Eddie Tchigique runs through every Adelaide CBD street in a day
Think you’ve seen our city? You haven’t seen it like Eddie Tchigique has, with the ultra-marathon runner heading through every street and alley in a single day.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
When Eddie Tchigique decided to run every street in the Adelaide city mile on Saturday, he set himself a deadline of 6pm to meet his friends at the newly renovated General Havelock Hotel for his 40th birthday dinner.
Countless streets and 138km later, the determined French-born ultra-marathon runner turned up 20 minutes late. He didn’t even get time to shower, but at least he could bask in the glory of being the first person to achieve the gruelling task.
Tchigique – who goes by the name of Eddie Frenchman on social media – completed every street on Saturday after setting out from the southwest corner of the CBD at 4.30am.
“In 2019 a video came out of a professional runner in the US who did all the streets of San Francisco,” Tchigique said.
“Which I must say is much bigger and more hilly than our city. But my birthday was coming up and I thought this would be a good thing to do.”
The Black Forest father-of-two is no stranger to long runs, having completed several ultra-marathon and iron man events in Australia and overseas, including a 183km run through the Victorian Alps, which he said was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done”.
The Adelaide run, though, was no walk in the park.
“The worst thing was knowing that at any point in time, no matter how long you’ve been running for, you’re never more than three kilometres from where you started,” he said.
“You don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere, the progression is extremely slow. Then I realised I was going to be late for my dinner as well.
“You go through some pretty dark spots on any long run. It is painful and it never gets easier.
“But you have an aim and you work towards it through training, and then when you finish the thing there’s nothing like it. It’s hard to explain. It really gives me so much.”
Tchigique, who was accompanied by two friends on bicycles, said he even doubled up on a few roads.
“There’s probably a better method to cover every street than the one I used, but I wanted to keep it simple,” he said.
“There is probably a way of avoiding that, but I didn’t want to be thinking too much about that. You want to keep things simple.”
The worst bit, Tchigique said, was the south end of the CBD.
“The south side, both west and east, is very residential,” he said.
“There are so many little roads and back alleys. If you look on a map it’s just a rabbit hole.”
And what did he get at the pub that evening for his birthday dinner?
“I had a burger, but you’re never hungry after something like this,” Tchigique said.