Anyone lived in any of the following places, how are they for running?

Des Moines is a great place. There aren't a ton of soft trails to run on in the heart of town, but in the surrounding areas you can find some fantastic runs. One of the world's best running stores is in town - Fitness Sports.

running in philadelphia is good. good trails at valley forge and manayunk. also, there are a LOT of high quality post-collegiate teams such a Philadelphia track club, Bryn Mawr Running, and Haddonfield

I guess to be more specific as some of the cities are quite large, I will be going to the podiatry school in one of those cities. So basically the overall running atmosphere and how runner friendly the places are, trails, parks, country roads or even in the city without lots of lights or anything. Also, people to train with would be a big plus.

Depending on what part of nothern Chicago, it could be an excellent place to train. Chicago and suburbs have a good network of paths made of crushed limestone and also plenty of forest preseves with the same type of paths. The running and racing scene is very good. The negatives: Winters can be harsh, making the trails impossible to run on, and there are no hills.

Check out Universal Sole and CARA on the web.

I lived in Tempe for this past summer. There were some nice places to run, except for the fact I had to run at 5:00 AM to beat the heat.

So in short: Phoenix area some sweet runs, but heat makes it a really bad place to train.

Oakland, CA has a very extensive trail system, with some of the best running anywhere. Only issue is that most people need to drive a bit to get to them. Just buy a house in Montclair and you should be fine. Weather can't be beat for year-round running as well. It can be a bit hilly for out-of-towners at first, but that will only make you stronger.

I work at TranSports, which is a running specialty store in Oakland and we host weekly trail runs in the summer to help people get aquainted with them.

Cleveland State or Case Western? I guess it doesn't matter since they're not too far from each other. I've spent quite a bit of time there but not lived there. I can't comment on the running community itself.

Places to run are better than you'd think for your prototypical dying industrial city. There are bike paths along the lakefront downtown and to Case. The Cleveland metroparks are out from campus a bit but are pretty good. Also, the canal towpath extends from Cleveland proper all the way to Akron, going through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and intersecting with other paths along the way.

I went to school in Philly. The running was pretty good. I ran a lot in Fairmount Park and along the river. On the weekends I would head out to Valley Forge for some nice rolling grass hills. I also ran quite a bit with the Bryn Mawr group (Phiily TC didn't exist back then). Which school are you looking at in Philly? Some parts of the city are more runner friendly then others.

The quality of the running in New York City depends in large part on what borough and neighborhood you're in.

Running in Manhattan is great if you live near Central and Riverside Parks, but I wouldn't want to be stuck down at NYU.

The Bronx has Van Courtlandt, which is pretty big and has a ton of trails. Not sure about Brooklyn or Queens, but I'd be surprised if there are many fantastic places to run out there.

New York wrote:

Not sure about Brooklyn or Queens, but I'd be surprised if there are many fantastic places to run out there.

In Brooklyn there's Prospect Park, the Shore Parkway, and the Coney Island boardwalk, and that's really it for traffic-free routes. A lot of people make do, including some guys running marathons in the 2:30s and 2:40s, but if you're living here it's not primarily for the running.

Forest Park and Alley Pond Park in Queens are pretty nice for running, but Alley Pond Park is way out in eastern Queens, a long way from Manhattan.

I would be going to temple if I went there

As for new york, the school is located at 1800 park avenue so wherever that is, that's the area I'm in??? How is that, is it ghetto or actually decent for running and such?

Also, anyone here been to multiple places to compare?

lost wrote:

Is it ghetto or actually decent for running and such?

I think the correct answer is both. It's up in Spanish Harlem near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Marcus Garvey Memorial Park, which isn't exactly the nicest part of town, but it's only about a mile from Central Park. So from a running perspective, you could certainly do much worse.

DougC wrote:

Depending on what part of nothern Chicago, it could be an excellent place to train. Chicago and suburbs have a good network of paths made of crushed limestone and also plenty of forest preseves with the same type of paths. The running and racing scene is very good. The negatives: Winters can be harsh, making the trails impossible to run on, and there are no hills.

Check out Universal Sole and CARA on the web.

For what it's worth as a Chicago-area guy, I 100% second that explanation.

Practical Chicago info

www.universalsole.com

Their homepage even has a link to a guide to the best trails in Chicago land. If be north Chicago you mean Depaul running for Universal Sole would be insanely convenient, if you mean Loyola it would be very convenient, if you mean Northwestern maybe convenient wouldn't be the best word but it would be very doable.

Sounds to me like you are looking to major in pharmacy? Are you looking to run just on your own or for a team as well? If so, that makes a big difference.

For chicago it would be rosalind franklin university of medicine and science located at 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064 so if that gives you an idea? as I'm not too sure of the chicago area

lost wrote:

I would be going to temple if I went there

Then it's definitely good for running. You'll run between classes, to the WaWa, bank, bookstore, and sometimes just b/c you're not sure if those guys hanging on the opposite corner are planning to kill, beat or just rob you. Plenty of unplanned sprint/fartlek sessions to improve your running.

Hey, I lived in West Philly and it wasn't much better, but it WAS better - at least we had the Schuylkill River on one side as a buffer.

Wow, it really is North Chicago! I'm just going to go out on a limb and say you won't be running through those city streets too much (my friend's dad works as a public defender, and he told his son the one law he could break was a going through a red light in North Chicago at the wrong time of night)...probably worth the drive to one of the Lake County Forest Preserves or other major trails.