Running Towards the Future: considering movement and athletics in the field or Urban Ecology
By Eric Bonner
Introduction
In September of 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a member of the Athenian Hemerodromi, a class of elite ultra long distance runners, ran somewhere between 220 and 250 kilometers (136-155 miles) over the course of three days from Athens to Sparta and back again seeking the aid of Sparta as a Persian invasion of the Greece homeland loomed. After the Greeks won a surprise victory over the Persians on the Plains of Marathon, Pheidippides was summoned once again to run on behalf of the state to share the news of the victory. This time running a much shorter distance, somewhere around 40 kilometers (25 miles), from the Plains of Marathon to the city of Athens. Upon his arrival, Pheidippides died likely of exhaustion as he had run somewhere between 260 and 300 kilometers over a matter of a few days. The tale of Pheidippides was used as inspiration for the inclusion of the marathon at the first olympic games in Paris in 1896. Since then, the marathon and running more broadly has cemented itself in popular culture.
What is interesting to me about the story of Pheidippides is not the distance he covered, but instead the position he held: a professional ultra-distance runner for the state. As a member of the Hemerodromi, his body and the skill he held as a runner was used to traverse the mountainous terrain of the Peloponnese despite being from the coastal plains of Attica. Pheidippides was not the first runner or the first member of the Hemerodromi, but his ultimate sacrifice for the city-state of Athens demonstrates, perhaps, the first example of running being used beyond sport as a method for service.
The story of Pheidippides and the use of running as service seems to have slipped from the collective imagination and memory. While running now falls within the sports-industrial complex, I believe that it holds potential in contexts beyond competition, fitness, or recreation. This essay argues that athletic movement offers a unique and valuable perspective for understanding urban ecosystems.I suggest that running, movement more broadly, and the respective epistemologies of movement can be used as a method in the field of urban ecology to study and engage with various social, ecological and technical systems. This reframing also holds the potential to introduce members of the public to citizen science and the field more generally through an accessible activity that the public already participates in.
In the paper “Integrated Approaches to Long-Term Studies in Urban Ecological Studies” by Grimm et. Al, a call is made for an integration between the social sciences, urban systems, and ecology. In the following passage, Grimm et. Al suggests that a civil engineer and an “urban recreationist” will have different views of a sewer shed, but what if the civil engineer is a runner, a cyclist, a different type of endurance athlete, or someone who merely enjoys long walks?
“Whatever its ecological significance, the conspicuous spatial heterogeneity in urban systems is an entry point for integration with social science. The existence of such clearly defined patches as neighborhoods and cityscapes, which combine infrastructural and natural features, is apparent to all researchers who must work together to generate the interdisciplinary synthesis for understanding cities as ecological systems. Hydrologists, ecologists, demographers, economists, engineers, and citizens all can and do recognize the spatial heterogeneity of cities. Neighborhood associations, watershed associations, census tracts, and similar groupings are institutional expressions of this common recognition. Of course, each discipline or constituency may see the boundaries or the most salient features of the patchwork somewhat differently. For example, the civil engineer and the urban recreationist will have different views of the boundaries of a watershed. The first may see a “sewershed”; the second, a visually unified landscape that is engaging on a morning jog. Therefore, new, multidimensional classifications of the heterogeneity of the metropolis are required.”
The variable of athletics should be included in any analysis of a social-ecological-technological system, as it is a social interaction with the landscape. Additionally, by introducing and explaining concepts like sewersheds, zoning, and other influential factors of the urban landscape, a mutually beneficial relationship can be established. As it stands, the estimated combined population of runners, cyclists and skateboarders in America totals 110.1 million. While it is very likely that there is overlap of some kind, this gross figure is almost exactly one-third of the total US population. To put it simply, not considering the presence and expertise of these populations would ignore an enormous amount of the population and lead to an inadequate understanding of the urban landscape.
As I will layout in the following sections, 1) runners, cyclists, skateboarders, and other athletes hold positions of urban explorers and experts; 2) they have the ability to map, document, and observe urban landscapes on a regular basis; 3) the movement patterns of these athletes can be used to identify ecological connections, conditions, and disruptions; 4) by introducing and including them in citizen science awareness can be raised about the field of urban ecology and the overall importance of stewardship; 5) the data they collect and their testimony can be used to inform sound urban planning and environmental design.
