The impending arrival of snow can be highly motivating.
Just ask Airdrie long-distance runner Steve Gray.
Early into the COVID-19 pandemic, the now-58-year-old Meadowbrook resident set himself an ambitious target – to run down every one of Airdrie’s 660 named streets, roads, avenues, and boulevards. Having completed 93 per cent of his total by mid-August, he said his goal was to complete the remaining seven per cent before it snowed.
Less than three months later, Gray accomplished his goal on Oct. 25 – just before the recent snowfall. His final street to conquer was a small, obscure range road on the east side of Airdrie’s city limits, near Highway 567.
“I just don’t give up,” said Gray, of what motivated him to stick to his objective. “It’s just built in me that way. If I set myself a goal, I’m going to finish it no matter what.”
Gray tracked his daily runs on CityStrides – a website that compiles uploaded data from an activity tracker and correlates the completed runs with a map of the city.
When he created his CityStrides profile and uploaded his backlogged running routes, Gray said he discovered he had already run down approximately one-third of Airdrie’s streets. With that knowledge, he set himself the target of finishing the remainder.
“I wanted to finish it before the snow flew, and it looks like I made it,” he said.
Making matters even more difficult, he said he refused to use a vehicle, which meant he would often have to make his way on-foot across the whole city just to get started on one of his runs. Because of this, he would occasionally run down the same street multiple times.
“It’s been thousands of kilometres, right? I’d get back home, download my run, and see I missed a little waypoint, so I then have to go out another time and hit that same street and hit that specific spot,” he said. “It’s been a challenge, for sure.”
According to his CityStrides data, Gray average around nine kilometres per run, and 300 kilometres a month. His average duration is 54 minutes on each run.
While it took him approximately six years to accomplish his feat, Gray said he ran the majority – 65 per cent – of Airdrie’s 660 named streets since the pandemic started.
“It’s been fun during this whole COVID thing to take my mind off everything and do a challenge,” he said. “I think I’m one of the first people to ever do it.
“I just got busy during the last two years, with COVID, and finished it.”
He said one of the more challenging aspects of his feat was when he had to run on the highways, as he would have to be alert when a semi-truck was approaching.
“There’s no shoulder, so you have to jump off the road when a semi is coming, and when they’re gone by, you get back on the road and go,” he said. “It’s a little scary out there on the highways – people have fun with you, they’ll come onto the shoulder like they’re pretending they’re gonna hit you.”
Gray said he got into long-distance running at the age of 50, after taking a lengthy break from the sport. With formal races cancelled in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, he said he was looking for a running-related challenge to cope with the stress associated with the pandemic.
To celebrate his accomplishment, Gray said he is considering a victory lap – literally, in the sense he wants to run around the entire perimeter of Airdrie. He added doing that would mean running about 50 kilometres in total.
“I’m a long-distance runner no matter what, so I love the challenge,” he said, adding he’s eyeing other municipalities on the CityStrides website as well.
“I may as well go finish Crossfield,” he said. “Calgary would be a bit of a challenge, but if I get bored, I’ll go do Calgary.”
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
