Frequent Flier Miles: Two clients on a quest to run a 5k in every state

By San Diego Guide and Chicago Manager Chelsey Stone

Debbie and Clay with NYC guide Jillian

Usually our clients have the same goals in mind when they sign up for a tour with us: sightseeing and exercising. But every once in a while our clients come to us with something unique: Texas couple Debbie and Clay want to run a 5k in every state, and City Fit Tours has been a perfect fit for their goal.

What was the inspiration for doing a 5k in every state?

Clay: It encourages us to work out more often, even just a couple days a week. We get a run on the schedule, like we've got one on the books for October, so between now and then, we’ll be training.

Debbie: It was easy to put travel off and say we don't have time. That coupled with the fact that we were about to be empty nesters, we needed something to do together that would replace all the carpooling and kids’ stuff we had been doing. We decided this was going to be our next phase. Here we are, 24 states later.

Photo 1: Their first race outside their home state of Texas - running down the Las Vegas Strip. Photo 2: Clay running in Lambeau Field in the Green Bay Packers 5K (photo credit to Green Bay Packers 5K). Photo 3: Debbie running in Portland, Maine along the Atlantic coastline.

What was your first state?

Debbie: The first state we traveled to was Nevada. We ran the Las Vegas Strip; it was the 5k associated with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon (see photo above).

A state you’ve enjoyed most so far?

Debbie: We've done a few runs while we followed our kids for their different events, and I know in the big picture of places you can travel to Oklahoma is probably not at the top of everybody's list, but we had a good time in Oklahoma.

What’s your next state?

Debbie: Rhode Island and Connecticut in October. The Rhode Island race is a complete trail run, which we've never done before. We're looking forward to it, but it's a very difficult one with all the elevation. But we live in a hilly area, so I feel like elevation is our strong suit.

Which City Fit Tours have you done?

Debbie: New York City’s Central Park. New York is actually when we discovered City Fit Tours. We didn't have a grand plan for how we were going to accomplish our goal; we were kind of winging it. When I Googled 5k races, I stumbled across City Fit Tours. I was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect. We can see the city, learn all the cool facts only the locals know, and accomplish our goal.’ Chicago was our second.

Debbie and Clay in Chicago May 2023

Clay: Chicago was our fourth 5k in six days that we did in July. We had traveled the Lake Michigan Circle, so we ran in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and then Chicago was our grand finale in Illinois. That was the first trip we've done more than one 5k at a time.

Debbie: We don't do any more than 5ks, and we are perfectly happy with our 10 to 11 minute mile pace. That’s why City Fit Tours is perfect for us: we're not racing and trying to compete with anybody. We're just running to see and do stuff. 

For guides, we've had some young professionals, probably the age of our boys, and I love to hear their stories, how they're navigating young adult life. Morgan in Chicago was telling us all the places she had lived. In New York, Jillian was telling us how she takes the subway. We live in Texas so everywhere we go, we get in the car. But Jillian runs to the subway and jogs three or four blocks to get to Central Park. It was just interesting how different we live our lives.

The other piece is seeing the city through the eyes of locals and learning things we wouldn't have. We can walk down Navy Pier all day and not know some of the things we learned. In both New York and Chicago our tour guides have been very knowledgeable, and not just about the historical things everybody knows, but also the not so historical things that are little nuggets kind of tucked away. I started out as a social studies teacher, so that's kind of my bliss on top of all the layers.

Chicago Guide Morgan told Debbie and Clay they’d find a piece of the Alamo from their home state.

We've managed to merge sightseeing, exercise, and working toward a goal in a very efficient manner. That's been the coolest thing. As we hit different cities, we're gonna definitely see if there’s an opportunity to run with City Fit Tours.

What are you doing when you’re not running 5ks?

Debbie: We're both in education. We started as teachers once, and now we've ventured off. I train teachers, and he's a superintendent. So running is an outlet during busy times.

All of us at City Fit Tours are cheering Debbie and Clay on as they work toward their goal, and we’ll be ready to take them on tours in whichever of our cities they come to next.