This essay uses the phrase urban athlete to describe individuals who partake in sports like running, jogging, rollerblading, skateboarding, cycling, BMXing, longboarding and other self propelled sports in an urban environment. This term is in an inclusive manner, there is not an amount of miles or years required to be considered an athlete in the context of this paper. I also would like to acknowledge that there are differently abled members of society and that their epistemologies and experiences must also be considered in any evaluation of an urban landscape. I also acknowledge that the term sports can have negative connotations, which is why I have decided to use athlete and movement in lieu of it.
As I will layout in the following sections, 1) runners, cyclists, skateboarders, and other athletes hold positions of urban explorers and experts; 2) they have the ability to map, document, and observe urban landscapes on a regular basis; 3) the movement patterns of these athletes can be used to identify ecological connections, conditions, and disruptions; 4) by introducing and including them in citizen science awareness can be raised about the field of urban ecology and the overall importance of stewardship; 5) the data they collect and their testimony can be used to inform sound urban planning and environmental design.
This essay uses the phrase urban athlete to describe individuals who partake in sports like running, jogging, rollerblading, skateboarding, cycling, BMXing, longboarding and other self propelled sports in an urban environment. This term is in an inclusive manner, there is not an amount of miles or years required to be considered an athlete in the context of this paper. I also would like to acknowledge that there are differently abled members of society and that their epistemologies and experiences must also be considered in any evaluation of an urban landscape. I also acknowledge that the term sports can have negative connotations, which is why I have decided to use athlete and movement in lieu of it.
Athletes: Urban Explorers and Urban Experts
Running, along with cycling, skateboarding and walking, are forms of self-propelled physical activity. As mentioned earlier in the introduction, the conscious act of running dates back to at least the society of the Ancient Greeks, likely further. In the context of a city, athletes develop an intimate knowledge of a city’s networks of streets, parks, and greenspaces; essentially anywhere an individual can exercise without being disrupted by traffic or crowds. The ability to locate these oases of continuity for training brings these types of athletes into a myriad of patches and micro-landscapes within a city. In a city as populated as New York, it can be a challenge to find space to enjoy athletic activities and because of the entrenched inequality of the city, it is a privilege to have quick access to spaces like Central or Prospect Park, where asphalt loops exist without the threat of being hit by an automobile.
In my own practice as a runner in North Brooklyn, I am drawn to early morning weekend runs that take me through light industrial areas like those found in North Brooklyn or Long Island City, Queens or the Williamsburg bridge. On a weekday, these areas can be filled with truck traffic caused by pick-ups, deliveries, and employees parking their vehicles on sidewalks. These areas offer me unconstrained space to train the ability to run faster for longer distances.
A route that offers similar outcomes and is used by multiple groups of urban athletes is the Cross Bay Boulevard that runs through the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve. This route is frequented mainly by cyclists because it offers protected and consistent bike lanes for the bulk of the route, as well as access to the Rockaways and the subsequent boardwalk there. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife preserve is one of the most biodiverse areas in New York City and one of the best areas to observe migratory birds throughout the year.
Everyday, athletes across the world venture out into their environment to locate patches of landscape that can accommodate their training in a comfortable manner. This drive results in athletes taking on the position of urban explorer, searching for space to move in a way conducive to their training goals. Traits like ground type, shade, smell, elevation and topography, and the volume of people also using the space are taken into consideration. These factors can influence a training session, while also serving as useful data for urban ecologists. When these factors are considered in a methodological approach their value can be further increased. In the next section, mapping and documenting will be layered upon the expertise gained by exploring urban landscapes.
Mapping, Documenting, and Observing the Urban Landscapes
Beyond searching for spaces suitable for training, athletes in urban contexts have the ability to leverage technology to map and record observations with readily available sports technology. This mapping and documentation can also be useful data in urban contexts. Apps like Strava, Nike Run Club, and Apple Health all offer different ways for movement data to be easily tracked and for that data to be easily analyzed. Smart technologies like phones and watches have made it easier than ever for an athlete to document a wide range of variables.
After spending time using all three of the aforementioned apps, I settled on Stava’s free option. It offers a number of documenting and mapping features that allow me to notate different components of my runs like distance, weather, pace, with room to add photos and personal notes. These features can be used to create field notes and to document observations. Along with the heatmap tool, which is used to assess how frequently a given section of a city is used for activities by other users, these applications offer a suite of tools that can record valuable data for documenting runs in urban landscapes. They can also be used as records and archives so that specific places can be revisited and re-evaluated.
