They’re making art on the run.
New Yorkers are combatting the drudgery of marathon conditioning — or simply keeping fit — by using some of their training trots to draw numbers, letters and icons with their routes on the popular app Strava, which tracks and shares routes for runners, walkers, hikers and bikers.
The hashtag #StravaArt has 3 million views on TikTok and nearly 30,000 posts on Instagram, while Insta accounts dedicated to the conceit, such as @strav.art, attract tens of thousands of views.
Sammy Atia, a 26-year-old running the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday, told The Post. “It’s a silly way to add something to your runs, to have a goal that isn’t just about how many miles I want to do or how fast I want to run.”
For one of her training sessions, Atia, who works as a tech recruiter, took a convoluted route that her Strava artist friend, Lewis Dixon, 30, initially created.
She started in midtown East, running one block north and then one block south on Madison Avenue before heading east on 53rd Street. In Lenox Hill she zigzagged up one block, over another, before repeating the same pattern a little farther south. She made it all the way up to 90th street and Madison Avenue where she abruptly ended her run, one block away from Central Park.
The crazy, 8.6-mile workout ultimately drew “I HEART NY” — but it wasn’t easy.
“It was very very chaotic, because you couldn’t make a wrong turn or cross the road in the wrong place,” said Atia, who has also done a lighting bolt route around Times Square and a “30” in Midtown East for a friend’s birthday.
Another Strava Artist has done a pizza run.
She added, “It takes your mind off the running, because you have this task you need to do.” [could just say — Have a look — and end the piece here in print]
Ambtious artists have opted for a larger canvas, presumably while bike riding, not running. “We’ve seen various Strava athletes set Guinness World Records for largest Strava Art ever created across Europe, one ride in the shape of a velociraptor and the other a heart,” a Strava spokesperson told The Post.
But, some NYC marathoners say training is challenging enough without the artistic element.
“It looks very complicated,” said Shan Malik, 39, who works for an alternative stock exchange and lives on the Upper West Side. “I haven’t got time for that. I am a busy lad.”