Running Community: Read & Run Chicago

By San Diego Guide and Chicago Manager Chelsey Stone

Above all, City Fit Tours values the opportunity to showcase our cities. Our guides love their cities, enjoy learning its history (even those born and raised there), and are passionate about sharing that love and learning with visitors. But we’re not the only ones showcasing our cities through running. We’ve gotten to know some of the running communities in our cities and we’d like to showcase one of these for you here: Chicago’s Read & Run.

Read & Run designs running tours based on books. As you’ll see below, sometimes this is essentially a book club and other times the book is simply the inspiration for the run.

Before becoming a guide with City Fit Tours, I was a guide with Read & Run, so I sat down with founder Allison Yates to learn about the incredibly unique experience she brings local runners and how out-of-town visitors can get in on the action too.

What inspired you to start Read & Run?

Allison: I started Read & Run because I was reading a lot and I was running a lot–I realized, I loved these two things. Having just moved to Chicago, I felt very little connection to this place I called home, so I started to read and run to feel more connected on my own. Then I wanted other people to experience it. 

At first, it was very informal. It was about getting together to talk about books. Then I realized there are these levels of learning: reading and discussing but the next level is the background, the history, the further context to a certain building or neighborhood you're talking about. So that's why I started to pursue the tour aspect to these runs.

Allison describes the significance of this church referenced in South Side Girls, a book set in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

Programming, as defined by Allison

• Running tours: you can show up and not have read the book ahead of time. They are based on books, so you're supposed to be gaining a lot of information without having to do anything prior to the run. You can continue to read about the topic afterwards, if you want to. But if you learned everything you wanted to learn, you're like “great, I don't have to read another book.”

• Book club runs: meant to be a book club but with a run where you experience the book through movement prior to discussing or as we're running.

• Trail runs: Because all those trails have stories and backgrounds and can teach us a lot about the plant life in the Chicago River or different policies or native tribes that lived in the area! You can learn so much about Chicago, just on the trail. 

• General community events: not always focused on specifically a Chicago topic but it might be a Chicago author.

Can anyone join a tour?

Allison: If someone is just in town and is wondering if they should come even though they haven’t read anything, I would say absolutely. Primarily Read & Run events are meant for people who live in the city, but that doesn't mean that anybody can't join–just keep in mind there might be references to places, people, and events that are hyper local. But it’s great if you are a traveler who, like me, wants to know exactly what it is like at this moment in time, in the city you are visiting. It makes you feel like you're getting to know the world in a different way. 

We’re definitely focused on the history of the city, but it's also a lot about who we are, our identity as Chicagoans. So if that's something you're interested in, you'll get a lot of that. And if it’s a topic you really care about, you'll be able to compare how it shows up in Chicago and compare.

Chelsey (right) and Allison (left) preparing for a run of Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood to explore its WWII Japanese American community.

Allison’s other favorite Chicago tours

Chicago for Chicagoans: “I love their free citizen-led history walking tours that are really well researched. The people who lead them are the nerdiest, most intense people, and they're all hyper experts. I love their mission of valuing people, everyday people knowing their city's history and why that's important.”

“I also really love historian Sherman Dilla’s Chicago Mahogany tours. He's the Tick Tock historian that has gotten really really famous for good reason. The way he talks about history is hilarious and really digestible, and he focuses on Southside and black history. He makes history approachable for someone who maybe isn't usually into history or a big reader. I don't know how he fits so much information in his head, and how he connects it to so many different contemporary things. He does an incredible job of talking about why history matters today.”

Check out Read & Runs’ event page to learn more.

San Francisco Guide: Coleman Feeney

By Guide Chelsey Grassfield

Like Chicago Guide Becca, Coleman Feeney began guiding with City Fit tours in New York City before taking it up again in his new home: San Francisco.

Coleman (center) showing off the Golden Gate Bridge with a client.