While these tools are useful in creating detailed maps and can provide insights, observations beyond big data are crucial to gaining as full of an understanding of an urban landscape as possible. To offer an example of qualitative athletic research, I turn to the work of former professional skateboarder and current associate professor of history at the University of Oregon, Ocean Howell. Howell had a six year career as a professional skateboarder for the company Birdhouse, notably founded by Tony Hawk, before earning Masters in Architecture and a Ph.D. in Architectural and Urban History, both from Cal-Berkeley. In his essay “The Poetics of Security: Skateboarding, Urban Design, and the New Public Space,” Howell explains how his epistemology and experiences as a skateboarder allow him to perceive urban design in ways that exceed the normative understanding of the built environment. Skaters, by virtue of their practice, are able to identify surface material, features that can be hurdled or “ollied”, and when they are considered persona-non-grata. Skateboarding’s purest and most respected discipline is called “street skating.” When an individual is a street skater, they venture out into the urban landscape and search for obstacles like curbs, benches, and ledges, in much the same way that runners and cyclists search for uninterrupted or protected stretches of asphalt. As Howell lays out in “The Poetics of Security,” urban design has shifted over time to become increasingly anti-skater necessitating the creation and sharing of detailed maps and lists that are shared amongst the skateboarding community.
In New York City, this task has been spearheaded by the publication QuarterSnacks. Their map lists 143 “spots,” or skateable obstacles, across the five boroughs and include an assessment of the spot as well as an assessment of the likelihood a skater will be prevented from skating said spot. By documenting and assessing the spots in New York City, QuarterSnacks is able to provide skaters with valuable information about the skating landscape of the city.
Skateboarding is not the focus of this paper, but as urban athletes the examples of the QuarterSnacks spot map and Ocean Howell’s transformation from professional skater to professional urbanist offer a framework that can be applied to urban endurance athletes interacting with the field of urban ecology. Areas with ecological importance can be identified and changes can be tracked over time. This would allow the impacts of urban development to be assessed and tracked in additional ways. These assessments could include field surveys investigating biodiversity, species health, and other types of visual surveys.
After spending time using all three of the aforementioned apps, I settled on Stava’s free option. It offers a number of documenting and mapping features that allow me to notate different components of my runs like distance, weather, pace, with room to add photos and personal notes. These features can be used to create field notes and to document observations. Along with the heatmap tool, which is used to assess how frequently a given section of a city is used for activities by other users, these applications offer a suite of tools that can record valuable data for documenting runs in urban landscapes. They can also be used as records and archives so that specific places can be revisited and re-evaluated.
While these tools are useful in creating detailed maps and can provide insights, observations beyond big data are crucial to gaining as full of an understanding of an urban landscape as possible. To offer an example of qualitative athletic research, I turn to the work of former professional skateboarder and current associate professor of history at the University of Oregon, Ocean Howell. Howell had a six year career as a professional skateboarder for the company Birdhouse, notably founded by Tony Hawk, before earning Masters in Architecture and a Ph.D. in Architectural and Urban History, both from Cal-Berkeley. In his essay “The Poetics of Security: Skateboarding, Urban Design, and the New Public Space,” Howell explains how his epistemology and experiences as a skateboarder allow him to perceive urban design in ways that exceed the normative understanding of the built environment. Skaters, by virtue of their practice, are able to identify surface material, features that can be hurdled or “ollied”, and when they are considered persona-non-grata. Skateboarding’s purest and most respected discipline is called “street skating.” When an individual is a street skater, they venture out into the urban landscape and search for obstacles like curbs, benches, and ledges, in much the same way that runners and cyclists search for uninterrupted or protected stretches of asphalt. As Howell lays out in “The Poetics of Security,” urban design has shifted over time to become increasingly anti-skater necessitating the creation and sharing of detailed maps and lists that are shared amongst the skateboarding community.
In New York City, this task has been spearheaded by the publication QuarterSnacks. Their map lists 143 “spots,” or skateable obstacles, across the five boroughs and include an assessment of the spot as well as an assessment of the likelihood a skater will be prevented from skating said spot. By documenting and assessing the spots in New York City, QuarterSnacks is able to provide skaters with valuable information about the skating landscape of the city.
Skateboarding is not the focus of this paper, but as urban athletes the examples of the QuarterSnacks spot map and Ocean Howell’s transformation from professional skater to professional urbanist offer a framework that can be applied to urban endurance athletes interacting with the field of urban ecology. Areas with ecological importance can be identified and changes can be tracked over time. This would allow the impacts of urban development to be assessed and tracked in additional ways. These assessments could include field surveys investigating biodiversity, species health, and other types of visual surveys.
