I just came across a new Forbes list, America’s Fittest Cities, and was both excited and surprised to see Cleveland listed as #24. Go us! There were also 2 other Ohio cities listed, Columbus (#29) and Cincinnati (#14).

Forbes used varying criteria to come up with its rankings, including obesity rates, heart disease statistics, number of parks and recreation areas per capita, percentage of population that smokes, etc.

The top 3 were DC, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Denver. Boston, my old stomping ground, was #4.

I hope next year we can creep up a few notches. The list only contained 45 cities, so technically Cleveland was still in the bottom half. I’m optimistic though, and I think we’re making headway – it seems that people that I know are trying to eat healthier, lose weight, etc. and new gyms are opening up around me all the time. The races I’ve run this year have claimed to have record attendance. Also, I’ve noticed a significant increase in Farmers Markets this Spring, and some cool new programs for having healthy, farm fresh groceries, like the Fresh Fork Market.

To check out a slide show of the entire list, click here. For more information, check out the whole Forbes article.

*Thanks to @megrote for tweeting about the list!