Tour guides first have to teach themselves

Whether they’re born and raised in the city or just moved there, our guides earn their expertise and knowledge of our cities. What Coleman enjoys most about being a guide is the opportunity to learn about the cities he lives in. “I don't know if you felt this way in Chicago [referring to my time guiding in Chicago], but it helps you learn about a place and appreciate a place. Learning about a place helps you enjoy it more.”

“I was sometimes going and figuring things out. I remember the first few times I did runs in New York, I didn't know how to get on the Brooklyn Bridge. There was no sign, so I was just running and discovered it. You build on that and build on that, and before you know it you’re learning little tips and tricks about the city and sharing those with other people as time goes on.”

“I always encourage people to take a tour, even when they move somewhere, just to get acclimated. It really adds to your experience of living somewhere.” 

Coleman (left) taking a client out and about.

Connecting with clients is why we do this

“You never know who you're gonna get. I really like that aspect of it. You have to adapt to what somebody is interested in. Some people are interested in history. Others you can tell just wanted somebody to run with. I like that middle ground.” 

“I probably did 200, maybe 300, runs in New York, but I only had one bad experience, and I feel like it's television’s fault. People watch a show, and they think Cats is close to Yankee stadium, so this one client got so mad that she couldn't see more, like really angry.” But one experience like that out of 200? “I think that's a testament to the fact that runners are pretty good people.”

“I've never been a morning person, getting up for those runs to pick somebody up at 6 a.m.? I always felt just awful. But then I would do the run, and I felt so glad I did it. It's always great; you're riding that social high the rest of the day.”

When he’s not guiding?

“I've got big into film here. We have this wonderful theater called the Castro Theatre. It's one of the oldest theaters in the country. They play the organ before and show independent movies.”

Where Coleman likes to run

“I live 2 blocks away from Golden Gate Park; it’s spectacular. There's a bison paddock, so buffalo roam in the park. If you run in the morning, you'll see coyotes and wild turkeys, so it's a cool vibe right out the door. I also live maybe a 5 min run from the Painted Ladies, the famous houses in Full House and there’s a nice view there.”

Run Coleman’s route for yourself.

Coleman’s other favorite tour

“It's not off the beaten path, but people think of Chinatown and Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and I don't know if visitors think about Oracle Park, if they're not baseball fans. But one thing that's cool about our guides there is that they're baseball geeks who are retired and want to get their steps in, probably walking 5 miles a day. So if you're gonna come to San Francisco for a game, you might as well come on a tour.” Coleman figured our fellow runners would love this: if you’ll be in San Francisco on Sept 3, 2023, be sure to sign up for the 5k or 10k that finishes on Oracle Park’s field. We even have a promo code for you! Enter GGSFCC23 for 15% off.

Frequent Flier Miles: Client Mitch A.

By Guide Chelsey Grassfield

The first tour I led with City Running Tours was for an American Chemical Society conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. This is how I met Becca Greenberg, when we lead this tour with another colleague. This is also how I met Mitch, one of the runners in my group; we’ve been following and encouraging each other on Strava since. I invited Mitch to share his experiences participating in running tours through conferences.

Mitch is on the far left in the green hat.

Mitch has run tours coordinated by the American Chemical Society in San Diego, Boston, and Chicago. “They have two national conferences every year, and it seems that no matter which one you go to, no matter where it is, there's always been a running tour for an affinity group of younger chemists, folks getting into this kind of intimidating world of big time research. This is one way to make friends, to make it feel a little bit more casual.”

A way to casually network

“As someone who's young in my career, I want to network. I am thinking about opportunities to meet people. Otherwise, conferences can be fairly impersonal. You can go from meeting to meeting to meeting, seeing people talk but never actually having a one on one conversation.”

A running tour is a way to get this meaningful interaction with other conference attendees. “You end up striking up a conversation as you run from place to place, and then, if that conversation turns out to be kind of a bust, there's an automatic reset point where you can find somebody else to talk to [he’s referring to the stops we make to talk about points of interest].”

Checking all the boxes, Mitch said, “I'm doing it as a tour, a way to network and meet people, and to have something fun that's not work related. I really appreciate that break in the day.”

