Running

Millions of people run regularly. It has so many benefits, both physically and emotionally. Runners often hate running or love running and many are in an ongoing state of conflict between loving and hating running. You won't find many runners indifferent to the activity.

Over 60% of people start running to lose weight, it is a great way to burn calories but but a large proportion of runners view running as a chore. Many people tell me how they hate running but feel compelled to continue running for health (mostly cardiovascular and weight loss) reasons. On the other hand many people love to run, some feel addicted to it. The routine of running becomes essential for some not only for health reasons but for emotional reasons. It can be their meditative time, where they can clear their heads and enjoy the euphoria of runners high.

I both hate it and love it. I love it in the summer but suffer through it (less regularly) in the winters of New Hampshire. In any case I own the runner.com domain for over a decade because I use to be an avid 50 mile a week runner, so I am putting it to good use by providing resources for other runners and perhaps generate a little return for the time I put in to the site.

Below is a list of some of the major running sites on the Web.

Cool Running: Probably the most complete running site on the Web. They describe their site as "the complete online resource for runners of all ability", and their misssion is "to provide the information necessary to satisfy every aspect of the running life for every runner and running organization." I would have to agree that they are the most thorough running site on the web.

Running USA: Running USA is a non profit organization devoted to improving the status of road racing and long distance running in the United States. Contains information on running events and results, an event calendar, Statistics and runner rankings.

Road Runners Club of America: An organization promoting long distance running with 175,000 runners. The site sections include joining, calendars, publication, forums, programs, coaching, woman and a few more.

USA Track and Field: this is the National Governing Body for track and field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. Mostly information on Track and field with a minimal devotion to Road running. Contains awesome database of running routes besides searching the database, routes can be added to it. Click here to visit it.

Run-Down: A site with many resources put together by Dan Kaplan. Based out of cold Canada he somehow maintains a passion for running.

The Running Page: The Running Page contains information about upcoming races, running clubs, places to run, running related products, magazines, and other information.

Run The Planet: From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, Run The Planet offers 4000 descriptions of where to run and walk in 3054 cities around the world presenting running information told by the locals.