“Watch the Boston Marathon is a sh*t show!”
Rickey Gates in 2018 when he did it in San Francisco more than 1,300 miles coronavirus pandemic hit the New York City region hard this spring. It was the second or third week of stay-at-home orders, but as spring temperatures climbed, I couldn’t avoid the pull of Use a heat-mapping tool to keep track of where youve run in the spacious park situated across the bay from Manhattan, with spectacular views of the downtown skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
But it seemed everybody else had the same idea that day, because I’d never seen the park so crowded.
“The governor just closed it!” she replied. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy had tweeted an executive order while I was out for my jog, shutting off access to all state and county parks because of overcrowding.
Needing a new route, I headed inland, and worked my way up to a neighborhood known as The Heights. There, I cruised down the middle of traffic-free, one-way streets, shaded by trees just beginning to sprout leaves. I was enjoying the solitude—no other runners (or pedestrians, really) meant I didn’t even have to worry about constantly pulling up and down a face mask.
As I ran, I wondered, “What other parts of the city am I missing out on?” And, thus, I decided to, once again, attempt to run all 244 miles of roads in Jersey City.
Running every street in a city isn’t new idea. It was made popular by Rickey Gates in 2018 when he did it in San Francisco (more than 1,300 miles!), and now we’re seeing it more in the absence of racing.
Want more advice from Jeff and the Runner’s World team? Sign up for RW+ 🏃♀️🏃♂️
It isn’t easy mapping out the routes to hit every road. It took me 29 runs totaling 317 miles to complete it, so I thought I’d share some helpful tips in case you want to attempt the same in your own town, city, or neighborhood.
Set a Realistic Plan
I first gave this challenge a try back in 2014. At the time, my daughter was two years old, and my job required me to shuttle between offices in Pennsylvania and New York City regularly. Time was not on my side and I covered less than half of the city before abandoning the project. But, because of the lockdown this spring, I didn’t have to worry about travel.
Also, it’s important to recognize your limitations. Few of us are like Rickey Gates. I suggest starting small: Run every street in your neighborhood or zip code as a warm-up. It’ll give you a small win, and you’ll be able to expand afterward if you’re feeling up to a bigger challenge.
Pace Yourself
Along that same line, avoid doing too much, too soon. It’s easy to get excited when you take on a new adventure. I went from running five miles a day to logging 80 miles in the first week. I upped that to 90 the following week. Clearly, I violated the 10 percent rule.
I knew I could handle the distance if I took everything at a casual pace. Even so, on one long run to nab a few far flung streets, I decided to also knock out a big section in The Heights. It gets its name because it’s up on the Palisades—a steep cliff that runs right through the middle of the city. I had to climb up and over a small ridge a couple dozen times on that run and was totally gassed. I had to walk an uphill stretch (in fairness, the sidewalk there is constructed as steps), stopped for Gatorade and a Snickers bar at a gas station (here are some other snacks you can bring with you on the run), Why Trust Us.
Don’t be me. Take it easy.
Save the Best for Last
I’ll be honest, my motivation really dragged as this project wore on, because I made an easily avoidable mistake: I ran all the “good” stuff first. As I got closer to my goal, I dreaded some of the places I needed to run just to “complete” the city. It felt more like a chore, rather than an exciting adventure. I mean, it’s hard to get excited about slogging along two trucking routes where the sidewalk is covered in pulverized car parts and the air reeks of diesel fumes, right?
If I were to do it all over again, I’d mix in some of those dreaded routes early, so I’d have more fun destinations to look forward to later.
Avoid the Hustle and Bustle
Did you know Jersey City has an active shipping port? It’s an industrial area on the south end of town where BMW automobiles and other imported goods enter the country. Such a place isn’t where you want to be messing around on foot, while 18-wheelers and heavy machinery try to get their jobs done. I ran those streets on a Sunday morning, and it was deserted.
The pier juts a mile out into the Upper Bay, and from there you have amazing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty from the south. Kevin Wexler, a local photographer who shot the images in this article, and I spent at least 30 minutes shooting pictures of me running back and forth on that roadway without anybody bothering us—the only other person we saw was a security guard in an SUV.
Plan Smart Routes
You’re going to cover some roads more than once, unfortunately—and that’s especially true if your city has a lot of dead-end streets. To cover the 244 miles of roads here, I put in 29 runs totaling 317 miles. That’s a lot of repeated strides, but I tried to eliminate as much redundancy as possible.
Before each run, I plotted out a course on Garmin Connect. Much of Jersey City is organized on a grid, so I decided the best way was to work parallel streets as much as possible. Tip: Use Google Street View, too. (If Google cars can’t drive it, do you really need to run it? Their images, too, let you get a sense for what kind of terrain you’ll be running.)
Stay on Course
Make sure you have a strategy to keep on course. Even if it’s as simple as a napkin with street names jotted on it, you need something to ensure you don’t take a wrong turn.
I opted to use the turn-by-turn navigation built into a My own selfies are in my feed on Instagram. Before setting out, I’d download the day’s course to the watch and then could see the route on a map. Runner’s World+ I knew I could handle the distance if I took everything at a hand-drawn maps (!) when he ran every street in Montclair, New Jersey this spring.
Whatever you do, have every turn written down. At some point, your memory will fail you, and you’ll have to repeat sections you’ve already run.
Track It
Another efficiency tip is to check off the streets you’ve covered, so you know what you still need to run. I’m a nerd, so I wrote computer code to hook into my own online training log. (No, don’t ask me to share the code; it’s sloppy and purpose-built for my task.) Every day, the map would update so I could see where I’d gone and what remained.
Consider more than just the miles youll cover, including hills and road surfaces Sales & Deals Why Trust Us CityStrides. Or, go low-fi: bust out a map and Sharpie.
Document It
Instagram or it didn’t happen, right? In my younger, faster days, I never would have interrupted a run for a selfie. This summer, I had no problem stopping for a quick snapshot of something cool or to position my phone just right to get video of me running by. After all, my only real goal was to run every street in town, not to do it in some record time. I could afford the extra time out there to stop and have fun. (My own selfies are in my feed on Instagram if you’re interested in those and more of the backstory behind each).
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
