What drives a teenager to walk nearly 40 kilometres down one of Toronto’s busiest streets? For 15-year-old high school student Jake, it wasn’t a dare or a race, it was simply the desire to say, “I’ve done it.”
Back in November, Jake, along with his friend Jacob and his dad, decided to set out on an early morning trek to cover the entire length of Sheppard Avenue, which came out to exactly 39.37 kilometres.
“It’s actually funny because there was no real reason for this walk other than I just wanted to be able to say that I’ve done it,” Jake told blogTO. I could bring it up in conversation, ‘I bet you’ve never walked the entire street of Sheppard Avenue.'”
The trio set out on their ambitious journey on Nov. 17, and the walk alone took just over eight and a half hours. With breaks and stops for food, the whole trip took exactly 10 hours and 32 minutes.
Walked the entirety of Sheppard Avenue a few months ago
byu/Vegetable-Hunt4019 intoronto
“We had some obstacles, like fatigue. We made sure to take lots of short breaks and brought water and snacks with us,” Jake explained.
Last week, Jake decided to post his impressive achievement on Reddit, where his post amassed over 800 upvotes and 80 comments. In the post, Jake shared photos of his journey as well as screenshots of the distance he covered and the calories he burned.
“I’ve biked the length of this road. It’s wide, dull and anti-human for about 99 per cent of its length. Any reason you chose to punish yourself like this?” one Reddit user asked, to which Jake responded, “So I can say I’ve done it.”
Jake says the response to his tremendous feat has been overwhelmingly positive, and he’s already been trying to plan another walk. Although he hasn’t chosen the next street he’ll be tackling yet, he says that it will most certainly be longer than Sheppard Avenue.
“It’s really amazing how a random thought like this can turn into such an achievement,” Jake said. “It’s not every day you find people crazy enough to wake up at 5:30 a.m. for a 40-kilometre walk!”
Jake isn’t the only Toronto resident who’s been inspired to tackle the city’s vast streets on foot. Last year, 34-year-old Richard Conway took on the monumental challenge of walking the entire length of Yonge Street in one day, and, against all odds, was successful.