A way to stay healthy

Maintaining fitness when traveling for work can be challenging, but a running tour provides an opportunity to get a run in you might have otherwise skipped. “Where I am in my running career now, I don't need external motivation to go run anymore, but I can imagine for folks who are new to running or have this motivation to be healthier, it can be challenging. Going on work trips is not the thing you do when you want to get healthy; you just eat whatever garbage is there. So having this run, I think it makes you feel good that you're going to do something you want to do anyway (see the city) but do it in a way that has a positive impact on your life.” 

“Always after we're all done, I chat up the tour guide: now I want to go on my own run, where should I go? And then you've already been running all over town; you know all the good spots and the places to see. It’s great fact-finding.” Mitch uses these runs as a launching point for his own adventures in new cities, getting the lay of the land with a local first. At the end of his running tour of Chicago, he asked me about The 606 trail, how to get there and if it was a nice place to run (recommended the green to the blue line and yes!).

A chance to be a perpetual novice

“When you have a conference that large, even if I am the most seasoned chemist that's ever been, there are still so many different ways I can feel dumb. You stand in this very narrowly focused lane. But the moment you step outside of that lane suddenly you feel dumb all over again. Any of those folks that I ran with, they knew so much more, so much different information than me. We likely couldn't have this sciencey conversation, anyways. So it was nice to just connect on something that was different that we could all just sort of bond over; we all know running in one way or another.”

Attending or hosting a conference soon? See if a running or yoga tour is offered. If not, suggest it. These are a great way to maintain a healthy lifestyle and connect with other participants on a deeper level while on work trips, just ask Mitch.

Chicago Guide: Lauren Hooks

By Guide Chelsey Grassfield

I met up with guide Lauren Hooks on Chicago’s famous Lakefront Trail for a brisk 4 miles at 7:20s pace. As we headed out together from our meeting spot at Belmont Harbor, Lauren established that we had more in common than a love of both running and City Fit Tours. “By the way, we have the same hair. My hair is naturally VERY curly, I just straightened it.”

Lauren and I ended our run at the AIDS Garden Chicago for a shot with the 30-foot sculpture by late artist and activist Keith Haring.

Running for the love of it

My hair doppelganger was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in a small-town community in central Illinois. She didn’t get into running until her sophomore year of high school, running the 800 and 1600 meters for track. “I wasn’t that good at these events and then one meet my coach entered me in the 3200, and I did better than expected.” This sparked her love for longer runs.” Considering she went to state a few times and then qualified for the NCAA championships her freshman year at North Central College in Naperville, she certainly seems to have done well. Unfortunately, injuries plagued her after freshman year but Lauren continued running after college. “Now I run for the love of running.. because I can.”

Running with strangers

And she especially loves to run with visitors to Chicago. Her first tour was with someone staying downtown who wanted a customized tour from his hotel. They ran through Old Town, into Lincoln Park, in and around the Lincoln Park Zoo (free admission!), and–because it was a Saturday–along the popular Green City Farmers Market. “It was more a casual run, running with a stranger. It was great! That’s the great thing about running, it brings people together.”

Running as part of a healthy lifestyle

In college, Lauren got her degree in biology, ran cross country and track, and studied abroad in Scotland. After she graduated, she went on to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy. She’s now a physical therapist, working in the Loop for a physical therapy and weight loss clinic. This career seems like a great fit, given Hook’s interest in fitness and healthy eating. A vegetarian, Hooks likes to cook veggie forward meals. We swapped recipes from our favorite Shalane Flannigan and Elyse Kopecky cookbooks.

Running you through her neighborhood

When we met up at the end of May, Lauren was moving from the Lincoln Park area to Streeterville. Now the Burnham Plan tour route is right through her own neighborhood. Maybe you’ll get to run with Lauren on your next Chicago running tour!

