What is your running utopia?

A chef who will cook a perfect meal, both tastey and healthy, for you all the time.

Massages whenever you need them.

A 400 meter perfectly smooth grass track for training.

Mountains to look at.

Other runners to train with along with great coaches.

Good physical therapist

I like the 400m grass track idea, plus a good 8 lane polyurethane track.

Trails in the woods that go forever, such as you can go on a 20 mile run and never hit the same trail twice

Good people to run with i.e. completive but not cocky, great to talk to on those long distance runs

An Olympic size pool... make that 2 Olympic size pools

Running store of every company with free trainers, flats, and spikes. (Nike store, Asics store, Saucony store, etc.)

A championship 18-hole golf course dedicated to running.

I grew up in a neighborhood with a golf course, but was only able to run on it at night. It was outright painful seeing the sun beating down on the course during the day and not being able to attack the grass. To this day my dream is to go for a barefoot run on the Canterwood golf course in the middle of the day and not get arrested.

marijuologist wrote:

A championship 18-hole golf course dedicated to running.

I grew up in a neighborhood with a golf course, but was only able to run on it at night. It was outright painful seeing the sun beating down on the course during the day and not being able to attack the grass. To this day my dream is to go for a barefoot run on the Canterwood golf course in the middle of the day and not get arrested.

Amen brother, what a waste.

no job to schedule around

soft grass/dirt with shade, no curbs, stoplights, anything in my way

60 degrees

and, oh I like the chef thingy mentioned earlier

marijuologist wrote:

A championship 18-hole golf course dedicated to running.

I grew up in a neighborhood with a golf course, but was only able to run on it at night. It was outright painful seeing the sun beating down on the course during the day and not being able to attack the grass. To this day my dream is to go for a barefoot run on the Canterwood golf course in the middle of the day and not get arrested.

AMEN!

There is a golf course less than 1 mile from my house that has the most perfect hilly terrain. Beautiful, soft grass, long rises. And it's completely wasted on golfers.

Once - and only once - I snuck on after hours and did three barefoot hill repeats. Then got very paranoid and GTF Outta there.

Many of my runs bring me near it. I drive by it almost every day and it almost brings tears to my eyes. Such a friggin waste.

I've run through golf courses occasionally, but only next to the sidewalk. The only time someone fussed at me, I wasn't even running. It was at the Big 12 cross country championships (the course was on a golf course). I was just walking over to where the runners would come through next and apparently I stepped on the wrong part of the precious grass.

A nice 400 meter polyurethane track, a cross country course where I can just run for miles and miles and miles. Awesome teammates and an awesome coach. Hot chicks who are always there to see me running, and hot chicks who would actually post their pics on letsrun.

Thanks for all of your inputs. If we could build this community it would be awesome and close to heaven! Heaven for runners at least.

I can't decide if this running utopia would be awesome or incredibly creepy.

But for the sake of contribution I'll add:

1) Trees that grow shoes.

2) Every 3rd Saturday evening of the month there is a town beer mile.

3) It's never windy. Just occasional light, pleasant breezes.

Carrie Tollefson!!

a place where injuries did not exist

Cool idea. Everything works for me accept the altitude. I am always hurt at altitude. Otherwise, perfect.

No injuries for 5 years.

Anythinhg else is insignificant for me. Ill be happy to train under any conditions, so long as Im injury free.

1. Miles and miles of soft bark chip trails, natural forested trails and measured asphalt bike paths. I would ask that some of the bark trails be measured in metric and english with lights for night use. I would ask that the bike paths be measured in quarter mile increments to facilitate tempo runs and marathon pace runs.

2. Access to several state of the art track venues for variation and convenience.

3. An abundance of high quality professional, collegiate and prep track and cross country meets. Local access to things like world class track meets, world record attempts, national championships on every level.

4. A strong, well funded local track club rich in tradition with an eye on the future. A club that supports, promotes and celebrates elite level competition while also providing community based participation events and a very strong youth program.

5. A community where the citizens understand and appreciate running, in all it's forms. A community where elite athletes converge with citizen athletes.

6. Weather that is moderate, allowing for year round training while still affording the enjoyable benefits of season. Lush vegetation, mountains, rivers and natural beauty.

7. Easy access to altitude and sea level training sites.

8. An active calendar of community level races that attract a cross section of elite, recreational competitive and participation runners.

9. A TV and radio show featuring elite runners in the community. A local website dedicated to the sport.

10. Ample access to healthy foods and restaurants catering to active lifestyles.

A community where every girl runner, like all those I saw at nationals last November, like the Harvard girls team and Stanford, Princeton...great athletic beautiful girls in bun huggers, would see me, not as the unnaccomplish wrinkled up old man that I am, but like some champion young guy they just couldn't resist.

and I agree with the chef guy too.

Creator of Project wrote:

Thanks for all of your inputs. If we could build this community it would be awesome and close to heaven! Heaven for runners at least.

Oooh, investment idea.

"Letts' Run," a planned suburban community...

Miles and miles of chipped bark trails!

Adjacent to a forest park with hundreds of miles of trails along varied terrain!

A Greg Norman-designed golf course (Runner-friendly. Carts prohibited; no fatasses allowed. Rod Dixon styled marathon helmets are issued to deflect stray balls)!

Track club!

Fitness center (Cell phones prohibited, altitude tents available)!

"Sprinters" (wink wink) strongly discouraged from moving in!

and finally...

All homes feature large, fully appointed basement apartments!

I would have to agree with the golf course. While I'm reporting on golf matches at our local course, I always drive the cart around and make up (in my mind) a cross country course. My favorite XC races were definitely the ones on golf courses. I just wish I could regularly train on one.

Therefore, my perfect scenario would be on a rolling golf course that is always perfectly cut, with temperatures in the high 70s, sun overhead and a slight breeze. We would train three times per day, never have an injury and start each day fresh. Races will be held every Saturday. Beautiful women will be there to cook meals, massage and bath us daily. We would live under the golf course, in basement-like apartments with the secret entrance doors on each green.

Wood chip sidewalks.

Grassy loops for barefoot running.

Roads are smooth and EVEN.

Beautiful track with gatorade machine.

The perfect start/stop place for all runs that has a cool cafe that sell those perfect 4:1 carb/protein chocolate shakes and offers places to stretch.

There is always a tailwind, both ways.

Lots of shade for those 50% humidity, sunny days.