Best Social Bike Ride 2015 | The Bicycle Brewery Tour | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Social Bike Ride

The Bicycle Brewery Tour

Led by cyclist/activist Jonathan Braddick, this occasional ride is a laid-back tour of local breweries, attracting all levels of riders with its leisurely pace. Braddick starts the Dallas ride at the Continental Bridge. The one in Fort Worth starts at T&P Station, reachable by public transpo. Even in chilly February, a Dallas brewery ride drew 500 cyclists following Braddick on bikes cheap and/or fancy, cruising from brewery to brewery down Riverfront Boulevard. Braddick, president of the Dallas Bicycle Coalition, has done a half-dozen tours so far, along with a bike-in vegan dinner and film event, and some tours of historic areas of Oak Cliff. (He announces the rides on his Facebook page.) The rides are all free and the breweries offer his groups discounts. Way to peddle a great pedaling idea.

Best Running Trail for People Who Already Have Hot Bods

Katy Trail

Face it, the Katy Trail is where one-percenters go to test their Fitbits and show off their low BMIs. Get in the way of one of these taut specimens and you will be yelled at for workout interference. Dotted with pricey brunch joints and loomed over by Turtle Creek luxury high-rises, the 3.5-mile Katy Trail that runs from Mockingbird Station to American Airlines Center is the preferred path for the super-toned and devoutly Lululemoned. If you're one of the lowly hoi polloi, keep your jiggly stuff hidden and try to look confident out there. This road to fitness is paved with good intentions.

katytraildallas.org

Best Trail for Serious Running

White Rock Lake

For long, quiet, meditative runs, where you get lost in your tunes and lose track of what mile you're on, hit the White Rock Lake trails. Our manmade body of water in East Dallas is ringed by a meandering 9.3-mile trail that winds through woods, over bridges and a dam and past a small marina filled with sailboats. Run, walk or skate the trail alone or join one of many fitness clubs that do the lake in groups (Meetup.com lists a bunch). If 9.3 miles isn't enough of a training workout, the lake trail joins the 7.5-mile White Rock Creek trail at the north end, which makes a near-marathon 24.3-mile round trip.

Best Sports Columnist

Bob Sturm

Bob Sturm is one of the best sportswriters in The Dallas Morning News' stable but he's really a radio guy, co-hosting (with Dan McDowell) the noontime BaD show on The Ticket/1310AM. His well-researched columns about the Cowboys, and posts on his daily Sturminator blog, which draw on his encyclopedic knowledge of sports, offer great insights into what's happening with America's Team.

Best Fun Run

Go Oak Cliff 1.1 Beer Run

Go Oak Cliff's 1.1 Beer Run is the perfect precursor to the Bishop Arts-staged Brew Riot. For a registration fee, you get to run through Bishop Arts, plus you're granted three beers and early admission to the home-brewing competition. For completing the run, you also get a cheeky 1.1 car sticker that will help you show up any marathon-running jerks you know.

gooakcliff.org

Best Sporting Goods Store

Whole Earth Provision Co.

There are other sports besides baseball, football and basketball. If you participate in outdoors-y non-team sports such as camping, fishing and hiking, Whole Earth Provision will get you outfitted. They've got a huge variety of hammocks, guidebooks and sleeping bags (single and double), and an enormous collection of flip-flops and waterproof sandals. Friendly, knowledgeable staffers will take the time you need to find just the right quick-wicking shirt and ergonomic backpack. You need to look chill trudging up that hill.

Best Athlete

Jordan Spieth

Was it ever going to be anyone else? Champion golfer and native Texan Jordan Alexander Spieth won the 2015 Masters, the 2015 U.S. Open and came within a shot of making a playoff at the 2015 British Open. Had he won at St. Andrews, Spieth would've become the first golfer since Ben Hogan (in 1953) to win those three tournaments in a single season. Instead, he settled for being the first golfer since Tiger Woods (in 2002) to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. Spieth bought a multi-million-dollar house in Preston Hollow and estimates put his net worth at around $16 million from winnings and endorsements. As one sportswriter put it, Spieth's basically Dallas' fifth major sports franchise at this point. He's 22.

Best Free Workout

Klyde Warren Park's Free Yoga

If you're looking to get in shape on the cheap, your workout schedule is available at klydewarrenpark.org. The downtown deck park offers a workout class every single day, from zumba to boot camp, but the best class on the docket takes place at 10 a.m. Saturdays. Hosted by the Dallas Yoga Center, the instructors are experts at guiding you into and out of challenging positions. Pair it with a boot camp or meditation class to feel the burn or find your inner zen. The best things in life really are free.

Best Yoga Studio

Sunstone Yoga

Fans of Sunstone Yoga love their signature "Fire" class, sort of like Bikram except the room is kept at a slightly less heatstroke-inducing 98.6 degrees, but Sunstone's menu of classes has expanded. At locations all over town, this chain of yoga studios offers multiple styles and some daily non-yoga classes like strength training and barre. No matter which studio you visit, you'll find an inviting atmosphere and friendly instructors. Take Sunstone up on a free trial week. If you like it, you can buy a monthly unlimited pass, which gives you access to any class at any location. These yogis help you stretch your muscles and your dollars.

Best Park

Klyde Warren Park

Straddling a freeway, this downtown oasis has become a grassy magnet for workers needing a break, high-rise dwellers craving a look at ground-level life, museum-goers, ATTPAC visitors, lovers, mommies with baby strollers and power walkers. With artsy lighting, well-kept landscaping and a steady stream of pedestrians and bench-sitters, the Klyde is a fave for selfie-taking tourists and Uptown dog owners taking designer mutts out for a whiz (remember those poop bags). A knitting group meets one day a week in the park, a book club on another (weather permitting). You'll find picnickers, Frisbee tossers and, because of its location, a few of the overnight "campers" who didn't make it to the homeless shelter in time. Rain or shine, for the rich or poor, the Klyde awaits, a blanket of calm atop a busy thoroughfare.

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