How fit are nation's cities in 2023?

I was looking through a collection of articles that I had saved and came across one from 2007. The article was about the fitness of cities in the United States. I saved it because two Texas cities were on the list.

Austin was in the top 15 fittest cities and San Antonio was the second fattest city. I recall reading the article and it caught my attention because I haven’t seen a ranking of fit and fat cities for several years. This might be my lack of attention to media outlets that report this information.

I started to recall thinking San Marcos was in the middle of one of the fittest cities and one of the fattest cities and wondered which city San Marcos followed. Looking back at San Marcos at the time period and the conditions that prevailed then had my attention. San Marcos had four main fitness centers with Jim’s Gym. San Marcos Athletic Club, the Activity Center, and the Recreation Center at the university. There may have been a few smaller fitness businesses such as yoga classes, karate businesses, and walking clubs.

The Parks and Recreation Department held a fitness expo at the activity center for the citizens to visit with the various fitness and health establishments here in San Marcos.

The first year it was moderately successful with small groups of people stopping by to talk with the various businesses that were in the health, nutrition, yoga, and weight lifting gyms in San Marcos.

The response from people in San Marcos was so poor that on the third try at the fitness expo it was canceled because the fitness businesses did not join in the expo. Most felt that the poor attendance was not worth missing those hours they could be working. That seemed to favor being more like San Antonio.

Between David Alexander and I there were times during the summer where we helped organize or consult with a run down at the Courthouse for it seems like a dozen or more races over the summer and fall. I remember having eight Saturdays in a row one year to help with directing a race here in San Marcos. David was busy with helping out at nearby towns like Kyle, Fentress, New Braunfels and Seguin as well as here in San Marcos.

This area was a hotbed for individuals that were runners. Most of the races were the 5K distance but an occasional 10k and one 15K race were scattered in the mix.

The Moe’s Better Half Marathon usually had between 300 to 400 runners enter.

As the years passed on there were fewer races in the immediate area. The Half Marathon entry number dropped down to around 250 runners and one year there were three half marathons in the surrounding area on the same day. Development of the area caused some of the races to disappear because of the increase in traffic and safety concerns. Many of the sponsoring organizations such as the Junior Chamber of Commerce and a few civic clubs were disbanded and the race they sponsored was lost.

Today it seems that the number of races has dwindled to about a dozen or so for the entire year. The lack of races and the number of runners had a secondary effect as the stores that catered to runners and sports went out of business. Add-In, Core Running, and Rick’s Athletic Store are no longer in business.

If a runner wants to buy from a “running store” versus a large athletic store such as Academy or at the Outlet Center they need to go out of town to shop. The expert advice from a runner employed at these stores disappeared and unless the runner knew the brand and style of shoe they wanted it was a try them on and hope for the best.

The one part of the fitness community that has changed is the increase in businesses for fitness has increased. With the growth of four or five fitness gyms to an estimated number closer to over 20 outlets for fitness.

And walking by some of the gyms they seem to have a good following of members working out. Some of the locations are on the outside of town and even meet in the parks for a morning workout. Whether it is lifting weights, cross-fit, yoga, dancing, or running, the number of people striving to get fit seems to be growing.

The one activity I see in my neighborhood is people walking their dogs. While the dog needs to get out and do some exercise it is also beneficial for the owner to put in a mile or so holding the leash.

My experience walking a dog is more of a stop and go walk as he stops to smell every bush, telephone pole, car tire, or pile of leaves on the route. Not a good fitness walk but at least the distance covered is better than sitting at home.

We need to continue to strive to be a fit city.