I know I shouldn’t worry about it, but I remember being appalled one time when I was exploring the site and saw a CityStrides user I didn’t know, in a town I’ve never visited, run down a street 100 feet, (far enough to pick up a mid-block node) and then go back out. Reviewing that run it was apparent that was how that user was “playing the game” - more like Pac-Man than fill in the lines.
I don’t agree with that version of the game, personally, but it is funny how sometimes we get ourselves worked up for things that really don’t matter
I would not go out of my way to run Smythe St. I’ve run on either side of it and I know what’s down it, which is to say, nothing. I don’t like running along Boylston St (as you can tell from the more heavily-traversed routes nearby in the pic) and I think my Brookline map looks pretty darn neat, I’d rather get more streets done in Boston and Newton when I’m back.
Really, I got way more into CityStrides during the pandemic, and I am looking forward to running with other people again on well-traveled loops instead of down weird dead-ends and alleyways. There will always be a place for CityStriding in my post-pandemic future, because it’s been just a blast to get to more intimately know the places I’ve been living, but it’s mostly been a carrot for me to have goals to get out and run this past year!
Do what you want to do. I really don’t care what other people do. I have my own ‘rules’ as to what gets run and what doesn’t get run. I’ve said before in other posts, there is no right or wrong way to do this. Some people are really into updating OSM and getting every node, not me! If I turn around too early in a dead end street, or miss a node here and there then I’m just fine with that. Each to our own. My aim is to get as much purple as I can
The side-effect of introducing a ‘hard’ (=100%) mode is an increased complexity in comparing people on the basis of the number of streets. How would a leaderboard rank people in hard mode vs default mode? Maybe add a small badge/symbol to make the distinction?
I have run 100% of two cities, and I “staged” my goals. First, I went for all the nodes. Then I went for all the streets. (And I was a bit surprised how many were still remaining.)
And, to be nefarious, I will add mid-street nodes to OSM, so that one has to run the street to get the node.
Slightly tangential, but I have wondered about doing that whilst adding ‘unmaintained track roads’ to mark the trails in my rural area. Whereas some perfectly straight roads might have 2 or 3 or 4 nodes, yet are > 1mi/km long, a shorter windy trail will have a much higher ‘node density’. More pacman-ing for less reward
Personally, I run the streets. But… I live in area that isn’t heavily gridded, limits that decision significantly. I feel like running each street is the way to go. To each their own, I don’t judge.
On another note though, I’m not a big distance runner. I tend to think that a longer distance runner would have a distinct advantage over someone like me who putters along happily, if youhad to completea town/city from your home location. For me to complete streets further away, I will drive to a location and run a few different times from there to complete sections. I just cannot justify putting myself thru runs that may cause physical harm later just to tick off a street. Not worth it. I don’t know of a ‘rule’ that considers that a bad thing… maybe others do this, I haven’t dug around… or maybe that’s an obvious thing.
My city has been completed by a runner who went with option A. Not that he did so in a purposeful way - he has definitely completed most streets, more than if he was aiming to game the 100%.
But he is at 100% with many streets that he has just passed each end.
I have to confess to feeling a bit miffed about it, and then to feeling embarrassed that I am miffed. I don’t think he reads the forums but will probably be amused at me if he does! I don’t think it would bother him that I don’t think he has actually completed it lol.
I’m definitely going for B myself. I try to join it all up as much as I possibly can.
I had these same feelings recently. I’m at 98% in the city I’m working on currently and looking at the map for the leading strider at 100% really burned me up, but then said to each their own… Here’s a section of the city they “completed”…
This dialog really hits home for me. On one hand as I’m running I’m forever wondering if I went far enough into the cul-de-sac or not, close enough to pick up both sides of a divided highway, etc. Those thoughts are less about trying to get a “perfect score” and more about not wanting to come back to an area.
On the flip side, as a person who lives in a city with over 11,000 streets, given my current rate, it will probably take me 8 years to run the whole thing. By then there will newly built streets to run as well. How important is it to get to 100%? Not very.
The other thing I wonder here is about safety. There are some places where I’m honestly unsure about running either due to crime or traffic issues. Usually there’s nothing to worry about, but I’d be lying if I said I was excited about going down some of these roads or through some of these neighborhoods. Even if I’m running super early in the morning, there’s always the chance of a loose dog or something.
While I’m obsessed enough to do OSM edits, I also have to remind myself to relax and have fun. Otherwise, what am I doing this for?
I’ll just point out to all who are miffed that striders have odd or incomplete looking maps, that GPS can be real cruddy sometimes and may not completely capitulate what the strider did in reality. Like I remember when I got started last year I ran this dumb alley literally like 5 or 6 times because GPS never got me the terminal node. Nowadays I’d fix my GPS trace manually, but I don’t fault anyone for completing their city however they want to.
Like, in the example you showed, the strider clearly ran all horizontal streets and made turns to mark the vertical parts. Who knows how far North/South they ran in reality? Seems like reasonably good coverage to me, even if the map itself looks ‘gappy’. Maybe they will go back later to run the vertical streets separately…or maybe they are tired of running in that area and have moved on to explore other terrains
I would hate to look at my map if it looked like that, especially on a grid like that.
I would probably run all E-W streets and then all N-S streets.
I actually run parks and paths not in CS, just to avoid blank spots on my map.
I have even walked an amusement park, a zoo and an open air museum to fill out the map
Unfortunately, I do not see a case where the Leaderboard or Challenges on CityStrides works accurately since there are so many ways to complete a street. There seems to be several different goals that the CityStrides Striders are trying to complete. Those include:
Running each street in its entirety.
Running part of every street.
Running every node.
Running by every street.
Running as much as you can to fill in your LifeMap. (i.e. Trails, Parks, etc)
I feel like our LifeMaps are what we make them and they will reflect what we have done.
Personally i don’t do challenges, i don’t care about competing with runners that can do 10-15k runs every day. I’m in it for the long run, doing at least one CityStride run every sunday.
The leaderboard for me is mostly about exploring top runners maps, so it doesn’t have to be super accurate. I doubt any of them will make it to Guinness Book of Records
I have a hunch that people half-assing their way through a city, will rarely have the mental fortitude to go beyond their initial city. I doubt any people on the top 250 would “cheat” by only doing the nodes.
I’m confident that only serious CityStrides wil make it to the top of a leaderboard.
And in regards to point 5, that doesn’t really matter on a leaderboard, that’s only for our own satisfaction.
You are correct on your last point. I, myself, try to accomplish #1 and #5, and I know CityStrides doesn’t keep track of trails, etc, but I do it to explore as much of a town/city that I can and to fill in my LifeMap.
I was just pointing out some of the ways that people use CityStrides and some of them will inadvertently be included in Leaderboards or Challenges without the intention of being a part of them, but that does take away from those striders who chose to use those services.
Maybe of streets had a minimum of 3 nodes that would help cut down on the folks who kind of short-circuit the map?
I get miffed at myself if I miss completing the whole street. That’s just me and my overly self-critical personality.
To each his own. It’s about running every street, if someone calls hitting the ends running a street, cool. We don’t get trophies for this, so, fair game I guess.
