handout

For The Washington Post

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Whether leaderboard ad sticky behavior is disabled

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show expanded byline information on articles

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Show the Balance of Power component on the new Election subnav component

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Enable new Elections subnav on Site pages

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

If true, will use a spoofed user agent to scrape and summarize content from paywalled sources

flip back to old full page reload when new updates come in

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Trump transition live updates: President-elect raises prospect of pardons for Jan. 6 crimes

Trump Campaign

See more on this topic in your recommendations

Feel-good stories

Inspiring stories sent Wednesdays and Sundays

The Optimist newsletter

The video is only 27 seconds long, but it took Duncan McCabe 10 months — and about 700 miles — to make it.

McCabe, an avid runner and animation enthusiast, set out on a journey in January to create a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@duncan77mccabe/video/7438366744776903992" target=_blank>now-viral TikTok</a> of a dancing stick figure. He made it using the popular GPS-tracking app Strava, which connects runners, cyclists, hikers and walkers and allows them to record their routes.

Strava art animation through the streets of Toronto! This took me 121 runs from January to October 2024.  #strava #running #toronto #purplehat #active #run #Canada #motivation #madden25 #ncaa #purple #hat #sofitukker #sofi #tukker 

Using Strava’s map function, McCabe recorded 120 runs — and when he strung each of the maps together, it revealed a hat-wearing stick figure dancing to the song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOEMsqWx4nE" target=_blank>Purple Hat</a>” across the streets of Toronto.

While the dancing man might look bare bones, creating it was complex — and physically demanding. Many of his 120 runs were roughly 6 miles, but some were longer or shorter.

“You need to have a lot of frames per second in order to give it motion,” said McCabe, 32, an Ontario-based accountant.

McCabe’s video is part of a growing movement known as GPS art, which involves using apps like Strava with location-tracking features to create digital drawings over a map of a specific region.

People around the world have made a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C8kDdYyIriK/?img_index=1" target=_blank>stiletto</a>, a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C7gtV6Do1dH/?img_index=1" target=_blank>strawberry</a>, a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C6s2RNhoHXf/" target=_blank>donkey</a> and a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C3NUSP8sNhQ/" target=_blank>fire-breathing dragon</a> — all by traversing a predetermined route by foot or bike.

Nicolas Georgiou/@nico_georgiou

What sets McCabe’s work apart is that it is in motion. Rather than just one piece of static GPS art — which typically involves mapping out a route ahead of time in a particular shape, then executing the ride or run — McCabe’s video is a compilation of many runs, requiring extensive planning.

McCabe was not deterred by the time commitment or the difficulty of mapping the routes.

“If I have a long-term vision, I’m willing to work for a very long time,” said McCabe. “Each piece of art is a frame, and if you combine them, you can turn frames into motion.”

McCabe described himself as a “video guy” and said  he enjoys making short films of friends and family as a hobby. He took his first stab at Strava video art last year, when he turned 430 miles of running into a 30-second clip of several animals (including a shark, a giraffe and a dinosaur) moving around on top of a map of Toronto.

I turned my summer runs into Strava app animations. 🦖🦒🦝🐳🦈 #Toronto #running #strava #run #stravarun #stravaart #summer #dinosaur #raccoon #giraffe #whale  #narwhal #shark #foryou #tiktokchallenge #tiktok #funny #fun #tiktokcomedy #comedyvideo #adventure #lol #fitness #workout #healthy #motivation #lifestyle #animals #animalsoftiktok #video 

“The inspiration for that broadly comes from Strava art. … I have a lot of respect for the stuff that’s come before me,” said McCabe, who had seen other people dabble with creating GPS designs, but none that were in a video format. “As far as I know, it’s an original idea. I’m pioneering Strava animation.”

Last Christmas, McCabe was chatting with his wife, Andrea Morales, about ideas for a second Strava animation, and she suggested a dancing figure, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_book" target=_blank>flip-book</a> style.

Duncan McCane

“The lightbulb went on,” he said. “I could visualize it in my head.”

McCabe used PowerPoint to map out his runs so that he could see the movements from slide to slide.

“You can make individual maps in Strava for these types of things, but I’m talking about a series of maps, and PowerPoint ended up being more useful,” he said. “You get a little less accuracy, but it’s easier for vision.”

McCabe completed his first run on Jan. 1, and he ran multiple times a week until Oct. 25, when his animation was finally ready to put together.

Unlike other GPS art, which is created using a satellite-tracking app, McCabe uses video-editing software to compile all the maps together.

“You record it directly in Strava, but once you’re done you need to individually extract all the runs and merge them together,” he said. “I line up the streets all perfectly with each other so that the background is stable.”

McCabe’s video has been viewed millions of times on <a href="https://x.com/BenSteiner00/status/1859712317996597433" target=_blank>social media</a> — more than 25 million times on X alone — with most people awed by his efforts.

