Man completes running entire length of every Alameda County street

By John Ramos

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    ALAMEDA, California (KPIX) — On Saturday morning, an Alameda man completed an astonishing journey: running the entire length of every street in Alameda County. Over the years, he covered 16,000 streets, displaying a level of human determination that is hard to fathom.

Chris Thom’s journey began when he moved to Alameda and began running through the streets to check out his new city. But then he discovered an app that tracks where a runner has been. And that’s when he set his goal to run every street in the entire county.

“That website kind of drove me to keep going,” he said. “I started with Oakland. That took me over a year to finish and then it just kind of went from there.”

Thoms covered every street in all 20 cities in Alameda County, and then, for good measure, added Menlo Park, where he works, and the Marin County town of Kensington, just because he could do it in one day. All in all, it’s been a long trip.

“Six years. I started in February of 2019,” he said. “It’s been up to six days a week, somewhere like five to six days a week. Usually, I wake up super early in the morning, do somewhere between six and 10 miles. And then I usually do a long one on Sundays,10 to 20 miles, something in there.”

On Saturday, his last day, he began at 5 a.m. and six hours and 37 miles later, he was heading for his final street, Bear Creek Drive in Livermore.

“This is it,” he said as he rounded the corner. “Last street.”

As he neared the finish line, Thoms reflected on his experience.

“I set off a lot of Ring cameras,” he said. “Chased by a few dogs, had to run around cows, seen peacocks, goats, pigs. Like, all this stuff, it’s kind of amazing, the diversity of terrain. Because you’d never go out there if you weren’t actively seeking it out. So, it’s been a lot of fun.”

With his two young kids joining him for the final stretch, Thoms finished his quest, breaking the tape held by his family, and giving a hearty slap to the “end” sign at the end of the street. The challenge, as hard as it’s been, had become a point of pride for him.

“I feel like I’ve been good at that. If I set out to do something, I can kind of stick to it,” he said. “And this was the biggest thing, case of that, for sure.”

And it’s an inspiration to his wife and family as well, even if it was a bit unexpected.

“Well, I guess I thought that he would stick to the city of Alameda. That’s what the map showed from the beginning,” said his wife, Tiffany. “So, I should have known all along that this might happen. But it’s been really cool to see his dedication and to see him able to find something that he really enjoys and finds purpose in. It’s an example for me and for our kids to really be dedicated to something that you start and set out to reach your goals, in general.”

Thoms is using his challenge as a way to raise money for the Alameda County Food Bank.

On his GoFundMe page, he’s pledged to match donations up to 20 cents for each of the 16,000 streets he ran.

He admitted there were times when he questioned why he was doing it. But then pointed out the truth behind any supreme challenge.

“You know, you never regret it at the end,” he said. “When you’re done, you don’t regret it. During it might be hard, but you don’t regret it at the end.”

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