Washington, D.C. Guide: Omar Hernandez

By Chicago Guide Chelsey Grassfield

Fellow guide Omar Hernandez signed up for his own running tour (Ripped from the Headlines) when he visited Chicago for the first time. Hernandez’s weekend trip was a graduation present from his girlfriend Marketa. Hernandez earned a Bachelor’s in IT, a field he currently works and is looking to advance in. During his tour we swapped stories about our cities and later over Zoom I learned more about his experiences guiding in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Guide Omar Hernandez on the right, his girlfriend Marquetta middle, and Chicago Guide Chelsey Grassfield left.

Hernandez hasn’t always been a runner. “I started running 11 years ago, so I could keep up with my daughter. It turned into something that really helped change my life. It turned things around for me. I was able to switch careers and do things I didn't think I could do.”

He became a guide the way many of us do, a friend put out a call for guides to lead a large corporate tour. He thought “Oh, I'll just do this, and then it's done.” But after talking to Bill Hudec, the D.C. City Running Tours lead, he found out there were plenty of opportunities to continue. “Then he sent me like an encyclopedia’s worth of knowledge on the routes and stuff around DC. And honestly, after that I was sold.” 

“I especially like [running with people] that have never been to DC. You get to share your city, meeting people from all walks of life. We have that bond already because they are runners too. You know how that goes [Hernandez gives me a knowing].”

The White House has an open invitation…

I asked if he’s ever run with a high level politician, like maybe President Biden? “No, no, [he chuckles] but he's got an open invite. I know Kamala Harris runs, and some of my friends have run into her when she's running with the Secret Service. But I didn't go with them that day, and I missed it. So I had an opportunity there.”

Eat and sightsee

I'm from Central America, and there's this restaurant near the capital, owned by these two Salvadorian sisters, and they make the best pupusas. The place is called Tortilla Cafe. I definitely recommend it because there [are] a lot of fun things to do in that area, too. That's a perfect place to sightsee, especially on the weekends. They'll have farmers markets, and people selling art and all kinds of stuff.

Grassfield learned more about Hernandez and his experience guiding in Washington, D.C. over Zoom.

Where the locals run

While most people will run around the National Mall, for obvious reasons, Hernandez reveals there’s some nearby trail running. Near the Adams Morgan neighborhood and just north of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (about 3 miles from the White House on foot) is Rock Creek Park with “about 20 miles of legitimate trails where you can get some elevation. It's a nice wooded area; you wouldn't think you're in the city. When I have a chance to go, I do. You save yourself from the wear and tear of constantly pounding the pavement.”
Hernandez's favorite route in the city goes up Massachusetts Ave. “It's gonna be just a constant incline. But you're gonna see most of the Embassies in D.C. You'll pass the Naval Observatory where the Vice President lives, and you'll be at the top of Massachusetts. [where you can see] the National Cathedral as your present [for getting to the top]. And then you can take Wisconsin down, and that'll take you right to Georgetown.” Plenty of trails along the waterfront if you need the extra miles, Hernandez says, and plenty of people around on the weekends.

Frequent Flier Miles: Client Melissa C.

By Chicago guide Chelsey Grassfield

I ran with Melissa and her husband Stuart when they came to Chicago for work in March. It was a bitterly cold day when we set out from the warmth of their hotel lobby and ran through the nearby attractions on a 6 mile/10 km tour. In between stopping points, I learned that Melissa had done a tour in NYC in 2013. I was curious what had made that experience stick after all this time, prompting her to book another in Chicago ten years later.

Melissa and her husband Stuart on their Chicago tour in 2023.

When it comes to the traditional way of visiting any city’s attractions, Melissa had some strong feelings. “Sometimes the thought of sight seeing doesn't get me very excited because it makes me think of when I was a kid traveling with family and you would stare at the same thing for what felt like hours... How boring.” 

Melissa appreciates an opportunity to multi-task and doesn’t need to spend too long at any one attraction before moving onto the next: “sightseeing by running tour is amazing. Not only do I get my exercise in but I get to see so many different sights but at a quicker pace - long enough for me to say I saw them but not long enough to get bored–some might say I have a short attention span!”

