Calgary’s Rick Richard was only a few days away from finishing a six-and-a-half-year project to run every street in the city when another 71 streets appeared on his tracking app. He’d already covered thousands of kilometres, and he wasn’t about to let a few more streets derail his planned Oct. 25 finish.
Richard, a recreational runner who works for a plumbing and heating company, moved to Calgary in 1999 after growing up in Toronto. He’s always been intrigued by unusual endurance challenges, and this one was inspired by a YouTube video by American ultrarunner Rickey Gates.
Gates ran every street in San Francisco in 2018, covering more than 2,000 km in 46 days. Richard watched the video several times, and started wondering whether he could do something similar in Calgary. “I watched the video five or six times in about a two-month period and couldn’t shake the ‘what if’ question when it came to Calgary,” he told Canadian Running.
When he started, Calgary had roughly 9,100 streets. Richard knew he’d be taking on a substantial project, but the city grew considerably while he was working his way through it.
Keeping up with a growing city
Richard used CityStrides, an app that connects to Garmin or Strava and tracks completed streets on a map. Every six months or so, another 50 to 100 streets would be added, leaving him with more ground to cover. A few days before his planned finish, the app added another 71 streets. “Given my commitment to get it done on Oct. 25, I had to put in some extra work to get those extra 71 done,” he said.
Some parts of his project weren’t fun. “There were a lot of days and nights I didn’t want to drive to a far-away community to finish some streets, and it sometimes might have looked cozier to stay at home and watch TV,” he wrote on Instagram after completing the project.
Injuries also slowed his progress. He initially covered roughly a quarter of the city each year, but several running injuries when he was about 60 to 70 per cent finished stretched out the final part of the challenge.
Photo courtesy of Rick Richard
Getting to know Calgary
Richard had plenty of opportunities to find a favourite neighbourhood, but his choice changed often. “I feel like I had a lot of recency bias, where I would come home after every run and declare that was the best neighbourhood I ran in,” he said.
One experience that stayed with him came from running through one community where he noticed an older townhouse with household belongings piled outside. The next day, he was running in a more affluent neighbourhood, when he spotted similar items piled inside someone’s three-car garage. “So we all like stuff, and sometimes it’s just economics that makes the difference,” he said. “The person in the triple-car garage can just afford to store it inside.”
He says there weren’t any neighbourhoods he didn’t look forward to visiting. “I feel super fortunate that being a 6’2” male with good street smarts, I tend to feel pretty secure out there,” he said. “But I know that’s not the case for a lot of people, so when I come across other runners, particularly females, I make sure that I distance myself by crossing the street or try to let it be known that I’m a legit runner and not a threat.”
Back where he began
Richard decided a couple of years into the project that he wanted his final run to end on Midridge Place, where he’d started the challenge. When his uncle became seriously ill two years ago, finishing there became particularly important; Midridge was his uncle’s home. On Oct. 25, Richard returned to the same street, joined by friends and supporters for his final run.
“Thanks to everyone who came out tonight to share that last run, it was very special for sure and ended right where my Calgary journey started on Midridge Place with the same Parkin family on hand,” he wrote on Instagram. He described the project as a “fun labour of love that’ll be tough to top.”
Richard already has more running planned, including the California International Marathon in December and the Vancouver Marathon in May. His goal is to return to the Boston Marathon, which he’s run before.