There are just over 200 miles of roadway in the city of Pleasanton — everything from quiet residential cul-de-sacs to busy boulevards.
By Sunday, residents Sarah Holtzclaw and Betty Taylor will have accomplished the feat of running every street in town, racking up 360 miles over 20 months in doing so.
Taylor and Holtzclaw, both 51, have been living in Pleasanton since 1998 and 2012, respectively. They met through a Fleet Feet running group shortly after Holtzclaw moved to town and have been running together ever since.
Holtzclaw has been a runner her whole life, while Taylor started at 40 years old.
“It’s been a super not only fitness outlet but also a social outlet,” Taylor said. “I’ve met so many wonderful people through running.”
They started adding to their running group and soon dubbed it the Tri-Valley Running Chicks.
At the end of January 2016, Holtzclaw and Taylor found themselves tired of their usual running routes.
“Somebody would organize a run and say, ‘OK let’s meet at such-and-such, and I’ll make a route,’ and we really kind of got tired of our routes,” Holtzclaw said.
“We would run the same routes over and over again (every weekend), and it got very monotonous,” Taylor said.
Taking inspiration from friend Mike Beckwith, who decided to run every street in Dublin, the two set out to change up their running routine by doing the same in Pleasanton.
They bought a map at a gas station and segmented the city into chunks of four to eight miles each, leaving out unincorporated areas like Castlewood, and invited anyone who wanted to join in on the weekend morning runs.
“We started at the mall on the west side upper corner and worked our way down the west side of the freeway and started back up again in the north and have just been doing it in quadrants,” Taylor said.
They would print out route maps and add turn-by-turn directions. Cul-de-sacs and some streets were what they refer to as “tag and turn” roads, meaning they had to run them twice. Private roads were left out unless there was public access.
The women have run in the rain and in the heat, on flat streets and up hills — and even through the Widmer World Christmas display. Along the way they’ve admired dogs, architecture and landscaping.
“It’s a very leisurely run because you have to stop and say hi to people and take pictures of the holiday decor,” Holtzclaw said.
“We met so many nice people who wanted to know why we were in their cul-de-sac,” Taylor added, laughing.
At 8 a.m. Sunday, the women will complete their Run Pleasanton challenge by running a 2.5-mile loop starting from Fleet Feet (234 Main St.) and continuing downtown under the Pleasanton Arch and by the Pleasanton Unified School District office on Bernal Avenue. They’re inviting anyone who’d like to join them for the run — women, men, kids and dogs on leash.
After that final leg is complete Sunday, Holtzclaw and Taylor will have run 360 miles together over 60 different outings for the effort.
“The long conversations you have on a run are fantastic,” Holtzclaw said. “Our friendship is stronger because of it.”
