Agree or disagree: Podium Runner names Stillwater, Minnesota and Boise, Idaho as 2 of the 5 best running towns in America

Very confused about boise. I visit frequently. The Greenway is nice, but really nothing special. Eagle island state park is meh.

Many of the roads lack sidewalks or a bike lane which you get out of main cities and neighborhoods(that is not hard to do).

Overall befuddled as to why Boise would make this list.

runnerchx44 wrote:

free shipping with purchases wrote:

Mpls way better with asphalt bike paths, river road, great snow clearance, and a lot of dirt out west

Agreed. I used to live in the cities, and although I think Stillwater is adorable, I would never consider it a running city over Minneapolis proper. Mpls has endless greenways for both bikers and runners, paths around lakes, river parkway along the Mississippi, Theo trails right in the city, and yes, lots more dirt path/crushed gravel as you head west. And the snow clearance in the winter is indeed impressive. No weather stopped Minnesotans from winter running!

Yeah. I am right on one of the paths bordering the Mississippi. Great system, especially for the fact that it is all off roads.

Quenton Cassidy?!?!

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I ran at Oklahoma State 1970-73 and the farm roads around town were great. Some good rolling hills. I live in the Boise area and believe that of all the places I have lived or traveled to it is tops for a distance runner. I don’t want more people here for any reason, running or otherwise.

😂😂😂😂

Stop embarrassing yourself grandpa Simpson.

Can you really give an honest opinion unless you have been to every town in the US?

Is this subtle or overt Scott Christensen praise?

Too hot in the summer time. Way too cold and too much snow from mid-fall to mid-spring.

A town in the shadows of a prison. Spray Stillwater with smell-good. Put lipstick on Stillwater. Stillwater is a prison town. I do not like prison towns.

There is a big difference between a city that is good for running and a city that is good for competitive recreational runners. There are lots of towns in CO, UT, WY, MT etc. that are close to miles and miles of jaw droppingly beautiful trails. But those trails are snowed in for about 4 months and are full of mud in the spring. And small towns have no racing scene and no good training groups or coaches.

Houston is generally a dreadful city for running trails compared to towns in the Rockies, etc. But you can train year round in Houston (takes some time to acclimate to the summer), there is a world class marathon and dozens of competitive road races, and lots of training groups and coaches for all levels. So, while Boise is a beautiful town and has great trails, it also has a marathon that can't get more than 200 participants.

All these "secret" towns have been discovered a long time ago. As you can see when you look at the median house prices. The smaller the place the more difficult it will be to find a place to live.

If there are great trails out of the door, chance are high that the place is full of trustfund kids which made that place expensive.

And then as Precious Roy mentions, is the weather. Places with a lot of snow have no trail running for 4-6 month minimum. Some have decent road running opportunities others do not.

I have been around in the US quite a bit and I wouldn't be sure where to move even if I had all the money in the world. I probably would rather move to a bigger city with more cultural things and just medium running opportunities. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a small town with small minded people.

It was interesting to see the list, and try to figure why some big track & XC places (like Spokane, Washington) were left off. You only have 5 on the list. Frankly, most are going to move where 1) there's a job and 2) where it makes sense regarding family (everything from proximity to relatives to schools), Add to that home affordability and a bunch of other issues....

If you love track & XC, I can't think of communities more supportive than Spokane. And I suppose there are dozens if not a hundred communities that could make a similar argument.

It really does matter growing up in a community that is supportive. I can't think of anywhere more supportive than Spokane (I now live in SoCal, fyi).

Youd have to be a lot more fiddle-footed than I to be able to make all these comparisons, but my favorite for variety, ambience, and great living area would be SanFrancisco. The Park, hills, beaches, trails, windmills, lakes.....

If we were to do a serious analysis of good to great locations for runners in western hemisphere, we would analyze places like: Georgetown, CO, Cloudcroft, NM & Toluca, Mexico. Not too hot in summer time. Not too cold in winter time. It would be easier to make shoulders wide enough on roads and build trails in locations I just stated than it would be to make Stillwater, MN a great running location year around.

We would've already had the answer to this if "list grandmaster" had ever completed this thread:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=10462002

You ever notice these "best places" lists aren't published from October through April? Only in the warmer months.

As a San Francisco resident I generally agree that it is a great place to run/train. The weather allows you to train year round as its never too hot or too cold. I would expand on this and say that there are a couple of pockets in the greater Bay Area that need to be included on any list of great running towns. Mill Valley (and really all of Marin County) deserves to be mentioned. The trails are incredible, there is a bike path for tempos/road intervals, and there is a high school track that is open to the public. Also, the Marin running community is massive and super welcoming. Oh and the weather in Marin is even better than it is in San Francisco. There are a bunch of other spots in the greater Bay Area that are awesome for running too (shout out to the east bay regional park system and Mt. Diablo) but I think Marin County wins.

Yes, I would say even Bloomington is better than Stillwater, which is where I have been living for the past 10 years. There is the river bottom trails, Hyland which has some of the biggest hills in the metro area with a good mix of trail and paved path and is closer to the cities.

I worked in Stillwater for awhile and was pretty unimpressed in general. Definitely would never want to live there.

dil wrote:

DC runner 2 wrote:

I would take DC over some of these places - Stillwater and Boise?? Really?

.

Lived in DC for 10 years and can’t think of a single place that was awesome to run. What did I miss?

c and o canal, rock creek park, hains point, glover archbold trails, anacostia river trail, greenbelt park, teddy island,

mt vernon trail, wod, countless state parks in md and va

Low Mileage Runner wrote:

Bar Harbor has great running areas with Acadia right there, but it's a huge leap from that to actually having a good running community. Thousands of places have good trails and runner-friendly areas, but does Bar Harbor have a single running store? Any running groups? One half marathon/marathon I think but that's not much. College of the Atlantic doesn't even have any xc/track teams. To be a good running town there has to be a community and young people and resources and races, not just nice picturesque paths and soft surfaces.

I agree with this assessment of Bar Harbor. Acadia NP is filled with people who enjoy nature primarily from the confines of a motor vehicle. The visitor center is a traffic jam from May to October. The road up Cadillac Mountain is filled with buses. The typical stop at Thunder Hole is for 5 minutes of gawking and selfies.

Bar Harbor is a town concerned with making money from tourists who are disinterested in the beauty and grandeur of Acadia NP.

DC is not bad for a city, but it is not a great place to run.

The C & O canal is decent if you like out and back, the same trail everyday. Haines point is flat and road. Rock Creek park has some variety. Green belt park is north of College Park, a good 30+ min. drive, so it is not DC.

The humidity in the summer is oppressive to say the least.

LR RE expert wrote:

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I have been around in the US quite a bit and I wouldn't be sure where to move even if I had all the money in the world. I probably would rather move to a bigger city with more cultural things and just medium running opportunities. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a small town with small minded people.

All the money in the world and you are looking at places like Marin and Santa Cruz where the weather doesn't suck half the year. But you basically need all the money🤣

You can go out and run in 10 degree weather bit it sort of sucks. Down at -10 or so, you start reconsidering you life choices. And if you don't have access to an indoor track(and even if you do the hours tend to be limited) good luck doing any type of quality work.

This lists are based off the best of the places. Start valuing the worst and you get whole different lists.