Been in different parts of Colorado now for 2 months. My take on the different cities.

MeColorado wrote:

CO Springs- Huge potential. Things to do. Lots of good people. But lots of rift raft too. (BTW, I'm even conservative). Lots of running possibilities.

One word, "riffraff".

What is a "rift raft"? A flotation device that allows one to travel through the expanses of time? Maybe you should use that "rift raft" to go back and finish the 3rd grade.

Where's the best bud?

Floyd's of Leadville

I'm too cool for any city in Colorado because I make $500K/year and my 5k PR this year is 14:06 (I retired from running years ago - I could've gone pro but Salazar didn't renew my contract because I wouldn't take EPO). All these places in Colorado have too much traffic and are not hip enough for me. Therefore, I custom-built two places - one in Trinidad, CO (the next big hip area #youhearditherefirst) where I can practice doing 12 x 400m workouts every other day - and I've got another condo in Commerce City that the developer constructed out of port-o-pottys, and it's right across the street from Purina, where I can blast TwentyOnePilots new album #millenialSwag #Swagger #SwagDog #Swaggerific #DidISaySwag

Runn01 wrote:

I would go to vail/ aspen over the springs for vacation any day. Colorado springs is ok, but the mountain resort towns are better for a nice trip and have some of the best restaurants.

For me, I agree, but if I had a baby with me, The Broadmoor Resort is hard to beat.

conservative AND stupid wrote:

MeColorado wrote:

CO Springs- Huge potential. Things to do. Lots of good people. But lots of rift raft too. (BTW, I'm even conservative). Lots of running possibilities.

One word, "riffraff".

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/riffraff

What is a "rift raft"? A flotation device that allows one to travel through the expanses of time? Maybe you should use that "rift raft" to go back and finish the 3rd grade.

riffraff = meth heads

Eevee wrote:

Even Boulder and Woodland Park are nothing compared to the ethereal beauty of Houston.

Colorado goes home devastated!!

/Thread

It can

Hhjjjjj wrote:

Can anyone give an opinion on year round living in Vail?

Vail does have a large trail network, but many of those are covered with snow for half the year. You only have a couple choices for actual winter running routes and they involve the highway frontage road. You have to be into cross training to maintain sanity and a high level of running fitness in the winter.

Having the Interstate highway as your main street is a negative. You have to climb for 35 minutes out of the valley to escape the traffic noise. (if you live in a metro area now you may not notice it).

It can be a positive and negative to have so many tourists flowing through town year round. Many years ago a study showed the average visitor spent over $250 a day in Vail, and I am sure that has increased substantially today.

The whole town is the ski area and its history begins with the ski area. Its all too contrived for me. I prefer a real town where the majority of people live there all the time and at least the problems are real problems.

This thread's employment of "Frisco" makes me happy

Pueblo, CO is the legit chet.

Summer- amazing

Fall- even more amazing

Winter- does not get any better

Spring- awful

I'm curious how you're calling Fort Collins (1:15 drive) a suburb of Denver, and not calling Boulder (35 min drive) one?

Aww you missed out not going to Durango. I've lived all over CO and would say Durango is the coolest town. Then maybe Steamboat.

Honestly the front range kinda blows. Too many people, so-so mountains, and don't even get me started on how played out Boulder. is Western Slope is where it's at!

I lived in the Springs for a few years, and it is a good place to go, especially with a family. There is a lot of stuff to do: Pikes Peak, some nice, pretty easy hikes, Garden of the Gods, Air Force Academy, US Olympic Training Center, Manitou Springs (If you want a killer workout, look up "the incline"), Old Colorado City, the Broadmoor, Red Rocks park, Cave of the Winds, etc. And it's quite close to Woodland Park. The are tons of great running and mountain bike trails, and a pretty decent trail that runs along a creek for most of the length of the city (though I've heard it's being overrun with homeless folk lately). It lacks a bit of culture, and is crazy sprawled out, but there are some good places (non-chain) to eat in the downtown area and further West.