Not to toot our own horns, but of yours truly and her NYC guide she said, “the City Running Tour guides are so knowledgeable and great runners, so I can learn all about the history of things as we run by them - I like that I get to run and listen at the same time.”

A running tour can be a great way to get the lay of the land before setting off to sightsee on your own: “In NYC the running tour was on our first full day and I did a long run, ~15k I think, so I got to see so much and learned of really cool places to go back to after with my sister - including taking the subway, visiting Wall Street, and shopping in SoHo.”

For these reasons, Melissa’s next trip will include a running tour as well. Let’s just hope you see her earlier than 2033! “Now, every time we travel to a big city a running tour is the first thing I think of to book (with City Running Tours, if they are there,) and it is always my favorite part of the trip.”

Chicago Guide: Becca Greenberg

From Chicago Guide Chelsey Grassfield

I met Becca Greenberg when she and another Chicago guide, Andrea McPike, and I led a corporate team-building event for chemists in town for a conference. We met on a weekday evening to practice the route Greenberg had created. As we ran, we swapped stories about races we were training for, how we got into running, guiding tours of our city, etc. I've always loved how running with a stranger can make fast friends (sometimes literally) because you already have this one thing in common. 

I recently invited Greenberg for a run to talk about her experiences as a guide so that, if your next Chicago run is with her, she'll be a familiar face. 

Greenberg at the Lincoln Park Zoo, a great (and free!) place to run and visit in Chicago.

In it for the long-haul 

Greenberg's experience is unique. She started guiding for City Running Tours in NYC in 2013, and when she moved to Chicago in 2017, she continued by leading tours out here. She laughed as she realized this is her longest standing job. 

Sometimes you just need a running buddy 

I asked Greenberg to start with her experiences guiding in NYC. "I had one or two clients who would come to New York who didn’t care about history, they just wanted someone to run with." It can be nice to show up in a city you've never been to and have a ready-made running buddy. 

Another benefit of running with a local in a big city? Having someone teach you how to use public transportation. "People used [running tours] in New York to see areas they wouldn’t otherwise see; people staying in mid-town Manhattan would choose a tour that took them somewhere else. Partly because they were afraid to take the subway by themself. If you do a private tour, I’d meet them at their hotel, get them on the subway, show them how to use a Metra card, take them on the run, and get them back to the hotel. So some people would use it inadvertently as a way to learn how to take the subway." 

Even your guides enjoy the hidden gems 

"The one we do the most is [around] Millennium Park. What I love about that one is, like the Central Park route, there’re all these nooks and crannies in Millennium Park nobody knows, even people who live here. I’ll go there if I go to Lollapalooza or something, but you miss that there’s this amazing history, like Buckingham Fountain being bought by the sister or that the White Sox started [in nearby Grant Park]." 

Grassfield (left) and Greenberg (right) on an evening jog in Lincoln Park.

Always a tour guide 

Greenberg revealed that she just can't help herself when she's out. She took her boyfriend on a four hour walking tour just by cobbling together the different routes in New York. "I’ve actually done that [in Chicago] loosely." She'll say to the friends she's with: "want to know some awesome, fun facts?" Her boyfriend always says "Tour Guide Becca’s out to play." But Greenberg says, "you don’t often get to learn about your own city, and you get to share it with your friends whether they want to hear it or not." 

Where the locals run 

"I really like to go up N Clark St. and down N Lincoln Ave.; you see a weird cross-section of the city, a combination of schools and houses, music and theaters and bars, and everything in between. You pass Wrigley Field. How often can you go on a run and pass a major league game? Though sometimes it’s not a great idea to run through the crowd entering or leaving the stadium."

City Running Tours + Fit Tours NYC = City Fit Tours

City Running Tours is partnering with Fit Tours NYC to help you maintain healthy habits while vacationing in our incredible cities. Chicago guide Chelsey Grassfield sat down with City Running Tours President & CEO Michael Gazaleh and Fit Tours NYC founder Mike Riordan to learn more about this collaboration, so you can plan your next tour. 

