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

Where in Oakland. As Dick says there are some of the best trails anywhere, but you might have to drive depending on where you are. If you are closer to Berkeley then it isn't too bad of a run, but to get to the best you will probably have to dirve 5 - 10 miles, but once you are there you can go miles on forest trails.

Ok, I'll just list the addresses for each school that way people can give me a better idea as they are all in larger metropolitan areas. Also, I will more than likely live right by campus but not necessarily.

19555 North 59th Avenue, Glendale AZ 85308

11300 NE Second Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161

370 Hawthorne Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609

3200 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50312

1800 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10035

10515 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-9990

3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064-3095

and also

Eighth at Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Google.Map 1800 Park Avenue to get an idea of where it is. It is right at the Harlem-125th Street station of Metro North, which is the commuter railroad to the suburbs to the north and in Connecticut. Plus the Lexington Avenue subway is a block away. Central Park is less than a mile away. You can take the Lex No. 4 to trails at Van Cortlandt, although via a little-known, but direct, route.

The Glendale location is in the northwest portion of the Phoenix metro area. It's new, suburban and relatively safe. I think the Arizona Canal is near, which is one of the more popular running paths in the Valley. If you're willing to drive, most of the running groups with which I'm familiar will be about 30 minutes away...

I have to agree with JimG. Temple is not a great place to run. Drexel, Penn or St. Joes aren't too bad, but Temple is a different story.

East Harlem is being gentrified like crazy. Right at the podiatry school, a new residential/hotel high-rise is going up. Brownstone shells sell for $1 million, and fully renovated ones go for upwards of $2 million. Because of all the public housing in the area there will always be a low-income population, but market rate housing is getting hard to touch there. I hope you can get student housing.

You're less than a mile from Central Park, and by going east a couple blocks on 125th Street you can take a footpath on the Triborough Bridge over to Randall's Island and the new Icahn Stadium. Plus, you'll be living in NYC. Seems like an easy choice to me.

lost wrote: Philadelphia, North Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Des Moines, Oakland (CA), Miami Shores, and Glendale(AZ)

Lost,

Running aside, you're going to be living in one of these places. Don't overlook that - if you're miserable in your chosen city, your running and schoolwork won't make up for that, they'll also suffer.

Where do you live now? Where else have you lived? Where else have you spent a few days or weeks or months? What have you enjoyed? Hated?

It's exceedingly unlikely you'd feel the same way about, say, NYC and Des Moines. If you're the sort who absolutely loves one you'd probably be lukewarm at best on the other. And if you *do* love NYC (I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and guess either you don't or you haven't spent any/much time here) or Philly, that'd likely translate to at least liking the other - there are some broad similarities.

I do realize these things and will check out other areas for myself but input from people on here would be useful, I just know running-wise it's hard to get a good picture of the area unless you are there a little while

Overall I can say I like the bigger cities and smaller ones, not necessarily partial to one or the other because I think they both have their advantages. I think that glendale will probably get way too hot for my liking and I can handle the cold as I'm from Michigan but sure would love to get away from it some. I just want to be able to go for a run in a place and not CONSTANTLY be on the lookout for cars or whatever else, I would like to be able to occassionally go for a run and just run not have to think about dodging people or making sure a car doesn't hit me.

370 Hawthorne Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609

You are about 7 miles from the best running in the East Bay, Redwood Park. You would be in 30+ miles of single track and fireroads. A good portion of the seven miles is uphill so you probably wouldn't run to the trails.

There are also some other areas near the address you listed. Lake Merritt is close by and that is a pretty popular running area. About 3 miles around.

The immediate area is pretty much neighborhoods and paved. No good trails easy running distance away.

You are fortunate to have one of America's finest 1500 meter runners from the 90s respond to your query. He even told you how to join him and other fine runners for some training.

oakland is weak for running in my opinion. there are good trails up in the hills in Berk and Oak but they are probably not within regular running distance and at least from my house, the only trails are ridiculously hilly, which is good sometimes, but not all the time. and besides the hills with tha fire trails and all, there is just busy roads.

i bought shoes and got a free t-shirt from transports!

we're talking about the neighborhood around temple? the border of harlem? north chicago, des moines, florida, cleveland???...and you're b****ing because you can't run to all the trails and they're too hilly or only fire roads? C'mon, this isn't even close. The running in Oakland and throughout the Bay Area is so much better than any of his other choices that there should be no more discussion.

Dam Joo!

lost wrote:

I would be going to temple if I went there

Go to Oakland. The weather and running is better here than any of your other choices.

Oakland has great trails near ... not only Redwood Regional park in Oakland, but Redwood connects with Chabot Anthony, and Lake Chabot which are in San Leandro/Castro Valley/Oakland. Very good trail running there, but it is somewhat hilly. If you are interested in more trails in the east bay, check out the maps on this website: http://www.ebparks.org/resources/resources_maps.htm

Well it looks like Oakland is definately a place to check out. I know barry in Miami Shores has a good program but I hear the running isn't the greatest around there.

What about the exact Chicago location? as people have mentioned on here people to run with from Universal Sole? I'm pretty sure I don't want to go to Temple if it's that bad....and I'm pretty sure not Des Moines as I don't really want to go to a place that has colder winters then Michigan

I'm a little familiar with Miami Shores - bottom line, sucky place to run. There is one park that does have trails (Oleta) but that's about it (and they are not very long). Its hot, there is a ton of traffic, and you'll be doing most of your running on flat sidewalks. I would definitely put this towards the bottom of your list.

Temple Podiatry is the east border of chinatown and not near the undergrad campus. The closest decent running isn't too far away...3-4 km.

moxie wrote:

I have to agree with JimG. Temple is not a great place to run. Drexel, Penn or St. Joes aren't too bad, but Temple is a different story.