Andrea Morales

“This is insanely impressive,” <a href="https://x.com/itsarminbabaei/status/1859851181746684307" target=_blank>one person commented</a> on X.

Some people are skeptical, though, including <a href="https://x.com/h0dson/status/1859916326833471829" target=_blank>one person who pointed out</a> that McCabe ran diagonally through a row of houses, which of course, is not possible. But McCabe has an explanation.

When there are buildings in the way of a line he needs to draw, “I pause the app, then when I get to the desired destination, I resume,” he said. “When you un-pause, Strava runs a direct line between the two points.”

This method means McCabe actually ran farther than the app gave him credit for, as he would often have to run one to two miles while pausing the app to create diagonal lines.

“Objectively, it was a bad running experience,” McCabe said. “I looked ridiculous.”

Nonetheless, he said, the project was deeply rewarding.

“It’s creativity coming out of somewhere you wouldn’t expect it,” he said. “It’s fun. It’s unexpected.”

Other Strava artists say they do it for the same reason. Making Strava art is tedious, to be sure, but it’s also fulfilling.

“It’s almost like juggling. You’re challenging your brain and your body at the same time,” said Nicholas Georgiou, 59, a Strava artist and cyclist based in central London. “I like to create things, and I just find my bicycle is like my pencil. It feels good to be able to get out and achieve something.”

To mark the 2024 Summer Olympics, he drew a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C-Au20YomNz/?img_index=1" target=_blank>discus-thrower</a> and the Olympic rings over London by cycling 264 miles in one go.

“I try to over-challenge myself,” he said.

Most recently, Georgiou drew the mascot for <a href="https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/" target=_blank>BBC Children in Need</a> — which is a giant teddy bear — and raised more than $2,000 for the organization in the process.

Some of Georgiou’s work is chronicled on an Instagram account called “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/strav.art/" target=_blank>Strava Art</a>,” which shows striking Strava art creations from around the world.

Gary Cordery, a Strava artist, manages the account, as well as a <a href="https://www.strav.art/" target=_blank>corresponding website</a>, just for fun.

“It’s just a little hobby, which has grown and grown,” said Cordery, 56, who started the account in 2018. “I was stuck on 200 followers for a year, and then suddenly, it exploded.”

Now, the Instagram account has nearly 71,000 followers, and the website gets about 20,000 page views a month, Cordery said.

“I think it’s going to grow with new things coming, like bigger and more detailed routes,” he said. “It makes your activities, your running and your exercise a bit more interesting.”

Janine Strong, a Strava artist in New York, embraces the challenge.

“There’s something really enjoyable for me about finding it on the map, figuring out how to make it the best version and then the adventure of actually riding it, because these are not routes that you would ever ride for any other reason,” said Strong, 48, who became a committed cyclist in 2019. “It takes you to places you wouldn’t normally go.”

Over the years, Strong has used Strava to create a “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DCnqUmCO4_3/" target=_blank>Girl With a Pearl Earring</a>,” a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DBMDtCTui5Y/?img_index=1" target=_blank>flower,</a> a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaWDkS_uMzp/?img_index=1" target=_blank>Santa Claus</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CLM_cFiplBp/" target=_blank>a lion</a>, among other designs.

Janine Strong/@strava.artist

“I will sometimes have 10 different versions of something I’m trying to draw,” Strong said, adding that she spends several hours plotting out her routes. “There are so many factors that go into it.”

Her latest piece was a depiction of a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DC5ws8xOing/?img_index=1" target=_blank>duct-taped banana</a> over Brooklyn, a nod to the conceptual art piece that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/11/20/magritte-auction-christies-new-york/4eed6780-a761-11ef-a365-f28068283fb3_story.html" target=_blank>recently sold for $6.2 million</a> at an auction.

“The route I figured out was a 23-mile bike ride that took me through parts of the borough where people are clearly struggling,” Strong wrote in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DC5ws8xOing/?img_index=1" target=_blank>an Instagram post</a>. “I can’t help wondering what else $6.2 million could have accomplished in a world where so many are in need.”

Going forward, she said, she hopes her GPS drawings might make a point to people.

“I want to use this art form to say something meaningful,” Strong said.

McGill University, BA

Columbia University, MS in journalism 

Sydney Page is a staff reporter who writes for The Washington Post’s Inspired Life section, a collection of stories about humanity. She has been a contributor to The Post since 2018.

Sydney Page

washpost

Duncan McCabe ran about 700 miles to make viral art on Strava 

the-washington-post

name

prism://prism.query/site,/lifestyle/inspired-life?limit=20

Inspired Life

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/lifestyle&limit=20

Lifestyle

Washington Post Lifestyle gives you the latest fashion and beauty trends, home d&eacute;cor pointers, food and recipe ideas and reviews, relationship advice, travel ideas, wellness tips and much more.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.