Interacting with Ecology of the City
Urban athletes, especially those in dense urban areas, are in constant states of visual awareness. Automobiles, pedestrians, other athletes, pets, wildlife, and other obstacles are all things that can present risk. This visual acuity can be used to assess ecological connections and disruptions as well.
As previously mentioned, explorative habits by urban athletes can uncover intricate ecological connections in an urban landscape. Skateboarders are known for the construction of DIY (do it yourself) skateparks where abandoned and unused spaces are repurposed for the use of skateboarding. One of these examples is the Mosquito Beach DIY. Mosquito Beach is aptly named for its proximity to the Dutch Kills and Newtown Creek, and the copious amounts of mosquitos that also spend time at the DIY. While to an urban ecologist, it may not be shocking to know that mosquitoes like to hang-out near pooling water, the mosquitos could be used as an ‘on-ramp’ to raise awareness about the condition of Newtown Creek and the Superfund site that is a stone's throw from this park.
Beyond skateboarding, endurance athletes could be used to identify and map the city's green spaces in a more responsive way than open source satellite imagery, like Google Earth. Using the QuarterSnacks map for guidance, I was able to locate the location of the park and the most recent image that Google Earth was able to present was from 6/20/2022, almost 18 months ago. In my practice, I was able to identify a green corridor of ruderal plants and pollinators along a section of Kent Avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. During the summer, I would run this route frequently and note the large, diverse population of pollinators. Unfortunately, by late August, enough complaints by pedestrians who were afraid of the pollinators had been received and resulted in the destruction of this patch. While frustrating, if research was being conducted with the assumption that this patch was relatively static or protected and it was mowed down, research could be severely impacted. In this way too, urban athletes could be partnered with to increase stewardship and participate in citizen science.
Awareness, Stewardship and Citizen Science
By engaging consciously with the urban environment, urban athletes can engender and develop a deeper appreciation for the non-human components for the city they reside in. This deeper connection can offer the potential for an increase in civic engagement through stewardship. It can also hold the potential to create a mutually beneficial citizen science relationship.
Throughout this essay, I have outlined ways in which urban athletes can be partnered with as citizen scientists. It is my belief that engaging this massive population of Americans holds numerous benefits to academia but also to society. Through the incorporation of athletics into urban ecology, and potentially other areas of social and physical sciences, the academy can work with communities and individuals in a new way that takes their position as an athlete and as a resident into account. Conversely, urban athletes can be taught up the nuance of climate risks specific to their area. In New York City, flooding and the urban heat island effect are areas that could be focused on. While addressing environmental risk is important, limiting these exchanges to risk and potential damage has the potential to dissuade or ‘turn off’ potential collaborators. While I am not a self-described “birder,” learning about urban canyons and avian environments has converted me to one.
Across a city the size of New York, there are numerous organizations and causes that may resonate with an individual. Through introducing these individuals to citizen science and stewardship through activities they already partake in, an opportunity is created to convert these individuals into repeat participants or for their expansion into other community engagement. By exploring hidden green spaces, encountering diverse species, and experiencing the challenges of navigating the urban landscape, athletes can develop a more nuanced understanding of the ecological complexities that exist within their own communities. This newfound awareness can inspire individuals to advocate for environmental protection, participate in restoration projects, and promote sustainable practices in their daily lives.
Throughout this essay, I have outlined ways in which urban athletes can be partnered with as citizen scientists. It is my belief that engaging this massive population of Americans holds numerous benefits to academia but also to society. Through the incorporation of athletics into urban ecology, and potentially other areas of social and physical sciences, the academy can work with communities and individuals in a new way that takes their position as an athlete and as a resident into account. Conversely, urban athletes can be taught up the nuance of climate risks specific to their area. In New York City, flooding and the urban heat island effect are areas that could be focused on. While addressing environmental risk is important, limiting these exchanges to risk and potential damage has the potential to dissuade or ‘turn off’ potential collaborators. While I am not a self-described “birder,” learning about urban canyons and avian environments has converted me to one.
Across a city the size of New York, there are numerous organizations and causes that may resonate with an individual. Through introducing these individuals to citizen science and stewardship through activities they already partake in, an opportunity is created to convert these individuals into repeat participants or for their expansion into other community engagement. By exploring hidden green spaces, encountering diverse species, and experiencing the challenges of navigating the urban landscape, athletes can develop a more nuanced understanding of the ecological complexities that exist within their own communities. This newfound awareness can inspire individuals to advocate for environmental protection, participate in restoration projects, and promote sustainable practices in their daily lives.
