Imagine, it’s 2020 and you’re locked down in a city centre. Time to cultivate a sourdough starter, pick up a craft, and bash some pans in the street every Thursday evening. Yes, I did all of these, but I also jokingly started a running project that began to take over my lockdown life.

The project? Try to run every street in central Edinburgh, starting from the flat.

A spiderweb of runs spanning across Edinburgh

It started with a short run around The Meadows, a large green space split into segments by criss-crossing paths. While looping round, I thought maybe on my next run I should run each zigzag. The next day I headed out to complete The Meadows, but it got me looking at the other streets in the area.

Before long I found myself planning out elaborate runs of ever increasing distances to reach streets I hadn’t visited. I used a fantastic free tool from Johnathan O’keeffe to map out what streets I’d covered, and where the blank spots lay.

My phone became full of screenshots of neighbourhoods, my legs grew more and more capable of repeated long distances, and my knowledge of the odd parts of the city developed. It was really interesting to watch my map grow, with regular access routes to areas layering over each other, becoming like major arteries.

I’d run to the area required, then look at a screenshot like this and colour in the empty roads.

Eventually, like all lockdown activities, the running fell by the wayside. I returned to a furloughed state of suspended animation, streaming endless shows, trying to keep my brain busy with online learning, and generally becoming less and less active.

Now, 5 years on from the first lockdowns, I’m extremely proud of how hard I pushed myself to do my Every Street project. I find it bizarre to visit Edinburgh now that regular life has returned. Streets that I only knew as empty are now full of people, construction projects have changed entire areas, but every so often a building will remind me of a run.

Each run overlayed as time progressed

I’ll never get tired of telling my wife “I’ve actually ran this street” when we visit anywhere in the city.

Stats

Number of runs – 37

Total distance – 513Km

Tubs of Margiotta’s own ice cream – Uncountable.