I am moving to Oklahoma City this summer. I will be working at Tinker AFB and have been told either Moore or Edmond are good areas to set up shop. I’d like to be within 25 minutes of Tinker but also close to good swimming and cycling routes. Most importantly good cycling routes (not overly congested) and group rides. I imagine Tinker has a pool. Where would you live in my situation and why? The family really matters most, we need a great school district that is safe.
My BIL lives in OKC. I’ve visited a few times. Can’t imagine living there. Having said that, the OKC Triathlon club is active and a pretty good club although I don’t think that there are many races. Yet, the Redman in September is supposedly amazing. There is some good riding out near Moore, especially near Drapier (sp?).
Where would you live in my situation and why?
Almost anywhere else in the world.
**The family really matters most, we need a great school district that is safe. **
In OKC, no one is safe. It’s the birthplace of tornados and they don’t like to stray far from home.
I’ve got friends who were outdoorsy (not necessarily tri) who love Edmond. I’ll see if I can get some info on cycling.
And seriously consider the tornado shelter when you are looking at housing. I grew up in OK and would refuse to live someplace without (preferably) a basement or solid storm shelter that was easily accessible from a dead sleep. You do not want to have to think about what to do when you can see a tornado out the window. Trust me on that one.
Edmond has the best school districts. Look for Deer Creek in particular. It is on the opposite side of town but the highway systems are set up where you can get to it quite easy.
Lake Hefner is 10 miles around. It can be congested, but not too bad. Great for running and biking. You can incorporate Lake Overholser and make it a 30-40 mile bike ride.
You can ride down on the Oklahoma river and transfer in to the lakes listed above if you want. Oklahoma River is where the multiple boat houses are and where some Olympic training happens for rowing.
Charlie’s Bicycle Laboratory is the best bike shop. It is on the northwest side of town and they have group rides on mulitiple nights a week. Usually 30-40 miles. They also have crits just north of downtown.
Schlegels is the other bike shop in town and they have group rides too.
The OKC Landrunners is the running group for OKC. They set up weekend runs for a majority of the year that regularly brings up to 400 people on Saturdays or Sundays. They run all over town.
Grew up in Moore. It’s an easy commute to Tinker from there. Lake Draper is on the way and a great place to road ride (you can do 13-14 mile loops without stopping once), as well as mountain bike and trail run on some great single track.
OKC is actually a really great running community. There is no shortage of good group runs where you can find about any pace and any distance to run. Check out Landrunners, Red Coyote Pack Pint Run, and others.
Some good group rides (can be very fast depending on who gets on the front…) in both Norman and Edmond, so being close to one of those spots is good for riding. Lot of good steep hills and low traffic if you go south and/or east of Norman as well as east of Edmond, but the roads generally suck everywhere.
There are almost no master’s swim groups. It is close to a wasteland for swimming, but gym memberships with a pool can be dirt cheap. I usually grab a 20 punch pass to the OKCCC pool for $45 if I am staying in town for a month or so. It’s the fastest in the region so it’s nice to see lower than normal times, but if you work it’s tough to find a time to swim with all the high schools that practice there.
Northwest OKC has Lake Hefner which is a nice place to run (too many stops to do more than bike short intervals or recovery). It also has a nice mountain bike trail system called bluff creek which is great running too. Downtown OKC has good running along the waterfront. There’s a group run that meets there on Tuesdays I think.
From Norman to Edmond it’s about an hour drive on the highway at 70. Everything is so spread out. Probably my biggest gripe outside the weather and lack of bike lanes/roads to ride on. It’s really cold in winter, really hot in summer, and tornadoes in the spring. Fall is incredible though. Football season and great weather usually through mid-December.
Moore/Norman/Edmond all very good schools. Edmond probably a little better, particularly for run/swim coaching, but I liked having a little easier time in high school as I wasn’t burned out when I got to college like so many of my friends from more difficult high schools were. Moore/Norman definitely the better commute.
My next door neighbor works at Tinker and I live in Edmond. I would guess it takes 30 minutes for him to get to Tinker depending on the day. Turnpike to 35 to 40 and you are there. The longest part would be the surface streets.
I can get to decently safe riding from my front door, but the area keeps expanding. I know lots of people drive out to Deer Creek High School to park and then ride out in the farm country. Roads here are all pretty bad out in the rural areas though. Hefner is good place to ride but on really nice days it can become crowded with walkers on the side with the restaurants so I usually turn around and go the other way on both sides of that section to avoid them. Basically an 8 mi each way out and back rather than a 10 mile circle.
Tri OKC is a great club and puts on a lot of great races all throughout the season.
When you get a house, get a storm shelter ASAP before the fall storm season.
8 year Okc resident here … I’d have to agree with everything Journey & deucemonkey said.
I’ll add that regardless of Edmond/Moore there’s a lake for OWS 10-15minutes away. Arcadia or Thunderbird. If that’s your thing. And there’s plenty of good bike shops in town…but Charley’s gets my business for service. Brandon and Charly best two mechanics around!
The weather here is certainly extreme. Really like no place else nationally! While we get our share of tornados…it’s the damn wildfires that scare the sh*t out of me! Oh ya… the 2 months before tornado season half the damn state’s on fire (3.5yo drought). It’s really an ugly place and our roads are 3rd world quality, but its home!! If you dont mind me asking…where are you moving from?
I forgot about Arcadia for open water. It takes me forever to get out there! Started going to Thunderbird on Wednesdays with the TriNorman group when in town. It’s closer, but still a heck of a drive even from the east side of Moore. Great triathlon community though from OKC to Tulsa. Even in the mecca I’m at now (Boulder,where I just ran in a group run with a 2:09 marathoner this morning), I still miss the racing and training groups there at times.
We will definitely be getting a home with a shelter! That is a must. I grew up in St. Louis, MO so I know a bit about tornadoes and the volatile midwest weather. Thank you to everyone for the great advise. It sounds like they have good cycling and running near both Moore and Edmond. I’m looking forward to new roads to explore.
Thanks for all of your advice it is good to hear that a local (8 yrs) agrees with the consensus. I’ll definitely be checking out those lakes for some open water swims.
I’m coming from Corpus Christi, TX where the roads are horrible. I’ve also lived in Florida recently, where the roads are amazing and the riding, except flat. I was fortunate enough to cut my teeth with triathlon in San Diego. It’s a great place to train, there are a ton of facilities and environments available not to mention training partners.