Man Finishes Goal To Run Every Road In Tewksbury

TEWKSBURY, MA -- A man who set out in October to run every road in Tewksbury as he trained for an ultra marathon completed his quest Friday. It took Jeff Tocceri 78 days to run all 306 miles of Tewksbury roadways, but, in the end, he covered a lot more ground than that number would indicate.

As Tucceri pointed out when he first told Tewksbury Patch about his quest, the town has a lot of one way streets that he had to run to the end of, then circle back onto his route. Tucceri, 38, also noted that he started most runs from his home, meaning an ever growing perimeter of roads around his home are roads he ran multiple times.

"I have been running Tewksbury for many years and wanted to share my love for running and the town," Tucceri said. "It's a beautiful town to run in with lots of nice streets and trails."

Tucceri started a Facebook page to track his progress and, hopefully, inspire other residents to explore the town's roadways by walking, cycling or -- preferably -- by running. Tucceri originally started the page so friends and family could track his progress, but within days it grew to include followers who are just interested in his quest.

He didn't expect everyone to mimic his goal of covering every mile of roadway in Tewksbury, given that his training schedule for the 50-mile race called for him to run between 60 and 70 miles per week.

But Tucceri took followers on his runs, finding time when he was banging out a 20- or 28-mile run to stop and snap some photos. Later, he posted the photos on Facebook with thoughts and even some Tewksbury trivia. His Facebook page evolved to become part fitness blog, part personal journal and part town history.

Tucceri, a 1999 graduate of Tewksbury Memorial High School who works in his family's natural stone restoration business, started running after the 2013 Boston marathon bombing. "I felt like I needed to do something, but didn't know what. So I went for a run," he said. "I ran about four miles that day and people were honking and waving at me in support. I almost felt guilty because I wasn't really a 'runner'."

Tucceri said he got more serious about running and fitness in 2015 when his father had a heart attack and an emergency triple bypass. Since then he's run several half marathons and seven full marathons.
And that ultra marathon? It seems like his training regimen worked. On November 4 he finished 33rd out of 118 entrants in the 50-mile, Stone Cat trail race in Ipswich. He covered the 50-mile course nine hours, one minute, 10 seconds.

.

Subscribe to Tewksbury Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photos by Jeff Tucceri.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).