Woman Walks Every Mile of City Streets

MINNEAPOLIS – Three years ago, Francine Corcoran set out to walk every mile of the city’s streets. On Sunday, at the foot of the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue Bridge, she said she had reached her goal.

“It’s no big thing – 1,071 miles – been there, done that,” Corcoran, 55, said Friday as she approached her personal finish line.

About 15 friends showered Corcoran with flowers and champagne. She teared up, then exhorted her friends to emulate her: “Minneapolis is a beautiful city – go on out there!”

Corcoran walked a few miles a day, logging her progress with a felt-tip highlighter on a city map tacked to her basement wall.

Corcoran has made walking part of her life since her childhood in Hokah in far southeastern Minnesota. She regularly walks 3 miles from her home in the Hiawatha neighborhood to her job at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.