To cure COVID-19 blues, Ayers ran every road in Grafton
The Boston Marathon was canceled. Other road races: canceled. So David Ayers took to the streets.
All the streets. More than 123 miles of named, public Grafton roads, usually at 10-16 miles at a pop. A total of 18 legs between April and June. That’s 197.6 miles, 32 hours, 5 minutes, 25 seconds of running in cold, in heat, and sometimes accidentally in Upton.
“It’s more for my mental state,” Ayers said in a video that spanned the three months of the project he dubbed “Mapping Grafton. “I really need something to aim towards, a goal to have.”
What began as a distraction from the COVID-19 pandemic became a little bit of a history lesson as Ayers explored the town. He ran previously unexplored streets in South Grafton, checked out scenic spots along the Blackstone River, and tracked it all on his Garmin, slowly turning Grafton street red on his personal map.
After some runs, he chatted about what he was encountering along the way.
“What I’ve definitely found on my run is there are a number of people who keep their dogs off leash in their yards, which scared the crap out of me,” he said after an early run.
“Several hills just feel like they’re plopped in random locations in town.”
“That sucked, it just sucked” he said after one cold run
He also noted that he now understood why residents in Grafton Facebook groups complained about roadwork. “Some of those roads absolutely need to be paved. they are in rough shape.”
He noticed the discrepancy of wealth in the town as new or historic neighborhoods with million dollar homes gave way to less fortunate neighborhoods. As spring came and signs for Select Board candidates sprung up, he suggested they might learn more about Grafton by simply walking it.
By midpoint, what had started as therapy became a chore as the pandemic wore on, especially when his great-uncle fell victim to a COVID-19 wave that spread through his nursing home.
“I’ve been just stressed about the uncertainty of all of this, with work, with children schooling, not seeing friends, not seeing family… it’s just been a very difficult period, I know, for all of us,” Ayers mused.
By the last day, he was practically giddy. “It’s done. I can say I’ve done every road in Grafton.”