A rising tide floats all boats 

Running the business on his own but wishing he could collaborate (and commiserate) with others, Gazaleh looked to the other fitness-based tour businesses in NYC. In 2019, he only found two others with the same model and goal of showcasing the city: Riordan’s Fit Tours NYC and Run Street. So Gazaleh reached out to "check in and see what they were up to." He thought, "maybe at the least we could be a sounding board for each other. We don't have partners; we don't have anyone. Maybe we can get together and work on things together."  

Of that first meeting, Riordan chuckled, saying when he got the call from Gazaleh it felt like the Godfather, "walking into the place, looking around... leave the gun, take the cannoli kind of a meeting." Joking aside, what he took away from that meeting was their similar philosophy of a rising tide floats all boats. Riordan acknowledged how helping each other might sound odd because they were technically competitors, but it quickly became clear they could be even better as partners. 

They were able to meet twice before the pandemic. Gazaleh and Riordan kept in touch, understanding better than anyone else how hard it was not to be able to do tours, connecting people with their city and, as Gazaleh put it, "that extra sauce of getting their exercise in." 

Going for it post-pandemic 

During those trying times, every conversation also included a positive point at which they'd say "man, we have something here, we can do something here." They knew together their sightseeing and wellness offerings could be even better. Riordan said, "we figured together we could probably accomplish more because we were both successful in one specific area. We're gonna be able to help each other in areas we were lacking, or missing, or not having that same success." 

While Gazaleh knows this collaboration is good for business, he also values that over the last few years, "we're building a friendship." Each time they've gotten together recently, whether to scope out a new route or do an event, he's found it incredibly fulfilling. "Knowing that this product that [Riordan’s] been doing for a while and that I've been doing is going to be so much better because of what we were able to merge together." 

Meeting all your travel needs 

This collaboration couldn't have come at a better time. With revenge travel, where people are taking off to see their bucket list vacation destinations, City Fit Tours is combining their expertise in meaningful sightseeing and exercise to meet demand for health and wellness. 

Mike put it best when he said of visitors, "Instead of seeing places, they want to do places." 

In addition to running tours, City Fit Tours will include yoga walking tours and yoga biking tours. These are just a few of the exciting ways to do our cities.

The History of NYC Pride

The New York City Pride March is one of the largest in the world, with tens of thousands of people donning their rainbow garb in celebration of free love. This year, the parade will take place on Sunday, June 27, so we’re honoring the festive tradition with a history of how it came to be one of NYC’s most iconic annual celebrations.

The Pride March memorializes the famous Stonewall riots, which occurred on Saturday, June 28, 1969. The riots were a reaction to a police raid at the Stonewall Bar, which was a popular location for the LGBTQ community to congregate in Greenwich Village. The riots became the cornerstone of the gay rights movement, and the Stonewall Inn is perhaps the most famous landmark in the fight for LGBTQ equality. In the weeks following the Stonewall riots, several marches advocating free love were organized throughout the city. On November 2, 1969, gay rights activist Craig Rodwell proposed that an annual march be held in memory of Stonewall. Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, and activists Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes formally proposed the march at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations. They stated;

“We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration.”

“We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support.”

The proposal passed unanimously, and Rodwell and his colleagues began organizing the march. They solicited donations and worked with advocacy groups and individuals to raise funds and plan the event for the following year.

June 28, 1970 was designated as Christopher Street Liberation Day because it was the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The day was celebrated with a march from Sheridan Square to Sheep Meadow in Central Park.

Since the first march in 1970, NYC Pride has become a time-honored tradition that only grows in popularity every year. NYC is the most popular location to celebrate Pride in the U.S., and the 2019 Pride weekend reported nearly five million participants. The parade was the largest in the city’s history, and there were four times more people in attendance than at the Time Square Ball Drop on New Year’s Eve.

NYC Pride is one of the city’s greatest treasures. It’s an opportunity to come together and celebrate love and inclusivity. We’re excited to support and encourage our community this year and every year to come.