WATCH: Rickey Gates’ San Francisco project (#Everysinglestreet)

Salomon TV has just released Every Single Street, its highly entertaining film documenting Rickey Gates’ late-2018 run of every street in San Francisco, which started on November 1 and finished six weeks later, on December 16. 

RELATED: Rickey Gates runs every single street in San Francisco

The project wasn’t born out of a desire to set any speed records (though six weeks was still a fairly ambitious goal), but out of a desire to feel a sense of connection to his city and its people. Altogether Gates logged 2,085 kilometres in 46 days, stopping frequently to talk to locals and shoot pictures on his iPhone. It works out to an average of a little more than the marathon distance every day for 46 days. San Francisco is also extremely hilly, and this mileage included an average of almost 1,000 metres of elevation every day.

RELATED: The London UnderRound: a city ultra between Tube stations

In the film, Gates tries to explain the motivation behind such a project: “…to be looking at this human hive, of cars and business and churches and airplanes and boats coming and going, with all the noise, the insanity, poverty, wealth, and so many different cultures and languages, all jammed into, in San Francisco’s case, a seven-mile by seven-mile square. I mean, how can you look at that and not be a little bit curious?

“I’ve been living in the Bay Area off and on for a bunch of years now. I think it’s fascinating how cities form–why we’re attracted to them. I wanted to explore that a little bit more, and explore other people’s 24 hours.”

Gates says the experience made him more empathetic, and his interest in the people he came across on his daily runs is both what kept him interested, day after day, and what drives the film. It might be the best 17 minutes of your day.