Back in June, I was invited by fellow Skirt Sports Ambassador Sandy Stiner to join her on a crazy challenge. Run every street in your city.
Yes, Every Street.
It might take more than just this year, but this was going to be a new adventure.
This is the first of many post to capture my travels. Every 4 weeks I will come back and report what new things I have found or people I have encountered. Miles can be covered on my feet (running or walking) or on self propelled wheels (bike or maybe even roller blade at some point). Miles on local trails don’t count for this challenge, but with a few trail races coming up later this year, I will still need to get miles in there, but those miles will NOT be added here.
This is my first update on progress. Yes, I’m a little behind on updates so bear with me!
Week 1 (June 3rd – 9th)
Run/walk miles = 20.72 Bike miles = 0
This first week, I spent more most of my mornings running some of the same streets that I normally run, but it also meant that I had to wander down the dead end streets and cul-du-sacs.
And we have A LOT of both of them in these residential areas of the city!
I felt like every time I turned around, I had to turn around again. In reality, I may cover 5 miles on a run, but it may only be 3 miles of NEW streets! Every time I hit a dead end, I had to re-run the same street to get back the next unrun street!
When looking at my maps from my Garmin after a run, it has been decided that I looked like a drunk hamster running wild (hence the the name of this series of posts!)
One of the many dead end streets I hit this week had one of the best yard signs ever…
Now who can argue with that? Get out there and spend the time at the ballpark watching them play when they are young! The housework and yardwork will be there when you get back. The kids don’t stay little forever! Cherish those days!
This week, I also experienced my first ever true wipe-out during a run. Granted I’ve stumbled during a trail run and usually caught myself. On Friday of this week, it was the real thing. Foot clipped a raised spot on the sidewalk and I went down! I caught myself so it wasn’t quite face to the ground, but it was still a hard fall! Hard enough in fact, that I scraped my knee and right hand. My left hand was spared, but that was because I had my handheld water bottle in that hand. The pocket on the case took the impact on that side. Small hole ripped in the pocket and edge of the cap was scraped down pretty good.
If the fall itself wasn’t bad enough on it’s own, of course it couldn’t’ happen on a quick side street… Nope… it happened right in front of the high school, just as parents were dropping their kids off for the last day of school! Ooops.
I picked myself up, brushed myself off, walked for about a half a block and then continued on my run. Still had to get back home so may as well keep going – in fact I put in about 3 more miles after I fell!
Week 2 (June 10th-16th)
Run/walk miles = 14.75 Bike miles = 0
It’s taper time before the Titletown Ultra marathon so trying to keep miles in check without overdoing it! It was a quiet week and I really didn’t take many pictures while I was running, as I was covering many streets that I’ve run before but now that I have been paying attention more to where I’m at, I’ve starting noticing street names more… and apparently when you can’t think of a new street name, you just rearrange the letter to come up with a new name for the next street!
Sometimes it also helps to look UP when you are walking! Living within a mile of a busy airport means that there is always traffic in the sky! As we get closer to the start of football season, it will get really exciting to see what is flying overhead – the flyovers at Lambeau Field before the Packer Games are always amazing!
I would to say though that they highlight of this week was when we were downtown and stopped at Food Truck Friday at the library. There was a young family there that brought their young parrot out for a stroll with them! This adorable little guy would just perch on mom’s shoulder and enjoy being outside! Yes, most people take their dog for a walk… around here, they take the bird with them too!
Week 3 (June 17th-23rd)
Run/walk miles = 20.07 Bike miles = 17.83
Starting out the week, it was time for some longer limes with the girls! Several of the local Fellow Flower ladies were on board to help me get in some miles early Saturday morning, so we headed out and ran the shadows of Lambeau Field. Note to those interested… don’t even try to park in the stadium parking lot on the day of the Billy Joel Concert. Even at 0’dark:30, when we promised to be gone by 7am, the security guard wouldn’t budge! Thankfully we had other options for parking in the area! Always love running with these ladies… even they make running in 100% humidity fun!
To prepare for the long miles ahead of my next week, I spent a few days walking around some of the nearby neighborhoods, enjoying the awesome use of yard space! I actually found quite a few small gardens either in people’s front yards or right long the road on the edge of their property! Seeing these made me realize that I really should think about planting a garden again… and see if I can NOT kill it!
I think this will go down as the coolest mailbox EVER! Now how can you not feel like a little kid every time you go to the mail when you are pulling the mail out of a LEGO mailbox!! Now that I have found this, I think part of my new mission with this project is to see what other fun mailboxes I can find! Not sure any will top this one, but I’m gonna try!
By Wednesday, the legs needed to get in a short run, so Crystal and I headed out to tame The Beast (our name for the long rolling hill not to far from my house. 3 miles of all hills! Along the way today, we say 2 families of turkey’s crossing the road (with about 20 little ones chasing along behind the parents), several rabbits and countless squirrels. But when we were almost back to my house, we had to stop and admire the scene before us… it was a pair of Sand Hill cranes along with their little one! Crystal has done some work with helping counting these magnificent birds in the area and educated me on the low success rate for reproduction of these creatures, so I felt truly blessed to have been able to see these 3 out together. Unfortunately I was not able to get a photo of the little one as it kept moving too fast!
Week 4 (June 24th-30th)
Run/walk miles = 13.23* Bike miles = 35.02**
*This week was the weekend of the Titletown Ultra Series and I completed my 1st 5ok trail run. Those miles (31.16 of them) were all on the trails out at UWGB so they are NOT included in my totals for the week since it was not street.
**Some of these bike miles were not within the city of Green Bay, but part were, so I am counting them all in my totals
Even though the legs left pretty good after the miles on Sunday, I knew that I needed to give my body more time to heal, so this week was more walking the neighborhoods instead of running. I love heading out to the dog park to get in some miles on the trails, but since I was not ready to go off roading, I went as far as the parking lot. Love that they still have an old pump water fountain here – complete with a bowl for the pups!
As I have been hitting more and more of the residential areas, I keep finding more parks. Some of them bigger, like this one here at Fireman’s hill, but many of them are small and almost hidden! I have been told that many of the parks around the city had been sponsored by those within the Packers organization. Time to see how many of those that I can find! This playground at Fireman’s Hill was just put in a few years ago by the Ladies of Lambeau Field!
Ellyn and I finished out this week with an epic bike ride. We headed out, intending to do about 25 miles in preparation for the TitleTown Bike Tour coming up in a few weeks. We don’t know how to count miles. But the time we got home, we covered 35 miles! But along the way, we found buffalo!
and then when you see a sign like this (after you have already traveled about 28 miles) you hit the hill and have some fun!
So, that rounds out the 1st 4 weeks of this adventure! Stay turned to see where the Crazy Hamster Runs Wild next! There are lots of streets around here to cover, so you never know when I might end up in your neighborhood!
Total Miles for the Month: Walk/run = 58.77, Biking = 52.85
Be sure to follow along on the Adventures by subscribing to the blog, that way you won’t miss any of the fun!
If you want to check out Sandy’s adventures, you can find her I run this town adventure HERE!! Together, one step at a time, one street at a time, we will run out towns!