InformationIn 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?