Running Guide Books Benefit All City Runners

This article is a short review about two authors and their valuable contribution to city running guide books.They are Warwick Ford and Nola Ford, two runners with a wide experience running in different places and now running half-marathons and marathons. Read this article and you will understand better who they are and what accomplishments they deserve recognition for.

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Our cities can be excellent places for running and on-foot exercise. However, to take full advantage of city running environments, there is much to know. Good local knowledge helps competitive athletes find stimulating training routes, helps recreational joggers or walkers motivate themselves to exercise more, and helps visitors or newcomers get outdoors quickly and confidently.

The Fun on Foot series of urban running guides satisfies the local knowledge need for city residents, visitors, and newcomers. This spring the series has been extended to four titles, with the release of a Philadelphia region guide to follow up the existing New York region and Boston region guides. The fourth book is the flagship Fun on Foot in America’s Cities, the guide for runners who are also frequent travelers. It describes the running environments and top routes in 14 major cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.

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These books have enthusiastic support from many prominent runners. “Fun on Foot is terrific!” said Bill Rodgers, 4-time winner of both the Boston and NYC marathons. “Fun on Foot is a rousing springboard for runners…,” said Lisa Ondieki, NYC Marathon winner and record holder for 9 years. “An excellent resource for recreational joggers to professional runners…,” said John Crews, male winner of the 2009 Philadelphia Marathon, referring to the new Philadelphia book.

The book series is the work of husband-and-wife team, Warwick Ford and Nola Ford, both runners and keen travelers. Warwick runs marathons and Nola half marathons (but she is aiming for her first marathon this year). It all started with Warwick’s former employment as a technology executive in a nationwide company, requiring him to travel frequently to many cities. He suffered from the problem of wanting to run but not knowing what routes were good and safe in a strange city. So he started taking copious notes about the places he ran in, with the idea of publishing it all some day to help others.

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Nola, who always seeks new and motivating routes to run, joined in help produce Fun on Foot in America’s Cities.

The more detailed books about the cities they know well followed on naturally.

The Fun on Foot books plus various maps and other runner information are available at the website funonfoot.com. The books are also available from major booksellers.

Book titles are as follows:

Fun on Foot in America’s Cities (2006)

Fun on Foot in New England (2007)

Fun on Foot in New York (2009)

Philadelphia Running and Walking: A Guide for Athletes and Fitness Seekers (2010)

This article is written in collaboration with Warwick Ford and Nola Ford (find out more about them on their personal website, funonfoot.com). We thank them for their precious help to publish this post and we hope it will be a great resource for all our city runners readers.

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