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MF's annual survey reveals the cities that embrace a healthy lifestyle and exposes the ones that, well, need more salad bars. By Eric Hübler
There are 300-plus sunny days a year in Colorado Springs, but this is not one of them. While the peaks of the Front Range to our west are slathered in deliciously skiable snow, those of us in the Garden of the Gods, a century old city park with the grandeur of a national reserve, are being bitch-slapped by the kind of moist, icy winter blast that leaves the sky the color of a forehead knot three days after hitting a steering wheel in a head-on fender bender. But man, is it gorgeous. You know those bumper stickers that claim the worst day fishing is better than the best day working? That's how it is in "the Springs"-the ugliest day here is prettier than the prettiest day in a whole helluva lot of places. That's why tall, trim orthodontist/marathoner Ed Poremba and his pink-cheeked teenage daughter/future marathoner, Becky, are still getting in their six-mile Saturday morning run amid the jagged red rocks, clingy junipers, and placid deer, despite the fact that the Garden of the Gods has been coated in a vast, flavorless Slurpee.
"It's the best!" Poremba proclaims of his town, without knowing that the Men's Fitness 10th annual survey of the Fittest & Fattest Cities in America had reached the same conclusion. "Of all the places I've lived in, you can't beat it."
Ranking third last year among the Fittest Cities, Colorado Springs leapfrogged Albuquerque, N.M. (last year's No. 1; No. 3 this year), and held off Minneapolis (which rose from fourth to second) to claim the crown for the first time ever. Other Fit Cities risers included No. 5 Portland, Ore. (which leaped four slots), and No. 6 Virginia Beach (nine slots). Milwaukee just cracked the top 10 after finishing 16th last year. "There's a lot less movement overall this year for a lot of reasons, but we think the most important trend is more and more city officials are making their citizens' fitness and wellbeing a higher priority," says Jeff Lucia of RedFlash Group, the California research firm that conducted the survey for MF. "Today, six out of 10 cities in our survey have a municipal office that promotes fitness and health in their cities. In the past those cities were the exception. Now they're becoming the rule."
On the flip side, congratulations Las Vegas, you're the New England Patriots of the Fattest Cities list-perennial championship contenders. In fact, Sin City is the Fattest City in America for the second consecutive year, due largely to poor eating habits. It held off Arlington, Texas, which rose 12 slots to become the second-fattest town in the land. In fact, while Vegas is undoubtedly the Fattest American City, Texas is home to more Fat Cities than any other state in our survey. Six of the 10 Fattest cities in the land hail from Lone Star land: No. 2 Arlington, No. 3 San Antonio, No. 4 Fort Worth, No. 5 El Paso, No. 6 Dallas, and No. 10 Houston. (Although Houston is making a helluva effort to shed its place on this list. See Houston's Report Card.) "If there's one thing we'd like to see change in Texas, it's the activity levels," says Lucia. "Data from the CDC consistently show that people in most Texas cities we surveyed are less likely to exercise. Houston residents are 51% less likely to exercise in their leisure time than residents of Colorado Springs are."
Back in Colorado Springs, everyone who passes by on the street, regardless of their stage in life, seems to be living up to the Fittest City title. And all of them are happy to reveal the ways that fitness influences and improves all parts of their lives, from friendships and family life to sex. And not always in that order. "Fitness provides a lot of social opportunities in the city," says 26-year-old mechanical engineer Lianna Miller, while adjusting her bike helmet and ear warmers at Wooglin's Deli, a turkey-andprovolone hangout near the Colorado College campus, before heading back into the freezing fog. Chief among them: the 5k run that starts at the Jack Quinn Irish Alehouse & Pub at six every Tuesday night and ends at the same place, where $2 beers await all participants. "It's basically a meat market," Miller laughs, adding with the teensiest bit of prodding that this is actually a good thing since the Springs lacks the singles scene of, say, Boulder, 98 miles away.
Ah, Boulder. The city to which Colorado Springs is inevitably compared. Like C.S., it's also a college town (home to the University of Colorado at Boulder). It's also snuggled beneath the Rockies and is a cycling, rockclimbing, and running mecca. But from the Springs' viewpoint, it's preposterously liberal and obnoxiously self-laudatory. "I lived in Boulder, and they have this elitist attitude, but Colorado Springs is 10 times better than Boulder," says Poremba.
Not that Colorado Springs doesn't have its own battle with misconceptions. To most of the country, the city of more than 300,000 is the kind of place where Christian fanatics go to megachurches to plot Armageddon, and airmen in a gigantic cave plot, well, the same thing. Indeed, thinking too hard about the proximity of these overlapping subcultures- churches like the right-wing Focus on the Family (which was founded in the city) and the U.S. Air Force Academy, located on the north side of town, Fort Carson to the south, and Peterson Air Force Base to the east-could lead you to picture life in the Springs as a triple bill of Dr. Strangelove, Fail-Safe, and The Apostle.
Fortunately, things aren't nearly that bad. The religious right does have a voice in the town, but it's not overwhelming. And while the military presence is huge, the place doesn't really feel like it's under U.S. occupation. Instead, it feels like fun. Consider The Colorado Running Company, a locally owned shoe and gear store that's as much about socializing as it is shopping. "Do you see what the weather is like outside?" asks manager John O'Neill. "I put on a race today that had 85 people. The big comment was, 'This is Colorado. That's why we live here.' Look, the sun's coming out. It could be 75 degrees this afternoon."
The sun hadn't made its reappearance just yet, but O'Neill was right: It could at any second. Huge temperature swings and fast melts are common in C.S., as are community runs, such as those put on by The Colorado Running Company, itself an outgrowth of a Wednesday night social run and happy hour. "We think running is great, and we think adult beverages are great," says O'Neill. "We came up with the idea for this store through many, many bottles of wine. So on Wednesdays we do some running, come back, and enjoy a few beverages, and tell a lot of lies about how much we run and how fit we used to be."
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