How to run every street in your town

The #RunEveryStreet challenge started organically for runners like Vancouver David Papineauwho set out in 2014 with pen and paper to walk all 1,090 streets in the Vancouver area. It was only in 2018 that this renowned ultra runner became Ricky Gates ran every street in San Francisco for 46 days, spreading the word about CityStrides and opening up new opportunities for runners like Toronto Stephen Peck, who recently did the same on his city’s 11,000 streets.

In case you don’t know what CityStrides is (e.g. me six months ago), it’s open-web street mapping software that syncs with MapMyRun, Garmin and Strava and creates a heatmap that shows you how much of a city you walked. CityStrides uses third-party apps’ GPS data and throws every run or walk you’ve ever taken onto a map, giving you a super precise detail of the roads you’ve taken and when you took them.

When Papineau first uploaded his runs to CityStrides in 2018, he was shocked at how much of Vancouver he still had to cover. “I used to print a map on paper and take it with me on my run,” says Papineau. “Trying to run every street is like building a house: most runners have the main streets and parks (the foundation) covered, and running every street just fills in the gaps in between.”

how to start

If you use a third-party app like Strava or Garmin Connect for your training, getting started with CityStrides is easy. Visit the CityStrides website and connect to the third-party app to create your profile in seconds.

The application automatically creates a profile for you, connecting all your previous runs and all future runs.

If you’re just starting out in running, using CityStrides is an easy way to get motivated. Use your progress as motivation to run around every street in your neighborhood or city. “One of the rewarding things about CityStrides is that you will often see places that you would often never go,” says Papineau.

Papineau said the best way to start is to go out and do it! “Start with the short runs in your immediate neighborhood on roads you haven’t traveled before and branch out from there.”

Some techniques Papineau used in completing Vancouver were presetting his route on his GPS watch, as well as graphically recording runs in areas he had never been to. “In grid cities or small towns, it’s easy to navigate every street in a given neighborhood because streets are restricted to parallel and perpendicular directions.”

“I would travel to an area and write down the roads I needed and then let them run,” says Papineau.

“When you see your overall completion rate go up, you almost get that endorphin rush when you finish new roads,” he says. “It’s rewarding to see all your hard work documented.”

CityStrides can become an obsession, or you might not like it at all, but at least you can see and experience new places that you would never see in your own backyard.