At the end of last year, I was in a bit of a running rut. My attempts at crowdsourcing routes/distances/soundtracks were ok, but I could sense that the appeal amongst my followers would rapidly wane. I needed something new to keep me going - in the continuing absence of parkrun I'd need another spark to fire my running neurons. A post on the running subreddit (since sadly deleted) provided that spark. I could run every avenue, road, crescent, villas, street, drive, close, way, mews, terrace, walk, grove, square, gardens, lane, leas, brow, croft, esplanade, place, rise, dene, and green in my town!
But where to begin? I found a useful (and free!) website in Citystrides which, when combined with my Strava account, would show me everywhere I've ever run - in Hove and elsewhere. It would be useful to have a visual indication of which streets I'd covered, and which I still needed to go. I deal very well with statistics, and having a list of streets to tick off would greatly benefit me - being able to put a number on my progress was a massive help!
I Wanna Know What Hove Is
I also needed to define where I was running. Hove hasn't been a separate town since 1997, when it merged with next door to become Brighton & Hove. An afternoon searching for a boundary map just showed the borders of the unified city - I was unsure if I'd complete all of Hove in a calendar year, and didn't want to add the larger area to an already daunting goal! I sought other methods to define the area. Historical maps, while a fascinating way to pass a few hours, were not forthcoming, and the telephone dialling code of 01273 covered an area that made me whimper like a chilly puppy. It did send me down a promising rabbit hole though and I realised that the outgoing postcode area of BN3 fit squarely over Hove. A browse on Google Maps for landmarks to signify this both old and new (the name of the alleyway, and the change in parking zones) confirmed this.
This made things easier for my spreadsheet - there are a few sites that list every postcode in a certain postal area, and a copy and paste with some formatting tweaks gave me a solid list to start. Next to the list of roads were two columns to check each road off - one to signify I'd run the street prior to 1st January 2021, and one for 2021 and beyond. I'd run approximately 25% of the roads in Hove before, as part of my normal runs, and wasn't sure if I'd manage all of Hove in a year so wanted to give myself a cushion in case it proved to be too tricky. A third column turned green (from red) when I'd run a street - a nice visual indicator.
I'm Outta Hove
Looking at the spread of Hove on a map, our flat is based fairly centrally. The town was my oyster, I could go in any direction to start, rather than needing to (say) head west for every run, duplicating the first km or two nearly each time I'd go out. I elected to cover the south east corner for my first run, on new year's morning. I realised that 9am on new year's day during a government lockdown would be the smartest time to run down Hove's main shopping street and that was the first street I completed in full, sprinting down deserted cobbles. I pushed on further towards the seafront, doubling-back around some minor streets as I passed them, and running along the north side of the seafront road Kingsway, covering the small parallel streets mostly used for parking that I knew would come to haunt me if I ignored them. I hopped back and forth across the border between Brighton and Hove, zig-zagging around listening to Poppy and cursing the Georgian architects for their love of little fiddly mewses. My times for this run were slower than usual, partly as I was planning my route on the fly (and thus peering at Google Maps on my phone) and partly due to the hangover. I finished with a satisfying 5% of the streets ticked off, and had a well-earned nap that afternoon!
Hove Minus Zero
Ten days later, and a chilly start to the morning blew away some cobwebs! I wanted to cover more of the south east side, so built on the previous run to cover some more streets. Another run of route planning on the fly - I knew which area I wanted to cover, but the order of streets was done en route leading to several unnecessary doublebacks. I crossed to the opposite embankment on the bridges across the railway - while I wasn't going to finish those roads in this run, I did future James a favour by saving him a few metres of running when he came back to complete those roads! An 80's hair metal playlist soundtracked this run, which included a frosty sprint past the place Dana and I held our wedding reception. Again, to help future me, I covered the fiddly little mewses off the long straight road, leaving that road to a sprint another time. I ignored the road leading to a trading estate on the old goods yard - Lyon Close didn't look like a proper road after all, more like a private road. I also added a street to my list - Julian Road doesn't have any properties facing onto it, so hasn't got a postcode assigned! I'd need to keep an eye out for this in the future.
Gimmie Hove
(These song title puns are going to be a constant thing, just to warn you.)