Planning and Design
Throughout this essay, I have called for a transformative view of athletics and movement in assessing the social-ecological-technological systems that cities are made of. I suggest that the epistemologies, insights, and data gleaned from urban athletes can be synthesized and used to inform more representative and effective design of the urban landscape. The efforts that these athletes commit can be used toward improving our cities. This transformative mindset can be extended to those in municipal planning and environmental design as well.
Through a range of methods the movement that urban athletes undertake can be used to inform the implementation of new green infrastructure and nature based solutions. Heatmaps, like those offered through the Strava app, can be used as a data point when considering where to implement green infrastructure. As previously mentioned, it is a privilege to live near one of New York’s flagship parks. This leaves many other urban athletes to run in areas that are unshaded, hot, or dangerous. By weighing the volume of urban athletes in a given area, in addition to environmental risk, an investment in green infrastructure can be maximized. Similarly, focus groups of cyclists can be used to survey the flow of traffic across the city to assess the street dynamics for other cyclists. When designing a new plaza, accepting and acknowledging that skateboarders may utilize the space can lead to a compromise of the space and prevent unnecessary confrontations or feelings that certain groups of people are not welcome.
By understanding how urban athletes navigate and interact with the city, planners and designers can create spaces that make sense for the variety of human and non-human populations that call a city home. This can involve incorporating green infrastructure, creating wildlife corridors, designing streets that account for physical activity, and an overall goal of fostering human connection with nature.
Through a range of methods the movement that urban athletes undertake can be used to inform the implementation of new green infrastructure and nature based solutions. Heatmaps, like those offered through the Strava app, can be used as a data point when considering where to implement green infrastructure. As previously mentioned, it is a privilege to live near one of New York’s flagship parks. This leaves many other urban athletes to run in areas that are unshaded, hot, or dangerous. By weighing the volume of urban athletes in a given area, in addition to environmental risk, an investment in green infrastructure can be maximized. Similarly, focus groups of cyclists can be used to survey the flow of traffic across the city to assess the street dynamics for other cyclists. When designing a new plaza, accepting and acknowledging that skateboarders may utilize the space can lead to a compromise of the space and prevent unnecessary confrontations or feelings that certain groups of people are not welcome.
By understanding how urban athletes navigate and interact with the city, planners and designers can create spaces that make sense for the variety of human and non-human populations that call a city home. This can involve incorporating green infrastructure, creating wildlife corridors, designing streets that account for physical activity, and an overall goal of fostering human connection with nature.
Conclusion
After my competitive athletic career ended, I wondered what the point of sports or athletics was for, beyond entertainment. I had suffered a laundry list of injuries, multiple surgeries, and had little to show for it besides the memories I made. As I’ve grown a little older and developed a new relationship with athletics and movement, I see now that it has many potentials that transcend the normative framing of “sports.” This essay calls for a radical integration of sports with urban ecology, but is it really that radical? Developing partnerships between run clubs and research institutions is not the equivalent of pouring hot steel without gloves. Surveying cyclists about traffic patterns or the appearance of ruderal green space is not a sisyphean task.
By acknowledging that urban athletes of all shapes and sizes participate and exist within the urban environment just like non-human species, a more equitable urban landscape may be constructed. Utilizing urban athletes and movement as a method for understanding urban ecosystems offers a unique and valuable perspective. By combining physical exploration with data collection and analysis, athletes can play a role in documenting the city's ecological landscape, identifying key ecological connections and disruptions, and raising awareness about the importance of urban sustainability. Urban athletes engage with and explore the city, developing a true expertise and understanding of it, why not incorporate it into the field of urban ecology? (Amongst others)
By acknowledging that urban athletes of all shapes and sizes participate and exist within the urban environment just like non-human species, a more equitable urban landscape may be constructed. Utilizing urban athletes and movement as a method for understanding urban ecosystems offers a unique and valuable perspective. By combining physical exploration with data collection and analysis, athletes can play a role in documenting the city's ecological landscape, identifying key ecological connections and disruptions, and raising awareness about the importance of urban sustainability. Urban athletes engage with and explore the city, developing a true expertise and understanding of it, why not incorporate it into the field of urban ecology? (Amongst others)
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