In Texas, not much running since you can ride up the hills or at least the bulk of the Austin area ones you can. I saw some people running through sandpits but DH muscled through, he has good bike handling from mountain biking. The only thing that looked scary to me is the barracades but I am incredibly uncoordinated! DH has a Kona Jake which doubles as his commuter, it was not really expensive but it does have a triple. Redline is a really low cost option.

Cyclocross has a higher bottom bracket, I had trouble locating one for me (I ride a 47 cm though). I am not sure about any of the other geometry!