The following weekend, I decided that the western side of Hove needed some love. Half of Old Shoreham Road would get covered; several small estates either side would be ticked off as I passed. (Not the little stub of a road - English Close - next to Hove cemetery, though. That was to another trading estate, so didn't count, right?) This was a cold, soggy run, but I was honing my route planning skills now. I divided the run into segments for each estate and reducing the amount of double-backs from the previous runs. What looked to be a trio of cross streets on Google Maps turned out to be a row of garages - these didn't have a street name so could be safely ignored, unless I needed to use them as a shortcut! At 11k I still had some run left in me, so ticked off another small area near Hove Park and took the run to a total of 13k. A bit of a change up for my soundtrack this time, too - a half hour comedy podcast first, and then my running playlist on shuffle.
Sea Of Hove
One of the more concerning aspects of the last few runs was that they were taking a lot out of me. After each run I'd needed an hour long nap in the afternoon, not something that had been necessary post-run in years. I wasn't sure whether it was a side-effect of having to think more while running (planning a route was requiring more thought than just running) or a consequence of not having had any caffeine since the turn of the year. To test this and work out what to tweak going forward, I didn't plan a run to tick off any streets - just to run down along the straight flat road to the power station (in Portslade) and see whether this would tire me out enough to need a nap. I pushed myself a bit faster than I had done for the last few runs as well. Seven km in and I was flying, so tweaked my route back to cover a portion of the Kingsway. The streets around this part of Hove were laid out in a grid formation (thank you interwar street planners!) so when I returned to cover this area I could run along the parallel New Church Road to start, then work my way back going up and down the north/south aligned streets without worrying about "filling in" the gaps on either east/west road. I turned up Walsingham Road and stopped my run when it beeped at the 10k mark...5 metres from the end of the road. I realised my mistake, let off a string of words only usually used when Gillingham concede a last minute equaliser, restarted my watch and logged my shortest run on Strava!
Your Hove Keeps Lifting Me Higher
A lack of nap after the last week's run showed that it was the en route thinking, rather than lack of caffeine, that was wearing me out. The caffeine break was only for January, so I needed to change things going forward. I tweaked my pre-run morning routine and actually planned a route in advance, rather than just picking a direction and figuring it out on the go! Using the Notes app on my phone I kept a list of roads to run in the order that I'd take them. I'd still need to refer to a map on the go but it would only be for a glance rather than any real thought. I headed off to the furthest point from home while still being in Hove, in the north west corner; it turned out to be a post-war estate of bungalows overlooking Benfield Valley. With over 250m of climbing and plenty of double-backs this didn't set any personal best times, but I got to see new places, and get 16km under my belt. Partway round I noticed that I tended to run in a clockwise direction, keeping to the left side of the street, and taking more right turns than left. I wondered if this was why my left ankle had been aching lately (as that would be required to "push off" more when turning) and tried to keep things roughly equal between my ankles from then on. I've not had a peep of complaint from either joint since, so that was good to resolve! I'd also settled into a regular routine with my soundtracks of 30 minutes of comedy (thank you BBC Radio 4) and the rest of the time filled with my personal best playlist on shuffle.
Higher Hove
While my ankles were now in a better condition, one downside to that realisation is that while testing it I missed a road. Not just any road, but one of the most inconveniently placed roads that I could've missed out - 3km away from home and slap bang in the middle of an estate I'd ticked off! To return there would require a fair amount of covering old ground. I was annoyed, and also glad I realised it when I did, rather than at the end of this whole ordeal. This prompted me to buy a map to colour in - CityStrides had been dispensed with early on as I couldn't find a way to make it only show my runs from 2021, and a physical map would be a backup to my spreadsheet. I wanted to get this street covered before I forgot I hadn't done it, so resolved to do it at the earliest opportunity. Buoyed by my realisation that covering the "border" of an area will make it easier to complete, and with some intriguing podcasts lined up (as well as the comedy one there was a now-infamous episode of a podcast dealing with race in the workplace, and a cracking episode of another about one-hit wonders) I chose to run the entire eastern border of BN3 north of the railway line, then downhill towards Hangleton and the missing 40m stub. While this wasn't a run that ticked off a lot of roads on my spreadsheet, it was one that covered a lot of ground - as well as the northernmost (and highest!) point in Hove, it nearly covered both the furthest east and furthest west points as well!
