather sucks, but it’s actually a great running city.

Boston is an exceptional place to run. Arnold Arboretum, Charles River, Emerald Necklace are all in town and the close suburbs include some great running. Blue Hills Reservation, Cutler Park, Middlesex Fells. Give the Newton Hills a try, Dude. The Boston Marathon is actually named after Boston.

There are countless running clubs in the Greater Boston area and you should look one up next time you are around. Join a group run.

Bill Rodgers says come on out and experience our running paradise.

How did Boston work out for Parker Valby?

Grow up and register your username.

That group fell apart and neither of us knows why. Graham Blanks did just fine here, but it's not all about elite groups. Boston has industry and jobs for non-pros and a great community culture around running.

I agree it's not a nice area of Boulder, but why on earth would you run 28th and Arapahoe? It's possibly, the hottest, busiest, lowest rent area of Boulder?

Memorial Park is decent and Bayou trails suck.

So one decent options for a city of about 8 million people. The weather is part of the reason it’s sucks as a city to run in 👍

Baltimore is actually not bad at all down by the harbor. Just hard to get anything long in. Only problem is no bathrooms!

I liked Boulder pre Covid

Not when I was there in Boston during covid. No running club coach wanted to reply back to me. Running in sun is healthy. Everyone yelled at me to put a mask on and get covid vaccinated.

Baltimore isn’t half bad, definitely run in worse places. Rural areas in the country are more intimidating.

Don’t even think about wearing short shorts. Always felt safer in cities with “more crime” than I did in places where people don’t hesitate to call you a slur because of the length of your shorts. More worried about people who get away with everything in their pickup trucks, rolling coal with their protect the second amendment stickers than I am in packed cities.

Boulder

Starkville, MS

Jakarta is the worst city to run on the planet. Unless you get a hotel right next to the GBK stadium in the middle of the city, there aren't any footpaths anywhere, and if there are footpaths, people ride their motorbikes/park cars/sell food on them.
It's normally 35+ deg and 90% humidity and people are aggressive.
Hell on earth.

I don’t know how people run in southern cities. The heat was unreal.

NY is awkward in the wrong neighborhood.

Brilliant analysis - because you didn’t like it here, they “suck” and therefore don’t exist as an option.

The bayou trail network is phenomenal - I ran 3000 miles last year, mixed between memorial and the trails. The classic areas are safe, well lit, have frequent restrooms and water fountains, and has you running between hubs with coffee shops and food options like MKT and Heights Mercantile. You never have to cross a road or interact with a car, and you can make pretty much any length of route up to the longest long runs without ever covering the same ground. Buffalo Bayou has been landscaped beautifully with tens of millions of public/private money and the rest is constantly being improved by the greenways project.

I don’t run there, but there’s also Hermann Park and Rice University Campus, which has two running loops, one 3 mile dirt loop which is completely shaded by evergreen tree coverage year round.

Memorial Park is about as convenient for runners as it gets - another exactly 3 mile loop for pedestrians only that’s absolutely pancake flat, with well maintained bathrooms and water fountains, that’s full of runners at all hours of the day. If you want terrain, you now have an additional loop over the hills since they finished that project 2 years ago.

Basically, you have no clue what you’re talking about. Houston sucks in so many respects, but I’ve run all over Europe and the states and we actually have it good here, sorry.

Kiruna, Sweden in the winter. So far north the sun never rises in the winter. Very depressing.

I passed out on the sidewalk....totally remember yo hurdling me. Had a great night, though. Come back soon!

Lipstick on a pig.

Bayou trail is concrete and dull.

A college campus has a nice little trail, that’s great.

So again we’re back to Memorial is decent. When I picked places that suck to run, I’m including weather, cause it a major factor and as you admit the weather is Houston sucks.