Great proximity to the mountains.

It's not everyone's cup of tea for living there, but it's pretty solid to visit.

For me living in Colorado is all about Fort Collins. Super bike-able, with decent restaurants. Less pretentious and cheaper than Boulder, less crowds, and still has pretty good trails and mountain access. And New Belgium is my favorite brewery.

If you're looking for a good destination marathon, I would highly recommend the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins. It's a point to point with a net lose, and has the highest % of people that make Boston qualifying marks of any marathon (at least it used to).

http://comarathon.com/raceinfo

Leadville Native wrote:

Leadville is run down, consisting of old buildings with chipping paint. That's because it's a real town, with a soul. Aside from about 2 or 3 blocks in Frisco and Breckenridge-which were built in 1880-most of the rest was built in the last 30 or 40 years. It's Disneyland "frontier mining town." Summit County had 3000 people in 1980--now it has 30,000-many of whom are part time or weekend residents.

Those clerks at the nice hotels-those maids, those waiters and waitresses and busboys- they live in Leadville or Kremmling because Summit County is filled with tourists and second home owners to the point where working people cannot afford to live there.

Preferring Summit County's activities over what can be found in Leadville says more about you, than about the three communities referenced.

I visit Leadville every August to crew different friends for the Leadville 100 mile trail race. I'll be headed there in a couple weeks. It is the one trip I look forward to the most every year. Although, the best quote I ever heard from the Leadville resident was, "in Leadville you never lose your girlfriend, you just lose your turn."

I'm a Colorado Native, and I grew up in the inner city of Denver, but have also lived in Texas, Oklahoma and do lots of work in Southern California. There are great places all through Colorado, it just depends on your personality. Denver is a nice big city if you like the cosmopolitan life, and it is cleaner and safer than most big cities (despite the original poster's comment). I lived in Littleton off of the highline canal trail when I was old enough to buy my own place, and it was ideal for training for triathlons (which I took up after running D1 as it was easier on the body). The proximity to light rail made it perfect if I wanted to go downtown for an event and not have to deal with parking and traffic. It's full of parks, trails and bike routes, and has a decent running culture (much better than a lot of other large cities IMHO). I now live in Southern Colorado and overall prefer it to Denver, as it is more affordable and has much less traffic. Summit county is nice, but over priced (a decent place runs about $750k) and a lot more crowded than other mountain towns. Leadville is a great little town, and close to a lot of great trails and great fishing (lots of flat stuff around the lakes and 14,000 peaks if you want to run something a little crazy) and is actually affordable (can still get a decent house for under $200k). Aspen is a great town to visit (still can't afford the $3 million dollar cabins) and has great trails and great races. Outside of the resort towns, there are a lot of cool mountain towns that are great places without the high prices (places like Granby / Grand Lake, Pagosa Springs, Salida / Buena Vista, Westcliffe, Gunnison / Crested Butte, etc.). They are not great places to try and meet a woman (like the ladies in the mountain towns say, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd"), but they are great for everything else.

exthrower wrote:

Why would anyone live in a place where a person is in extreme discomfort outdoors for 5-6 months of every year?

As a Colorado native who still lives in this great state, I wish a couple million people shared your point of view and left to live somewhere else. You obviously don't ski. Please don't start, it's not that great.

Denver and Boulder have a lot of homeless people.

He said he's conservative so I will translate this for you..

Denver: Has lots of black people and hispanics = not nice or clean

Denver Suburbs: fairly white and middle class = nice people

Colorado Springs= Super white and conservative= yay awesome and "good" people (if you know what he means)

Boulder: liberal but white liberal = I can tolerate it

Woodland Park: white, upper class= a "gem" but not a colored gem, it's like a diamond

Breckenridge= white and the wealthiest of the 3 therefore the best, Frisco literally next to Breck but some minorities exist there, so not as good and Leadville= I drove through saw a hippe = the worst.