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Monday, October 12, 2020

Every Single Street - One Year Later (Almost) - Egg Harbor Township, NJ





On October 29, 2019 I made the decision to embark on a new running goal: to #RunAllTheStreets of my hometown, Egg Harbor Township, NJ. I didn't have a specific target completion date, but at the same time I didn't want this to turn into a project without an end either. Maybe it was partially due to naivety and partially due to the fact that I had not decided what kind of self imposed rules or restrictions I would follow during the course of the project, but I expected to be able to comfortably complete it before the end of 2020. Here I am nearly a year later and only a little over two months until the new year and I am currently 36.22% complete based on City Strides mapping program. I still have a long ways and many miles to go before finishing and I have accepted that it is likely not going to happen before 2021 arrives. 


I could blame part of my lack of progress on an injury I battled earlier this year, but honestly that was not the major reason I did not progress as quickly as I had originally expected. The main reason this project is taking longer than expected is due to the “all on foot” rule I imposed on myself after beginning. Rather than driving to streets and neighborhoods I had not run yet, I decided I would cover all the distance on foot until I had reached at least 25%. Then when I hit 25%, I decided to keep following this rule. This rule of course greatly increased the amount of miles and time required to run all the streets as the bulk of all of my short to medium distance runs at this point are on streets I have already logged. 


After almost a year of this project I have not grown tired of it. I enjoy planning new running routes to log new streets. I like discovering new areas that have been within a few miles of home that I have overlooked and never even noticed. I love finding so many short trail networks at dead end roads that connect paved areas and public parks. It shows me that people don’t want to be contained or limited by where the pavement ends. It is a refreshing realization. With so many positives, I don’t want to rush through this project just to “get it done”. That is why I have not ended my “only on foot” rule yet (if ever). I typically have to run close to a half marathon at this point to log new roads. Even as an ultrarunner, running a half marathon is not a daily occurrence. Will I succumb to the desire to mark the project as complete by altering that rule, or just enjoy chipping away at new streets only on long runs? I’m still not sure at this point. But since I am in no rush to be done with this project, I don’t see myself changing my rules to make it end any sooner than it would otherwise. 

If you’d like to follow along on my journey, follow the links below to my social media accounts and sign up for email notifications for this blog as I will be updating the status of this project across multiple platforms. Also, if you are embarking on your own #EverySingleStreet challenge I’d love to hear about it and feature you on my social media!

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