On December 19th, I finished running every single block of every street and avenue in Manhattan. It took me all year and covered roughly 750 miles, not including the times I had to double back.
On this date in 1954, 65-year old Thomas Keane finished walking every street in Manhattan, a feat that the New York Times included coverage of. Fifty years later to the day, Columbia University librarian Caleb Smith repeated Keane’s accomplishment. After running two miles down Madison Avenue, I carried on a tradition that has now lasted for almost 70 years, bringing my pointless but difficult quest to run every street in Manhattan to a close.
I would record each run with Strava and export the GPX data, then combine it with a previous run using GPX.studio to create an ongoing map of my progress. It wasn't until after I finished that I learned of the feature on Strava that allows you to view a personal heatmap, https://stories.strava.com/articles/how-to-complete-an-every-single-street-challenge-using-strava, which would've been tremendously helpful. Overall, it was a fun adventure & I'm happy to have finished it!
