Best and Worst Places you ever trained

Worst: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (rock hard treadmill in the hotel gym, or running outside in shorts and a t-shirt and feeling like violating local customs).

best-Glens Falls, NY (north of Albany)

awesome trail systems, decent temp, lots of runners

worst,-almost anywhere in ohio no trails, and few runners

Best: Oxford, Mississippi - Oct-Mar

Worst: Oxford, Mississippi - Jun-Aug

Worst - Dallas, Tx. I don't think I saw any grass the two weeks I was there and it was over 100 everyday. I am sure there are decent places to run there but I didn't see them.

Best - Chicago. There are surprising numbers of trails here. I have done a 20+ miler without crossing a road and completely on crushed gravel or dirt. (Des Plaines River Trail). Argon is a 9.5 mile crushed gravel loop that has decent hills and I haven't even been to the south side where I hear the trails are even better.

Yeah, the south sucks in the summer. I live in nashville, have plenty of hills and trails and was able to hit it hard during the cooler months (late November to April). But at the start of May, it starts getting crappy. I am still able to get runs in at night during the week at 70 degrees or so, but those days are limited. I lived in Eugene, and I don't buy into the hype more so than how awesome the weather was.

Best - north shore of Lake Tahoe - dry and never too hot in the summer, great trails.

Worst - LA (my hometown) during a temperature inversion - no escape from the smog.

Best: Sea Island, GA, in Autumn. Beach running. Nice paths. Great scenery.

Worst: All around the Campi Flegrei, Italy. Nothing beats running through automotive pollution and over cracked roads venting CO2, SO2. Nothing like a dose of sulpahte aerosol with a healthy side of Aluminum and Rubidium, topped by Vespa-riders playing chicken.

i agree that state college is a great place to train - what are your favorite trails?

southeastern connecticut is also a very good area for training (near conn coll)

worst place - somewhere without a track

Best - Eugene, OR

Worst - Lubbock, TX (there are some good places to run outside of town, but you have to drive pretty far to get to them)

I'm going with the first and second weeks of a fall 2005 trip.

Worst: St. Petersburg, Russia - it's actually worse for running than NYC! Logged 60 miles that week and only saw a half dozen other runners.

Best: Finland. Helsinki has probably the finest, most extensive urban park I've run in. And some of those runs started and ended at the Olympic stadium, which houses a hostel where I stayed for part of the visit. Anywhere else we went in the country - Kuopio, Savonlinna... - there was bound to be uncommonly fine running, with excellent rolling trails and forests and lakes and perfect fall weather. And saunas and, regardless of anything Chirac or Berlusconi had to say, quite good food.

Best: Albuquerque, NM - Great trails, generally good weather, altitude, and lots of other runners

Worst: Islamabad, Pakistan or Colombo, Sri Lanka - Hot, humid, poor air quality, few sidewalks or trails, insane traffic

Best- 1. Mammoth Lakes, CA, 2. Hyde Park, London, 3. Boulder CP (for the scenery)

Worst- 1. Anaheim, CA, 2. Salt Lake City, UT neighborhood, 3. Las Vegas

Best - Monterey, California

Worst - Fresno, CA

no... wrote: Worst [...] 2. Salt Lake City, UT

Yeah, that city is surprisingly evil. Whole lotta meth! Man oh man - I've run (and walked and shopped and eaten) in the worst neighborhoods of NYC and never felt as uncomfortable here as some areas of SLC. Maybe you get used to it but it's a different vibe from what I'm accustomed to, seemed more malevolent.

Memory Grove - City Creek Canyon's a real nice run in the city, though.

tm wrote:

i agree that state college is a great place to train - what are your favorite trails?

Always loved this run we did called "Shitspray" near the deer pens just northeast of the intersection of Big Hollow Rd and 322. (the water authority sprays wastewater back there with these giant sprinklers - sounds nasty but it's not harmful and doesn't smell bad). If you have Google Earth you can see the area by typing "40 49 51.26, -77 51 50.15" into the search. Bunch of trails back there. In the winter, the water from the sprinklers freezes and it looks like Superman's ice palace.

Also, anything in Rothrock is pretty awesome. Switchbacks, Colyer lake, Whipple Dam.

no... wrote:

Worst- 1. Anaheim, CA, 2. Salt Lake City, UT neighborhood, 3. Las Vegas

Las Vegas DOES SUCK!

worst- Outer Banks of North Carolina

Best- Andrews, North Carolina

from PA.....but I've done a couple weeks of training in those places

Why the Outer Banks?

Best: Portland Oregon. Best trails I've ever run on. Must admit though, I didn't too much running on the streets so I don't know how it compares to the Boston area, where I live

Worst: Orlando Florida. Flat. Hot. Boring. No runners to be seen. No hills. No curves. What misery

(close second: Chesapeake Virginia/Virginia Beach area.)

(close third: South Bend Indiana)