Words by: Rickey Gates // Photos by: Matt Shapiro
There’s something undeniable about Manhattan - the physical boundaries of an island perfectly comprehensible in a single day, its proximity to Europe, as the de facto front door to America for hundreds of years, an ever changingplace that seems to reflect the broader culture and commerce of the country, if not the world. A city that feels ever ahead and rarely behind.
I’m here to experience the city (yes, okay, borough) in the same way that I get to know a mountain or forest - viscerally, sensorially - by running around it, quite literally. I first ran the circumference of Manhattan 15 years ago after competing in the Empire State Building Run Up and I felt due for a reminder.
The part of me that grew up in a small mountain town is never not intrigued and bewildered by the Big Apple. Just after sunrise, I started making my way from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan where hundreds of people were pouring off the Staten Island Ferry, filtering into the greater essence of abundance. Beyond a chain link fence, the Statue of Liberty greeted me off in the distance.
Up along the water I ran towards Chelsea before climbing a set of stairs to gain access to the High Line - an elevated train line converted into a mile-and-a-half long park. Back down to street level, I continued up through Riverside Park along the Hudson. Runners and walkers dwindled until I reached Inwood Hill Park at the top of Manhattan.
Rickey's Kit for New York City
As I started back down towards the bottom of the city island, I gave in to my desire to experience more of what makes Manhattan a City and less of what makes it an island. I did this by tracing not the water’s edge, but rather, my own personal interest - into Central Park, down 7th avenue to Times Square, then allowing flow of streets towards downtown carry me through Little Italy, ChinaTown and, finally, beneath the life vein of the Brooklyn Bridge back to the water’s edge.
I made a quick inventory of the souvenirs that I collected for my one and three year old’s back home before packing them back away in my Multibelt. My 32-mile reminder of what makes Manhattan one of the most incredible human endeavors set in as I observed the reverse flow of people returning home on the Staten Island Ferry.
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About Rickey
For the past thirty years, running has been a central part of Rickey Gates’s life. Whether it be in the competitive realm of racing or the obsessive realm of curiosity, or a mindful space of meditation, running has long been the primary medium through which Rickey has interacted with the broader environment around him.
In an effort to understand his country, community, and self, Rickey completed two unbelievably ambitious, back-to-back running projects: TransAmericana (2017) in which he ran across the entire United States, and Every Single Street (2018) in which he ran, street by street, the entirety of San Francisco. His current obsession (which you are currently reading) is to paint a picture of North America through trails. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife and two children.
