I do a very brief warm up (either slow jog for a few blocks or some leg swings) before my run, and then I try to stretch afterward.

Lots of good stuff in this thread too.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1188589-is-stretching-harmful-what-to-do-for-warm-up

I like to walk for a bit before running. However it's the dead of winter and quite cold and possibly snowing out. Walking for a bit would be more like cooling down than warming up. So i start running immediately from my door. I mostly stretch when I have pain. However, I was doing John Viterelli's yoga for athletes (comcast on demand) after all my runs my first summer and it felt great. I've just gotten lazy since then.

I'll stretch after if it's over 18 miles training run.... I'll stretch after other forms of exercise though to keep flexible.

When i was in high school before a run (cross country or track) we would always stretch. So I have always stretched before my runs. But than I read an article that stated that stretching before a run was not a good idea that you should always stretch after because by than your muscles are warm and are less prone to injury.

so my question is do you stretch before a run or after?
Or do you warm up before a run but starting off slow and than picking up the pace? and running slow after you hit your miles to cool down.

I know that if I do not stretch after a run I can feel it a couple of hours later, so I have started stretching after a run and not before.

When I started running, I would stretch because that's what we did in high school and college. As I learned more about running, what I was reading, from a variety of sources, indicated that research indicates that static stretching was counter productive and I stopped (it can damage muscle fibers and it does reduce power output). Then I read a bit about the "why" of it and that sealed this issue for me.

When I played basketball, we stretched to avoid pulling a muscle. That's needed in a sport like basketball because there are so many different demands placed on the body - sprinting, jogging, sudden turns, sudden stops, significant acceleration. You'll note that long distance running places none of those demands on the body. The longest step I take while running is just under 1 meter (compare that to the length of a stride before doing a layup) and my hands and arms move back and forth about 12". Since there's about a zero possibility that we will perform any significant movement outside of those parameters, I can't see a reason to stretch.

The other issue is that "energy return" in the legs is a huge part of efficient running and energy return is higher when the Achilles and calf muscles resist stretching. Given that and given that stretching will tend to increase resiliency of the kinetic chain, thus reducing energy return, I can't see a reason to stretch before exercise.

Rather than stretch, my warm up consists of at least a mile at a slow pace. The "at least" is important because my turnover rate is low until about mile 1.5. That could be because I haven't started doing drills (which I need to start doing!) and because of my age, dunno.

For a pre-race warmup, I buy and wear a heavy Fruit of the Loom warm up top and bottom, run at least a mile, and then drop the clothes in the donation bin when just before I start the race. I did that on Sunday for a Half and it seemed to work well - it was 48º but I was close to breaking into a sweat when I finished my warmup and felt good when I started the race about 10 minutes later.

My warm up consists of running slow, along with some buttkickers and high knees to loosen up. After running, I have a hard/flat rolling pin and a knobby Rumble Roller that I use religiously.

A small piece of me dies when I see people static stretching before a run. Or before anything.

some nice dynamic (AIS) stretches here.

http://www.solsantacruz.com/Stretching-for-Runners-OakSC.pdf