Runner trekked all 6,000 streets in his city during COVID-19 lockdown

By Hamish Morrison and Stewart Paterson via SWNS

A runner explored all 6,000 streets in Glasgow in a challenge which took nearly two years - after starting in the first lockdown.

Michael Shanks, 33, took up the 1,500 miles quest in March 2020 to make better use of the allowed one hour of exercise per day during lockdown.

“It started as a use of the exercise we had in the first lockdown when you were allowed out once a day, that was when I started," said the Partick, Glasgow man.

"I started exploring my own neighborhood a bit more, just running round streets I hadn't been on before.

The modern studies teacher, who works in Erskine, Scotland, was inspired by an American athlete Rickey Gates, who ran the length of every street in San Francisco.

"Then I discovered an athlete in America, Ricky Gates, who had ran every single street in San Francisco and he'd mapped it out and ticked them off and I thought that sounded like a good adventure," he said.

Breaking down the city into roughly 10 km (6.2 m) chunks, Michael tracked his progress online, recording the 6,143 streets on Strava - and running the distance of Glasgow to Moscow.

Michael said it was a good way to get to know "ghost streets" in Easterhouse, as well as getting to know areas like Dumbarton Road, which stretches for 10.5 miles, and Gardner Street in the west end which has a gradient of 8.03 percent.

“There are some areas I really liked running in more than others like Garthamlock which has a lot of lanes in and out of places," he said.

“A problem is if you run on a dead end street you've got to run all the way back out of it and you do twice the distance but places like Garthamlock and Craigend have wee lanes that connect them up so that was good.

"The city is full of nice streets.

"There are a lot of ghost streets as well, where they were streets once upon a time and still have street lights and street signs but actually have no houses, so Easterhouse, for example, is full of streets that don't exist anymore but are still there.

“They are really interesting to run as well."

He finished the challenge at George Square on January 5, 2022, where he was greeted by his friend Samia Carmichael and her son Campbell, two.

"I'm very much an amateur runner. I'm not in the same category as Ricky Gates," he said.

“I'm a teacher by day so I was running after school.

“It's an adventure about exploring where you live.

“I used to go running round the exact same place every day and I realized I didn't really know a lot about my own community.

"It's a good way to find out about where you live."