A Chicago grad student is nearly done running every block of the city. What comes next?

Chicago plays host to more than 4,000 miles of public streets. Joabe Bayer Barbosa has almost run them all.

Barbosa, 25, has now completed more than 80 percent of Chicago's map, according to the tracking app City Strides, and says that he will become the first person to run every street in the city.

He expects to finish the entire map by early spring.

Barbosa is not a native Chicagoan. He’s from London, and a clinical psychology doctoral student at Roosevelt University. He got into running as a way to recover after a mountain hiking accident and took on this feat in August 2024. But he doesn’t consider himself a fan of running.

“I think running is miserable,” he said. “Training for marathons, running the same route every day. I think that's so boring.”

What he does enjoy about running are the different places it takes him to. He documents everything on Instagram and Tik Tok from the neighborhoods he’s in and the people he meets, to how safe it is to run in Chicago.

“Some people have told me, Don't go to certain places in Chicago, and I've gone, and I've felt safe,” Barbosa said. “Everything's been amazing for me, a lot of community, a lot of great people.”

He’s amassed a large following on social media, with his most viral video garnering 1.7 million views. He said nowadays he gets stopped by residents on his runs more frequently.

The Chicago flag he wears as a cape helps him stand-out. During one of Barbosa’s runs, he decided to purchase it from a souvenir shop as a memento for himself. His hands were full, so he tied the flag around his neck.

“Someone just told me ‘Oh, you're the Chicago superhero.’ And I was like, Oh, that's cool. That could be my brand,” he said.

When asked what keeps him going, Barbosa said he considers himself a “completionist.” He also happens to hold the Guinness World Record for the fastest known time to visit every CTA station, an endeavor he took on with his friend and brother. They completed it in just under 9 hours.

Barbosa has a meticulous system of running to get every inch of a street, which includes some dead ends. He will go over some blocks twice to ensure he’s covered it completely. Because of that extra milage, he said, it will take about 6,000 miles of running to complete the map.

He runs 5 to 6 times a week, 10 to 12 miles a day with more than 370 cumulative days of running so far. He kept going even in the recent sub-zero temperatures

Barbosa feels the end coming, and he said it’s bittersweet.

“I'm going to feel empty. I’m already starting to feel empty. Because it's more about the journey than the actual end goal,” he said. “It's going to be a celebration but after, I need to do something else. Something better.”

What’s next? Barbosa isn’t sure. But, showcasing Chicago neighborhoods will definitely be at its center.

“Potentially running every park in Chicago, or doing a run in every neighborhood in Chicago, because there's some neighborhoods I haven't documented,” Barbosa said.