At City Running Tours, we are passionate about creating new and memorable experiences for ourselves and others in the cities we explore. When we run, we don’t focus on getting a workout in, or maintaining a specific speed—those things aren’t important to us. We run to be a part of something greater, and to feel more connected to the people and places around us.
One of our main goals at CRT is to democratize running—anyone can do it, no matter their race, gender, body type or sexual orientation. Our guides come from diverse backgrounds and have unique and interesting lives outside of running. In a lot of ways, our team reflects the cities in which we operate.
We are headquartered in NYC, where our guides represent all walks of life as actors, students, nutritionists, teachers, marketers, and so much more. We are single, married, mothers, fathers, and everything else. Our team is a perfect representation of New York City and the people who live there—we are all very different, but we work together to make a cohesive and supportive environment.
New York City is the ideal place for City Running Tours to be headquartered. It’s steeped in such a vast and rich history, which, along with running, is our ultimate passion. Indigenous peoples have inhabited the land that would eventually become NYC for hundreds of years. European settlement began with the Dutch in 1608. Since then, the city has been a witness to generations of transplants, who have endured through wars, unrest, disease, and every other obstacle one can imagine.
When we run through the streets of NYC, we like to reflect on that history. We show our clients the iconic landmarks, like the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge. These are monuments to the industrious spirit and ambition that plagues New Yorkers, and we acknowledge that. But we also like to showcase lesser known sights—places that we think are just as, if not more, important than the really famous landmarks.
Every Friday on our CRT social media channels we feature a sight that can be seen on our tours that may not be incredibly well-known. Last week we highlighted the new statue of Mother Cabrini in Battery Park. Mother Cabrini is considered the patron saint of immigrants. She settled in NYC after leaving Italy in 1889, where she founded over 60 schools, hospitals, and orphanages. We love to share stories like that with our clients because they perfectly embody the meaningful and important, if sometimes hidden, histories that bring character to the cities in which we operate.
On our most recent live run, our guide took viewers to the Harriet Tubman statue in Harlem. Tubman was a fearless leader of the Underground Railroad, and she led 13 expeditions to bring slaves across the northern border to freedom during the Civil War. The statue is the first public sculpture in NYC to depict an African American woman. Showcasing monuments like the Harriet Tubman statue is important to CRT because they remind us of the bravery, power, and compassion that characterized the people who shaped our city and our world into what it is today—those that fought for universal freedoms.
Ultimately, we love our cities because they have so many stories to tell, which we seek to promote. Through running, we can explore a vast array of different places and communities. We can see new things, discover hidden treasures, and learn something interesting about ourselves and others with every step.
But the greatest thing exploring different places while running provides us is the ability to share meaningful experiences with others. We may have very diverse backgrounds, but we can come together with our shared passions for running and learning. No matter who we are, or where we come from, running brings us a true sense of community—a community we at City Running Tours seek to promote every day.