Crazy Little Thing Called Hove
Due to some outstanding holiday I took a few days off in February. Without much open all I could really do to kill time was run, so I headed out on a flat, residential run towards Portslade - I wanted to cover the western border. My plans for a longer run (I wanted to fill in everything south of New Church Road to the previously-run Walsingham Road, but a faulty fire alarm back at the flat led to me cutting it short (at "only" 10k) and heading back to fix it. By now my street map had arrived so I could begin colouring it in! Unfortunately it didn't cover the western-most part of Hove so I had to bodge it as best I could.
Hove Goes On!
Back out the following weekend, and my decision was made for me - I was going to cover the rest of the ground I'd intended to during my days off. Covering a large portion of Portland Road made things easier going forward, when planning the streets running between that and New Church Road. A flat route with a pleasant breeze coming off the sea kept me cool but didn't drown out my podcasts - this time, as well as the regular Saturday morning comedy one, an interesting episode about the "AC/DC Rule". By now I had covered over a third of the total streets of Hove in just six weeks - while one of those weeks had a bonus midweek run, I'd taken a break from a run dedicated to covering new streets on another weekend, so was confident I'd manage it before the year was out. I had already cleared the "pre-2021" column on my spreadsheet and was not ruling out the possibility of completing it before my birthday in August!
Can't Help Falling In Hove
HoveGame
By this point, my terrain preference was obvious. The flat roads by the seafront were all but complete - the hills north of the railway line were vast swathes of unrun roads. I needed to change this, so I set off north up Sackville Road, towards a hillside estate with a royal naming system. This was the sunniest run of the year so far, and the exposed, south facing hill took a lot from me. I climbed around 250m in total, quite a shock to the system after the last few weeks of flat runs! After the comedy podcast had ended I tried something new to listen to. Ryan had sent me a playlist of Lady Gaga album tracks he recommended, and the fresh music helped distract me from running up and down the hillside. A couple of songs were added to my running playlist for future use too. MANiCURE went on straight away, and Gypsy was added with the knowledge that 75% of the time it'll be skipped, but the other 25% it'll come on at the perfect time to give me a mental boost! After finishing this run I was 43% complete with my list of roads - not bad for the end of February!
Crazy In Hove
Well, after that hilly session, my legs deserved a break, so I returned to the flat, and headed west to Portslade. The earlier run along (most of) Portland Road helped me cover the smaller areas to the south of the railway, ignoring some private roads, and then worked my way back from Boundary Road on the north/south streets. The many short streets pushed me past the 50% mark - I was now well on the way to completion. I took the following weekend off from running the streets, as I had banked enough time, and ran from Lancing Beach Green back home - it was on the anniversary of the last UK parkrun weekend and I wanted to commemorate it by running that course (and beyond).
Addicted To Hove
With the halfway mark passed I could plan the different areas a bit better. This time I went back up to do more of the hills - this time on the houses built either side of the old railway line to Devil's Dyke. Another hot, sunny run with little shade, not helped by a footpath shown on the map that was blocked off leading to unplanned doublebacks. By now I'd given up the idea of any personal best times to come from this experiment and just focused on ticking off the roads. I'd like to say the slow pace of this run was to boost my stamina, but really I was just knackered. The return of a second comedy podcast to a weekend drop added to this - I've noticed I'm slower listening to spoken words rather than music.
I Believe In A Thing Called Hove
With the Easter weekend looming I planned to use the two bank holidays to tick off the Tongdean estate. With a weekend before that, I juiced my stats a little bit. The section between Old Shoreham Road and the railway had a large number of roads less than 200m long - so I cleared them off. I had an extra bit planned, running down The Drive to the seafront and doing the Avenues towards Palmeira Square, but I got south of the railway and decided not to push myself any further at risk of injuring myself.
With around two-thirds of the streets completed, I went through the rest of the spreadsheet to tidy up any postcodes that wouldn't be valid (private roads, apartment buildings, etc). In doing so I realised that I'd missed another street that would be downright awkward to tick off - English Close, by Hove Cemetery. (Not quite a private road on a trading estate as I first thought!) With the maintenance done my new total was 71%, after three months of running. The comedy podcast finished and I fancied some hair metal, but as I hadn't finished listening to the new Evanescence album the day before the mixture of Poison/Whitesnake and goth rock was quite a shock!
