It was only a matter of time before we wrote this article. Honestly, I'm proud of how long we held out. This article is obvious. This article is what I imagine is the result of a multi-month analysis of a running brand by a McKinsey consultant. I can hear it now...

"What do runners need? How can we serve them the way they need to be served? These are the questions we need to be asking to win the hearts, the minds, and most importantly—the wallets of this exploding demographic. After months of intensive research, we've found the answer to these questions. Runners need bathrooms. They need bathrooms and they need water fountains. Our social listening tool, SocialifyFlyAi.iO discovered restroom related running content was circulated on core social channels last month over 17 times. That's 200% MoM growth. So what do we do with this information? We write a blog post listing out the best public facilities for runners. We anticipate double-digit brand affinity and KPI increases across the board. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. We see a future where this list can be integrated into The Program app. And with our analytics and AI infrastructure, we can detect down to the minute when a runner will need that facility and trigger a notification with information about the closest site to them. Together, we can build a better future for runners. That will be one million dollars."

Set me out to pasture if this ever happens.

Anywho, a couple of us put out stories on IG asking friends for their most trusty spots. Here's what we got...

Bathrooms

#1 Ranked Little Island bathroom making me feel like I'm back on line for Skull Mountain at Six Flags. Anyone else? Anyone at all?

1. Little Island
2. Navy Yard
3. Bush Terminal
4. Eataly Flatiron
5. 5th Ave Apple Store
6. Whole Foods
7. BK Bridge Park & Piers
8. Tavern on the Green (Central Park)
9. Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6, Pier 2
10. Domino Sugar Factory
11. Columbus Circle (in the park)
12. Chelsea Piers
13. McCarren Parkhouse
14. Brookfield Place
15. Queensbridge Park (LIC)
16. Bryant Park
17. East River Track
18. A local hospital (very debatable)

Water Fountains

The NYC Parks squad high-key snapped on this interactive map of the city's water fountains. There's also a feature where you can see "Heat Vulnerability", but that just pretty much lights up all of Brooklyn. Anyway, here's what came in for the top water fountains in the city. 

1. Steuben Playground
2. "One by the baseball fields in Prospect Park"
3. 86th Street Traverse on West Side of Street 
4. Seward Park
5. Harlem Hill, Midway up the curve (IYKYK)
6. Domino Park
7. Westside Highway
8. Bushwick Inlet Park