Saturday, my usual long-run day, happened to fall on the first day of not-winter. I wasn’t going out in the morning; the Al Gordon 4-miler was filling up Prospect Park, and I needed some sleep.

As I got ready to head out at 12:30, a crazy idea popped into my head: what if I tried to run every single block in Ditmas Park? It’s not very big – about five long blocks by ten or eleven, depending on where you count. The goal would be to run as little as I could, although I knew I’d have to double back in a couple spots (more on the math here).

I figured it would be around ten miles in all; if it ended up being way longer, I could cut the jaunt short, or take the Q home at the end. I deduced a zigzag pattern that would prevent me from duplicating too many routes.

It was worth a try. As Mary Bakija points out in her profile of me, running is a great way to scope out neighborhoods for future returns, when you’ve got your walking shoes on. And yes, I did see many things I’d like to examine in more detail.

I brought along my phone to take pictures, but all of that snapping adds up; to ensure I got home at a reasonable time, I agreed to only take a photo after I’d completed another mile. (I did make one exception, above.)

Here’s the route I took, which shows some of the failings of a satellite-based GPS system when tall buildings are around:

Some stats:

Total distance: 16.91 miles
Total distance in Ditmas Park: about 11.7 miles
Total time spent NOT running (i.e., taking and posting pics): 36 minutes

Now for the photos. I started in Park Slope and ran through Prospect Park both ways. I was really tempted to stop at Mimi’s for some hummus, too.

You can visit my account on Instagram; I hashtagged all of these photos #runbk022314 (that’s short for Running Brooklyn February 23, 2014).