How a runner’s GPS art turned into a viral sensation

While the dancing man might look bare bones, creating it was complex – and physically demanding. Many of his 120 runs were roughly 9.5km, 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 stiletto, a strawberry, a donkey and a fire-breathing dragon – all by traversing a predetermined route by foot or bike.

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. 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 690km 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.

“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, flip-book style.

“The lightbulb went on,” he said. “I could visualise 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 January 1, and he ran multiple times a week until October 25, when his animation was finally ready to put together.

Unlike other GPS art, which is created using a satellite-tracking app, McCabe uses a 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. 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 social media – more than 25 million times on X alone – with most people awed by his efforts.

“This is insanely impressive,” one person commented on X.

Some people are sceptical, though, including one person who pointed out 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. When you un-pause, Strava runs a direct line between the two points.”

This method means McCabe ran further than the app gave him credit for, as he would often have to run a few kilometres 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. 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 discus-thrower and the Olympic rings over London by cycling 425km in one go.

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

Most recently, Georgiou drew the mascot for BBC Children in Need – which is a giant teddy bear – and raised more than $2000 for the organisation in the process.

Some of Georgiou’s work is chronicled on an Instagram account called ‘Strava art’, which shows striking creations from around the world.

Gary Cordery, a Strava artist, manages the account, as well as a corresponding website, 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. 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 girl with a pearl earring, a flower, a Santa Claus and a lion, among other designs.

“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 duct-taped banana over Brooklyn, a nod to the conceptual art piece that recently sold for US$6.2 million ($10.5m) at an auction.

“The route I figured out was a [37km] bike ride that took me through parts of the borough where people are clearly struggling,” Strong wrote in an Instagram post. “I can’t help wondering what else US$6.2m 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.