Phoenixville, PA, just 5 miles NW of Valley Forget National Historic Park.  My "home trails" include Mt. Misery in VF Park and the Schuylkill Canal.  My husband/running partner has been injured for the last few months, so I have had to run solo, thereby limiting some of the locations I feel safe running. 

I live in Parkville, MO and run on the trails around Wyandotte County Lake. I will run out there at least every Thursday for the Beer Apreciation Run.

"Hilly" is a very subjective term. Everybody told me to run the orange loop at Palos if I wanted hilly technical trails. I've been out there a few times, and I don't think it is very hilly or very technical. Deer Grove is somewhat hilly in places, but I go here because it is an easier drive from Evanston vs. driving through the city to get to Palos. Deer Grove yellow loop is 5.4 miles (map here) and a mix of dirt and crushed gravel. I park at the West parking lot on Dundee, and run counterclockwise - that puts the hills towards the end of the loop. Then you can add the 1.6 mile orange which appears to be an old service road that has never been resurfaced, so mix of asphalt and dirt. It is mostly uphill, then you turn around and go back downhill. Grade isn't terribly steep, but it is a nice change from the usual stuff around here. The brown loop is also nice, dirt/gravel around the model airplane field that partly runs in parallel with the paved bike/walk path. Trails are marked at Deer Grove (in fact, there are a few short hiking/snowshoe trails crisscrossing the park that do not appear on any map -  I'm going to check those out the next time I am there).

 

I also like the yellow loop at Sag Valley (map here), just south of Palos on the other side of the channel. The 8.1 mile yellow loop is mostly crushed gravel double track, but the hilliest trail I have run since moving here a few months ago. Very well marked. The area called 'Swallow Cliffs' is an old toboggan area. There are a ton of steps to the side of the big grass hill. Lots of people do stair repeats here. I imagine you could also use the grass hill for repeats.

 

I haven't been yet because it is so far away, but Veterans Acres park in McHenry County is supposed to be nice. It is the "home" park for the MUDD trail/ultra club. I am running their Frozen Gnome 50k in January, which uses those trails.

Thanks RoxieRuns for the maps and all the insider information. I think I'll check out Deer Grove when I want to go somewhere new for a long run. I'll probably check out Sag Valley's yellow loop in the near future too. I typically run the orange loop in Palos, since it seemed to have the technical trail at Palos. So, it would be easy for me just to scoot down south a bit and try that. With where I'm situated in the city, its easier/faster for me to get to Palos than Palatine.

As far as up north, I tried to go running at Chain O' Lakes State Park over Thanksgiving (I don't know if there are any trails there, just going to explore), but it was closed for hunting. If I'm up by there again, I'll look at Veterans Arces Park too. Its a little far to be an every week occurrence, but if my husband wants to visit family up there, I may get a chance to run it. I was looking at the Frozen Gnome 50k too. NLUR (New Leaf Ultra Runs) posted about it. I'm not sure I'd be ready for a 50k by then. Maybe if this week's long run goes well, I'll sign up.

Thanks again for all the info!

Summary (interesting cross-section of states):

Palmer (Southcentral) Alaska

Northern California
Petaluma, California
Thousand Oaks, California

Boulder, Colorado
Durango, Colorado

Athens, Georgia

Chicago, Illinois
Chicago, Illinois

Indianapolis, Indiana

Bloomington, Indiana

Greensberg, Louisiana

Parkville, Maryland
Silver Springs, Maryland

Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts
Southeastern Massachusetts

Northern Michigan

Parkville, Missouri

Missoula, Montana
Southeast Montana

Reno (near), Nevada
Carson City, Nevada

Northern New Jersey

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Saratoga Springs, New York

King, North Carolina
Northwest North Carolina

Eugene, Oregon

Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Boalsburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
South Central Pennsylvania
Douglass Township, Pennsylvania
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Kingwood, Texas
Kingwood, Texas
Dallas, Texas

Cedar City, Utah
Ogden, Utah

Richmond, Virginia
Arlington, Virginia

Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington

Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

nice summary-thanks!   we have nearly every geographic area covered

But the Pennsylvanians are clearly plotting to take over.

My name says it all... Dubuque, Iowa, where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet.  I can do a 10 mile run and run through three states.

My "home" trails are in the Mines of Spain state park.  A 10 minute run gets me there and I can easily squeeze 1000 feet of climbing into a 7 miler from my front steps.  We've got a couple other solid trail running areas within a 10 minute drive.  And this year the trail running community here is growing strong and we may have 10 other locals signing up for 50k+ trail races this spring.

I used to live in Madison and never found it to be a great trail running town because I wanted hills/rocks/roots and if I wanted any extended trail running I had to drive there (and I hate driving someplace to run.)  I rarely felt like driving out to Blue Mound or the Kettles or Devil's Lake or anywhere else just to run.

The best trail running town in the Midwest outside of the coastal Lake Superior towns?  Decorah, Iowa.  Check it out.

 I know some here have done a lot of traveling and could probably cover almost every state with their running adventures.  On our trips we have paused, even if only for three or four miles, so we could check off another state--no regard for official pay-a-fee runs, just out and about on dirt somewhere.

JohnM> is this a comprehensive list of every place you've lived?  And how did you come to visit/hang out/run through/live in Phoenixville?