Graduate student, runner Joabe Barbosa completes mission to run every street in Chicago

A beloved Chicago runner just finished one of the most ambitious running challenges in the city's history.

Accompanied by friends, his family, and dozens of supporters, Joabe Barbosa became the first person to have run every street in Chicago—finishing his quest from Oak Street and Michigan Avenue to the Buckingham Fountain on Sunday morning.

Barbosa started the project back in 2024. Over the next 680 days, he ran every single block in all 77 neighborhoods and logged more than 5,000 miles in all.

During his journey, the native of Brazil says he's come to love Chicago as his second home.

"I went out to different neighborhoods in the winter, nothing happened to me. I went out to different neighborhoods in the summer, nothing happened to me," he said. "It's not even the fact that nothing is happening to me, it's that people were being so, so nice to me. And so as I kept going, as I kept running, I just saw how, umm, how nice people were. And so I just started the message of positivity, trying to show how every single neighborhood in Chicago deserves respect."

Barbosa was set to be deported after his student visa expired, but will get to stay for at least another year after getting some help from Roosevelt University.