#runRockIsland Seeing all of Rock Island on foot

Starting April 1st, 2016, I will attempt to run each and every linear mile of streets in my hometown; the public works website says that's 154 miles.

Why are you doing this?

Being the geek I am, I was listening to a podcast episode about Graph Databases from Full Stack Radio. In this episode, they talked about the paper written by Leonhard Euler in 1736 called The Seven Bridges of Königsberg. Basically, the problem was one of how to travel to interconnected islands without duplicating the path taken.

A few days later, I thought about Leonard's problem and the streets of the city in which that I live. Although I understood that I couldn't travel all of the streets in the city without duplication (all the dead-end streets), I thought it might be an easy enough thing to at least travel each linear mile of the streets at least once.

In addition, I've recently put together a running plan to train for a few long runs in the next few years. So, I put the two together and #runRockIsland was born.

How are you doing this?

I've started a list of 'guidelines' for myself. I like guidelines.

1. Every single linear mile of streets, avenues, courts, lanes and boulevards within the city limits of Rock Island will be traveled at least once. Alleyways are excluded.
2. Every run will start and end at the same central location: The College of Nursing at UnityPoint Hospital in Rock Island.
3. An exception to rule #2 is for races that begin within the city limits of Rock Island. For instance, the Quad Cities Distance Classic or Steve's Old Time Tap Spring Chaser 5k.
4. All miles logged will be done so during a run; I may have walking breaks with a run. But a long walk doesn't count toward the miles.
5. All qualifying runs will be uploaded here so you and I can track progress.

I really have no idea how many miles I'm going to run in total, but so far, my calculations for running just southwest Rock Island is at least 100 miles. I guess my current total estimate is around 400 miles.

Can I join in?

Yes. I would love to have you join me on one of my runs; upcoming runs are listed in the sidebar. Get in touch with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

How can I see your progress?

Here's a map of all the roads I've run so far. It might be a few days behind, but you get the general idea.

Run Statistics