For many, it takes years to familiarize themselves with their surrounding area — but for Brigham Young University student Sam Johnson, it went much faster.
In the last year, Sam Johnson set a physical goal to run, bike and unicycle every road in Provo. Provo is about 41.6 square miles, making covering every street a tall order.
His pursuit of this goal began in the summer of 2025, and he later accomplished it by the end of fall of 2025. It took him roughly 6 months in total.
Johnson is a native of Utah and grew up in the Salt Lake area, and is a student at BYU studying machine learning.
Johnson has always been a pretty athletic person and enjoys being outdoors. He started using a running app called Strava to track his runs, connect with other local runners and see each other's progress.
“I connected my Strava, and it just showed me all of the roads that I have run down and all the roads that I haven't run down … As I was looking at it, it just made me want to do all of the roads in Provo,” Johnson said.
Johnson would track his progress by coloring each road in blue after its completion.
With the app as a tool to keep him motivated, Johnson felt a sense of accomplishment as the map gradually filled in blue.
When the goal started, Johnson shared that he’d get out of work in the mid-afternoon during the summer, and then bike or run the rest of the day.
“They have leaderboards for every city to say who has done the most unique roads in that city … I'm number one in Provo," Johnson said.
The athletic part of this accomplishment is nothing new to Johnson, but he said he was able to gain a better sense of direction.
“I really love exploring, (and) seeing what there is in the world. So, because I've been on every road in Provo, I can get anywhere in Provo without having to use Google Maps,” Johnson said.
Many could say they've lived years in Provo and haven't seen as much as he has in this short time period.
“I found so many interesting things that I never knew existed just from riding around Provo, that I never would have found unless I was trying to go everywhere,” Johnson said.
He said he hasn't shared this accomplishment with many, but his father found himself curious and inspired to try this app and some similar challenges himself.
“I ended up signing up for that myself because he just found it kind of fun … he's kind of gamifying his exercise,” said Cam Johnson, father of Sam Johnson.
Sam Johnson provided details on the many running apps and tools that are out there and available, and how he's been able to contribute to helping their efficiency for the betterment of the community.
This achievement was not only a fun goal to check off, but a learning moment in many aspects for Johnson. Johnson shared he learned a better sense of appreciation for getting out and experiencing new things. He especially emphasized his biggest lesson being that he can do anything he sets his mind to.
So what's next for Sam? He has plans of doing 125-mile bike rides each month, hiking all the mountains surrounding Provo and completing all the roads next in Orem, Utah.
He is possibly going to do a 250-mile bike ride in the month of July. Johnson shared that since this year's Fourth of July is celebrating the United States 250th year of independence, might as well celebrate through a challenge.
Provo may be complete, but Johnson's adventure is far from over.
“I'm just going to keep going, I never plan on stopping,” Johnson said. “My whole life, wherever I live, I'm going to go around and explore the places around me, because biking and running are what I love to do."