[footsteps flopping, energetic guitar music]
- Alex Rongstad: The freedom that you get.
Being able to step outside into the world
and move
and experience something new every time.
My name is Alex Rongstad, and I like to run.
Gosh, first memory of running.
That's a really good question.
Wow!
- Tony Rongstad: He always ran.
I mean, he always was, you know, chasing his brother, sisters
or was involved in running one way or another,
and I was a runner when the kids were little.
You know, bring them with when I was running races.
And actually,
Alex ran a few kids' races when he was quite young.
Couple of times, me running with him, holding his hand as we go.
- Alex Rongstad: My mom got a photo of it,
and it sticks in my memory
as kind of one of
the most like exciting, earliest memories of moving
and just like really enjoying that experience.
I grew up here in Eau Claire.
I think it's an awesome town.
It's not too big; it's not too small.
You can get to know the people here,
and it was an awesome place to grow up,
but, like, at the same time, I recognize that
there's so much of it that I didn't know.
[upbeat melody]
I was kind of looking at a map,
and I started seeing like, "Wow, there's these huge gaps
that I've never been in, never seen before."
- Tony Rongstad: I don't know how these ideas come to him,
but he actually mentioned the idea to me
of running every street in Eau Claire,
and I told him he's crazy.
I said, the first thing you need to do
is call the City Streets department
and ask them, "How many miles of streets are there in Eau Claire?"
And he said, "No, Dad, I'm not going to ask 'em that question.
I'm just going to commit to it and figure out a way to do it."
- Alex: So, the name of the project is
called the Eau Claire Project.
The mission is to run on every street in Eau Claire,
my hometown, before the end of the year.
I think there's something like
500-some-odd miles of streets in Eau Claire,
but I'm doing it all from my apartment.
Every street is connected to every street.
I like proving that by
kind of branched out, kind of started in downtown
and kind of like
got all the neighborhoods that I could kind of easily.
- Tony: And once he got going with that
and he started keeping track of things,
I started seeing, you know, how he's just
crossing off the streets,
and it was pretty amazing.
- In total, this year, I'll have run over 3,000 miles.
The response has been extremely positive.
My dentist, the person that cuts my hair,
my coworkers, family--
people have been amazed.
- Alicia Condit: It reminds me of the movie Forest Gump
when he runs across America.
For some reason... [Alex Condit laughs]
I don't know why, but I use that analogy.
because Alex has had some people even say,
"Can I run with you?"
I imagine that scene when, like,
all the people are running behind him and, you know,
Alex with his hat on.
- Adam Condit: And Alex goes in and out of awesome facial hair,
and then, he'll shave it all off.
- Alex: My philosophy behind beards is that you don't trim them
because that's why they're beards.
- Tony: As the project evolved,
he started finding more meaning in it.
We would talk about that, and he says, you know,
"And I didn't realize it at the time,
"but what I'm really trying to do
"is really connect with everybody in my community.
"This is where my childhood memories are.
This is my home."
- Alex: Every block triggered a new memory of a, you know,
a friend that lived there
or an experience I had with, like, my siblings.
It was like I was watching my life sort of on, you know,
on repeat or something.
[film projector clicking]
It made me think about how, literally,
every person has this connection to where they came from.
- Adam: I think people can really relate to what he's doing.
He's literally running on the same streets
that they run on.
- Tony: The fact that he can kind of get outside of himself
and try to do something that's bigger than himself,
that's not something that I've ever done.
Alex seems to always want to go beyond that
and to do something bigger,
something that affects other people in a positive way,
and it just makes me extremely proud.
- Alex: Despite the odds,
despite kind of
whatever you may think about what you can do,
you can do so much more. [laughs]
So much more!
It's amazing what you're capable of
when you kind of tune down the mind a little bit
and just let yourself do it.
Connection is not a very difficult thing
or complex thing to grasp.
It's just you and the other.
Humanity is kind of at this dichotomy where we think that
we're sort of, like, living in such a way
where we aren't connected with one another,
but you look anywhere, and you see connections everywhere.
Just put one foot in front of the other,
and when you choose to do that,
you're already there.
Just keep going.
Just keep going!
Love you, Dad.
It's just you and me. [laughs]
Just you and me.
[laughter]
[cheers and applause]