Title is self explanatory. Trails, parks, soft surfaces, etc.
Ann Arbor, MI
Boulder, CO
Chapel Hill, NC
Charlottesville, VA
Iowa City, IA
Lawrence, KS
South Bend, IN
Villanova, PA
West Lafayette, IN
Winston Salem, NC
Title is self explanatory. Trails, parks, soft surfaces, etc.
Ann Arbor, MI
Boulder, CO
Chapel Hill, NC
Charlottesville, VA
Iowa City, IA
Lawrence, KS
South Bend, IN
Villanova, PA
West Lafayette, IN
Winston Salem, NC
Ithaca, NY
Eugene Oregon is the best in the country.
Stillwater, Ok - OSU
UC Santa Cruz
To be frank, I listed the cities I did for a reason. Not applying to schools in other areas.
dogg wrote:
To be frank, I listed the cities I did for a reason. Not applying to schools in other areas.
Ah. You meant "which OF THESE college areas" has good running spots. Got it.
Chapel Hill NC is pretty great. The best spots nearby are American Tobacco Trail, Umstead State Park, and Duke Forest, but they may be too far from campus to run at every day. There are some decent running spots closer to campus like the NC Botanical Garden, Carolina North Forest, and Finley Golf Course. The 1k gravel loop around the track and the 400m oval marked on Hooker Field are good for workouts.
Williamsburg, va has some of the coolest road and trail running on the east coast.
Boulder, bro.
the midwest, midatlantic/upper south and randomly Boulder. Come on, of the places you listed you already know that boulder has the best running. Chapel Hill has pretty good running and most of the others are ok to tolerable if you have a car.
Area immediately around Villanova is terrible for running. Good places you can get to with a car.
Provo, Utah. Lots of good places to run. Canyons both paved and unpaved. A lot of trails nearby. Good running community.
Yeah that’s what I figured, but because of covid I haven’t been able to visit any school so I figured it’s best to ask.
And yes I did mean out of the schools listed. my bad.
dogg wrote:
Title is self explanatory. Trails, parks, soft surfaces, etc.
Ann Arbor, MI
Boulder, CO
Chapel Hill, NC
Charlottesville, VA
Iowa City, IA
Lawrence, KS
South Bend, IN
Villanova, PA
West Lafayette, IN
Winston Salem, NC
I live in Lawrence and there are A LOT for the size of town.
Baker wetlands: wide grass and gravel trails
Levee trail: crushed limestone path
Lawrence river trail: dirt single track that is very runable and scenic
Clinton lake: lots of single track trail but technical
Lawrence loop: concrete bike/running path that basically circles the entire town and also connects all of the parks.
Rock chalk park: concrete and gravel trails, hillier than other options.
Tracks here are open to the public as well, even at night.
Gainesville, Florida. Knew a guy who did a good 60 x 400 workout there.
State College, PA. Mix of single tracks, paved bike trails, crushed gravel, country roads, hills, flats. Plenty of routes within the valley and more within driving distance.
stan the corgi wrote:
Eugene Oregon is the best in the country.
Corvallis is far better, but maybe just because it is always forgotten about between Eugene and Portland.
I lived in Iowa City for 10 years and I’d have to describe its running routes and locales as “Not great.” There is a decent running community and it’s generally liberal (which helps when running in short shorts), but I wound up doing like 50% of my running in Hickory Hill Park, which is nice but not spectacular, and I’ve been stunned by how vastly superior the parks and trail systems are in Des Moines.