Traveling this holiday season? You'll probably be spending some time in the airport, battling long lines, grumpy fellow passengers, unhealthy food options and -- worst of all -- icky airport bathrooms. Shudder.

Health.com recently rated the airports in America and came up with a list of the healthiest airports in the nation, based on things like healthy food options, cleanliness and convenient services that help take the stress out of travel. Here are the top five picks:

• Phoenix Sky Harbour International
• Baltimore/Washington International
• Chicago O'Hare International
• Detroit Metropolitan
• Denver International

Check out the rest of the list here -- how does your city's airport stack up?

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The American College of Sports Medicine has tallied the statistics to rank 15 of America's largest metropolitan cities. Which cities were deemed the fittest? Which fell at the bottom, and why?

The goal of the fitness index is to give a quick glimpse of the health status of America's metropolitan areas. Ultimately the ACSM hopes to help cities achieve a higher level of physical activity and healthy eating habits. The reports about each city include strategies for improvement. The top five cities were:

• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Boston, MA
• Washington D.C.
• Atlanta, GA

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Using factors such as stress levels, cardiovascular mortality, high blood pressure, smoking, and the number of people who commute by foot/bike instead of car, the American Heart Association ranked the best cities/metropolitan areas for women's heart health. Did your city make the list?

• Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota
• Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, District of Columbia
• Denver-Aurora, Colorado
• Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts
• Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
• Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Oregon
• San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, California
• Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California
• Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona.
  
  

Nashville, St. Louis, and Detroit metropolitan areas were ranked as the three most unhealthy cities for women. Want to see more? Read Chris' post about the 20 healthiest US cities.

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How does your city rank? Self magazine recently collected data on 100 major metropolitan areas in the country to find out which cities had the healthiest lifestyles, least environmental concerns, most community resources, and best disease statistics. After compiling their data, they ranked the cities from 1-100. Want to find out how the cities in your state faired? Click here.

The country's healthiest place for women -- according to Self magazine, anyway -- is Honolulu with low obesity and depression rates and good air quality. The city lost points for high property crime rates, low number of health clubs, and long commutes. The unhealthiest is the Motor City. Detroit's high rates of obesity and violent crimes -- twice the national average -- sent it to the bottom of the list. In its defense, however, Detroit scored points for its high number of parks, low drinking rates among women, and good dental health.

I'm not sure exactly how Self developed their ranking scale or if this information even means anything, but it's kind of interesting to look at. If you live in one of the cities on the list, let me know what you think of your ranking and if it seems appropriate.

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A while back on our sister site, Gadling, I made it public that I would be registering and running in my first marathon. Considering I'm not a HUGE running fan, I wanted to prove to myself that after putting in so many walking miles on the Steps Across America tour, I'd be able to push myself and my fitness level a bit further by running a full 26.2 miles. Now onto the training.

To my advantage, a good pal is helping me get started, providing me with reading material, scheduling runs on my calendar, and so on. I'm presently in the middle of Week Three training, with 15 more weeks separating me from the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon on October 29, 2006.

Marathon training, like anything else, would be easy if it were the only thing we had penned in our planners, but that isn't always the case. Take my situation. In the midst of my training schedule, I'll be flying to Tajikistan for a three-week period. I'm not certain how much of the country's female population goes running on a daily basis or for long distances. I'm really trying to keep my calm and hope that I'll be able to find a decent gym or run undisturbed in the post-Soviet country. But what if I just can't? Sounds like a silly question, but seriously? One suggestion already tossed my way was to pack a jump rope to keep some level of cardio activity. Obviously this isn't going to compensate for one of the long runs. So, my question is this:

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