All You Need Is Hove
A Good Friday run! Well, an alright Friday run. Tongdean was my easter goal and I started with a warmup jog across Hove Park, listening to 80s wrestling themes, before switching to my regular running playlist. Hills, and the knowledge that I had another three days after to finish this run, lead me to cut it short at 14k. I was now at 77% and took a fortnight off to rest after some headaches and trouble sleeping deeply.
You Know You Hove Me
What was supposed to be a light 5k to finish off Tongdean got extended when the music podcast previously mentioned dropped the first episode of a two parter about Taylor Swift's rerecordings (the titling format of which inspired the title of this post) and the Gossip Girl podcast, which usually drops on a Tuesday, was delayed until Friday (and inspired the title of this section). With nearly two hours worth of content I quickly expanded my route to give me more time to listen to these pieces! I decided to fill in the area around West Blatchington, tick off the elusive English Close (at last!) and then, if the mood took me some more of Aldrington as well. As long-time Jim Steinman collaborator Meat Loaf once sang, Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad, but I could only struggle to a round 12km. I was now over the 80% mark and confident I would finish this before parkrun's return.
Stark Raving Hove
In the week preceding this run two important things happened. Firstly, we lost music producer Jim Steinman. His Wagnerian rock wasn't to everyone's tastes, but was something I was raised on, so I paid tribute to him by queuing up a playlist of his music to listen to after the comedy podcast. (My times also improved when this happened.) Secondly, I discovered this incredibly useful map on the Brighton & Hove council website, showing clearly which roads were public and which were private. While this would've been handier four months before, it set my mind at ease about missing certain roads (Miles Walk) but also pointed out a road I'd ignored that I really needed to cover (Lyon Close). Regardless, this warm 10k cleared off everything remaining in the south west corner, plus more residential streets around the centre of Hove. 89% done, and I could see this finishing in two more runs!
We Found Hove In A Hilly Place
May 1st. The hilly section in Hangleton that I'd been pretending didn't exist needed to be ticked off. Fortunately I had the second part of the Taylor Swift podcast, in addition to the usual comedy podcast, and I'd saved the Gossip Girl episode for the weekend as well. I knew this would be a long run, but the mornings had been cooler over the last week, so I could cope with it. I'd had a Hangleton route planned for a month or so, and after reviewing it I planned a route for the remaining streets in Hove just in case. I scuttled back and forth around the interwar housing estate, baking in the sun, giggling at the Gossip Girl podcast taking three minutes out of the episode recap to talk about how dull a certain pop star is. At the 10k mark I started to feel hungry - I could cope with the rest of this estate, but the plans to finish all of Hove in one run would be too ambitious, so I gave a little nod to the Taylor Swift episode by finishing at 13k and heading to Waitrose to pick up lunch. With 29 roads left out of 432 to complete, I knew I would finish it on the bank holiday Monday.
Whole Lotta Hove
Bank Holiday Monday. I had a free day, and I knew that I had around 10k left. I had a new episode of my regular Monday podcast listen, plus a holdover - the "apology" episode of Reply All, the show that looked at racism in another workplace that prompted criticism of racism at their show. I went out early enough that there would be few people around, and just went for it. The doubleback to tick off Lyon Close added an extra km to my run, but I probably would've strung out the run to 10k anyway - I dislike finishing a run on an odd number, unless it's a multiple of five (or the number 13 - listening to Taylor Swift for a decade has done a number on me). Whether it was the extra caffeine or the knowledge that I was so close to the finish line I don't know, but I had my fastest 10k time since September last year. The extra speed wasn't enough and I ran out of podcasts, so for the final time in this project, I switched to my running playlist. The boost of Ride Of The Valkyries warmed me up, and then I finished with Gypsy - the song that I discovered on an earlier run around another part of Hove, and I knew would hit perfectly in a moment like this. I sprinted down the final road, no medal or finish line waiting for me, but pleased at what I'd achieved.
We Found Hove In A Statsless Place
I'm really looking forward to running just for the sake of running again. While I've enjoyed seeing different parts of Hove, going places I've never been before (and probably won't ever go to again, The Meadows), I'm looking forward to just putting on a podcast and running where the mood takes me next weekend. I've run around 205km over the course of trying to complete this project, and I estimate that around 13% of that was running over old ground. With better route planning I could get this down to 7-8%, if I do this again. (I won't do this again.) (I might do this again.) But for something that I thought would take me a whole year to do, and that I might need to pull in the roads I'd previously run in years gone by, to be over before the first working day of May? That's something I'm proud of.
