Boston Ranked Fourth Best City for Marathon Training

Boston Marathon photo by Jamie Ducharme

It’s one of the harsh realities of life that, in order to run Boston’s legendary marathon, local runners are forced to either train through harsh, cold, snowy New England winters, or log mind-boggling hours on the treadmill. But according to a new report, we still have it better than marathoners in nearly every other city in the country. What do you know?

That honor comes from Redfin’s ranking of the 20 best U.S. cities for marathon training, a list on which we placed—believe it or not—fourth, behind San Francisco, New York, and Jersey City. Redfin’s ranking was based on four factors: Walk Score (how easy it is to get around without a car), number of parks per square mile, an average temperature that’s not too hot or too cold, and amount of daily sunlight.

Predictably, we crushed it when it comes to walkability and parks per square mile, coming in fourth and third in those categories, respectively. We even did okay in temperature, coming in 27th. (The people at Redfin must like the cold.) Our “sunlight score,” however, was only 18 out of a possible 100 points—a fact that won’t surprise anyone who’s fond of pre-work runs.

If you’re running Boston next spring, just remember this ranking as you bundle up in January, shiver through February, and slog through slush in March. Surely it’ll make you feel better, right?