In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we wrote about great sources of information for the month of November. Today I’d like to wrap up the month by asking what is your favorite running forum?
There are a few that I visit off and on, and a couple that I participate in regularly. Here are a few of the ones that I check in on now and again:
Running Ahead
Running Ahead is the best training log software that I have played around with. There are a few that I haven’t tried yet, but this is the one that I have been using for most of this year. There is also a great forum and community attached to the site, with a strong group-level forum behind the scenes.
Cool Running
I am not sure what is going to happen to the Cool Running forums now that Active has bought them and begun integrating them with the rest of their site. I am sure that they will continue to be an active community (pun intended.) The interface as it is right now is actually really bad, but there are a lot of people that are quick to chime in with an opinion any time that somebody has a question. Update: Active has closed down Cool Running and brought them into their own system, which has left a lot of the CR users disgruntled as the transition was anything but smooth. There has been a mass exodus to other forums, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens after things cool down a little.
Active
Honestly, the only time that I’ve been to Active’s discussion boards was when a search result sent me there. I don’t know much about it, but since Cool Running will probably be integrated into it sooner or later it is worth noting.
Taper Madness
I just recently discovered Taper Madness. It caters more towards the marathoners and the ultramarathoners than most of the other boards. They do offer a customizable pace band that you can print that allows you to set different pace goals throughout the race, which is different from most other pace bands that you can create online.
Running Mania
If you are a Canadian runner, then you probably already know about Running Mania. While the site caters to those north of the border, the community is very welcoming to those of us in the States and over one pond or the other when we want to drop in from time to time.
Complete Running
Complete Running is a great resource in and of itself, but the forum is a bit of an afterthought. It never really became particularly active, but I check in on it every week or two and converse with the folks that trickle in now and again.
Let’s Run
The Let’s Run forums also suffer from a lack of usability, although it is very popular. The site is extremely difficult to navigate for new users, and unless I follow a link into it I will rarely visit. Everything is just kind of jumbled together and I have trouble dealing with the information overload. That being said, there are a lot of users in the community and quite a few notable athletes and coaches that frequent the forums.
Runner’s World
I should have known that Runner’s World would have their own forums, and by glancing through they seem to be pretty active. There are certainly a lot of subforums and topics in each area. The link to the forums isn’t the most obvious one on the overly busy Runner’s World home page, but the title above will send you straight to them.
MilePosts (GMap-Pedometer Forums)
The GMap-Pedometer (my original review) was the first Google Map Mashup that helped runners figure out how far they have run by clicking on a map. It suffered from a few issues and has since been improved many times over on quite a few different sites. There is a forum on the backend where you can show off your maps, ask for technical support, read some spam, or chat. It was never very active and I only check it maybe once every few months if that.
Favorite Run
I only recently found the Favorite Run forums. The forums exist on top of another Google Map Mashup (similar to the GMap Pedometer) which I haven’t played with yet. The forum has a lot of categories and subcategories, which given its relatively low number of active users means that quite a few don’t have any recent posts.
Most of the other forums that I belong to are not specifically geared towards running, although a few of them do have runner’s sections. Do you have any forums that you visit regularly that I didn’t list?
The LetsRun forum is well known and draws some semi-famous posters, but I find it infuriating because of the elitist attitudes there. I spend most of my running forum time on Cool Running.
I didn’t know about that Running Ahead site. Looks pretty cool. I’m thinking about switching my laptop over to Linux, and to do that, I need something to replace my Garmin software. This one looks promising.
Eddie, thanks for reminding me. I meant to put Let’s Run on the list, but it slipped my mind when I was actually putting the list together. I’ve added it into the article.
I frequent the Runner’s World forums.
Thanks; I didn’t realize that RW had forums although I should have assumed it. Even after you mentioned it, it took a minute or so for me to find the link to them from their home page.
I’ve added them to the list.
I don’t frequent the forums much, but I noticed a lot of traffic out of the Runner’s World forums to my blog after the Chicago Marathon.
Do you do anything with the community section at Marathon Guide?
I used to be real active in Cool Running. I have just poked my head in at Let’s Run, but I have heard horror stories of newbs getting roasted there, so I only go there when a search engine points me that way. I tried to play with the Runner’s World forums, but like you, I had trouble finding it once and just never got interested again.
The only thing I dislike about Cool Running is that they have disabled the search feature on their site, and though you can search using Google Site Search, it is not as convenient as doing it right from the forum. That makes the forum a bit less useful and tends to generate a bunch of repeat questions.
Though this post is less than a month old, things sure have changed. With the Active transition having taken place at Cool Running, things have certainly gone downhill. The forum software they are using at Active seems to be hand made. There are several little issues that make it less than desirable.
Plus there is a mass exodus going on from Active/Cool Running over the horrible running log software that Active moved us to. Cool Running’s bread and butter was its log. Active is totally clueless as to why it was so popular.
I picked up my log and settled in nicely at Running Ahead. I have not been too active in the forums, but I have been reading around a bit.
Well, I am a big fan of Running Ahead, and I hope that the influx from CR/active doesn’t change the culture on the forums too much.
Thanks for the list Blaine. I like the feel of the Running Ahead Forums. I’m going to check it out.