Now that I’m caught up to the present in city-by-city recaps, I’m getting a little thematic. First up is how running has been while nomading!
As some background, I’ve been a runner since 4th grade, the earliest year I could join the track team. At first, I ran because I wanted to be just like my dad, and then because I was decent at it, but by the end of my first high school XC summer conditioning I was truly in love with the sport, with Fall Cross Country and Winter/Spring Track defining much of my high school and college experience. I didn’t run much of my first couple of years out of college, feeling too busy and unmotivated, but I rediscovered my love of running in 2020.
Completionism: seeking new roads and making the map purple
Part of what drew me back into running in 2020 was finding out about completionist running. I discovered a site, CityStrides.com, that would track what streets in my area, then San Jose, I had completed via a logged run or walk on Strava. San Jose is a sprawling, suburban city, not great for walking to much of anywhere but perfect for running through endless tree-lined and uncrowded streets in mild-ish weather. I only chipped away 4% of San Jose streets before I got injured, but that instilled a lasting love for the whole daily completionist routine: mapping funny-looking routes, trying to efficiently cover as much distance as possible; running through new and different parts of town, getting to know the city in a way few do; and then getting home to look at how my coverage map and stats had grown.
I am still using a completionist site to map my runs, but I’ve since moved from CityStrides to Wandrer.earth, which includes roads not in an incorporated municipality (necessary for our stay in rural NC), includes trails and pedestrian paths, and counts points by mileage instead of whole streets. The last two points encourage me to do nice long loops on pleasant routes to see wider ranges of the city instead of finding a cul-de-sac filled neighborhood to knock out as many individual streets as possible. Since I’m not in any place long enough to actually hit 100% anywhere, I’d rather count new miles than roads.
How do you know where to go if you run a new place everyday?
I spend 5-10 minutes a day setting my running route for the day on Strava. I use a mix of Strava’s heatmap and Wandrer’s Chrome extension to show what roads are commonly run on (meaning maybe they’re nice to run on) and which ones I’ve yet to run on, respectively.
The route automatically downloads to my Garmin watch, so I get (only slightly buggy) turn-by-turn on my wrist during the run!
Are you training for anything? Running a marathon?
I’m not training for anything at the moment. While I’ve currently got the fitness for a decent trail ultra given my hiking and running mileage, I’m not signed up for anything since I don’t want to feel pressure to work out on weekends, keeping that time sacred for camping/hiking excursions. It’s been an odd experience just doing mileage runs without any workouts or fitness goals after spending most of my life running competitively, but it’s been a wonderful experience relearning to enjoy running. Running has been a way for me to explore each new place, a dedicated time to myself to process concepts from work, my readings, and life, and a steady habit in an life with few constants. Of course, getting new points for new miles and filling in my map helps to get me out the door each day.
In March, I was kind-of training for a kind-of ultra. My friend Mark wanted to do a Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim attempt, and I asked to come with. I wasn’t experienced or fit enough to feel comfortable doing the whole thing, but I did run/hike (a combo known as ruk or fast-pack) for ~36 miles with him in the Grand Canyon, my first ever marathon+ distance. Since then, I’ve been continuously finding cool, long routes closer to where I’m staying, so I’m “training” largely to be able to do the long, cool routes. Particularly in Seattle, I got in a habit of taking a bus an hour away and running back along a scenic route about every week.
Do you listen to anything while running?
I don’t run with my phone, which limits me to music and whatever podcasts are on Spotify (no audiobooks). However, I usually run without headphones. That’s partially for safety - since I’m almost always in an unfamiliar area with novel traffic patterns, I’m a prolific jay-runner1, and cars are way bigger than me, I want to keep all my senses keen - partially because I want to take in the new areas I'm exploring, and partially because I'm been trying (with limited success) to meditate while running.
How much mileage do you do?
When we struck out on our adventure in April 2021, I was slowly getting back into running after being sidelined for almost a year with a lingering injury. Since then, I’ve slowly built up my weekly mileage from a couple runs of several miles each week to 50 miles per week on 5 weekdays. After over a year on an up-cycle of running, I’m now slowly backing off the mileage, doing 3 runs/week instead of 5, and will probably take some time off when back home in Indiana for the holidays.
Which destination has been best for running?
Prescott, AZ, by far! That was the only destination where I drove to a running route most days (I usually just start running from the front door). We were just a few miles away from some awesome trailheads, which meant just 5-10 minutes of driving could get my run to be 100% trail instead of 30-50% trail. Grand Junction has also been very nice with nearby trails; Portland, Austin, and Seattle are excellent for urban running; and the Bay Area for suburban running and looking at nice houses/gardens. Car-centric, sprawling cities like El Paso, Idaho Falls, and Vegas were not so pleasant (the other cities I listed are also car-centric - pretty much every American city is - but at least have lots of interconnected trails and parks to run through).
More about Wandrer.earth
Wandrer exploded in popularity around the time I joined, causing the owner to gradually change some of the scoring algorithms for monthly competitions. Those changes weren’t retroactive though, so since I won a bunch of monthly challenges right before the change, I’m solidly ranked one of the top Wandrers on the site! I’m pretty spoiled as far as having new areas to score unique mileage in every month: most other power users are either retirees willing to drive 20+ minutes each way to get to new areas for a long walk, backpackers doing a long trail like the PCT, or others who find new areas because of their lifestyle like airline pilots. You can see the map of all the places I’ve run here, though you need to make a free account first to view mine.
While seeking out points for the site has sometimes caused me to run less-nice routes for the sake of variation, in all it’s been a great influence to get me out the door each day and explore parts of the city I wouldn’t otherwise. If you’re looking for some encouragement to explore or get outdoors yourself, I definitely recommend checking out CityStrides or Wandrer.Earth!
A random thought I have on occasion is that given how much I run per day and how often I cross streets at places other than cross walks on each run, I’m probably top few percentile of Americans in number of crimes committed per day