Creating Run Art Using The Strava Multiple Ride Mapper
In the world of StravaArt, the #1 rule is it has to be done in one fell swoop. From the beginning to the end, you can end the run only once. Everything you “draw” is captured and of course there is no erasing. Sure, you can pause but once you un-pause, the app would just make a perfectly straight line connecting your current location to where you were when you entered pause mode. Such a line can have an undesirable effect on your masterpiece. Make it in one go then you can take a screenshot when you are done, with no additional work to be done. Disregard the rule and you would need multiple screenshots that you then digitally assemble in Photoshop. While some people are good with image processing, not all of us have the time or skill. We just want to make words or pictures with our runs then take a screenshot or two. The online tool called Strava Multiple Ride Mapper (SMRM) is just what we need. It works great whether you run or ride.
Strava Multiple Ride Mapper (SMRM) is by Jonathan O’keeffe, and it works from the web link . The first time you use it, you need to authenticate to Strava and allow the tool to access your Strava data. Next you set a begin date and an end date then click Load. Give it a minute or two for the map on the right to be populated with activities from the date range you specified. As a Strava artist who wants to make a phrase, you should have already made multiple separate runs in some geographic area over a short time period. In my case, I tried to spell the four words “Prospect”, “Park”, “Track”, and “Club”, roughly on the four sides of our favorite park, in a clockwise pattern. I planned to make the four runs over a few weekends then load all four runs into one map. Easy peasy! Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men….
Naturally, I started with the word “Prospect”. It’s the longest word of the four and covered over six miles. I did the usual “writing” in one go. It feels natural to me to do that, instead of stopping completely after each letter and then using SMRM to place them on the map. I didn’t want to overuse SMRM. Note the usual “cutting through the block” to make the “s” and the “e”. I also did something I like to do during my runs - discovering free libraries, not necessarily those associated with the Little Free Library system. In this run, it was Granny’s Book Nook on 7th Street.
The word “Park” presented a little challenge as it is in an area that has wide east-west streets. I usually make tall letters instead of wide ones. I decided to design the route to have the letters in the proper proportion, one block wide to two blocks high. Not by coincidence, the baseline of the word runs along Park Place. All was well until I headed back to the base to complete the letter “r”. I turned too soon and introduced an extra horizontal line. Oh well. I don’t live in the area and don’t have the time to restart the run. Good thing I only do this for fun. I will run again another weekend.
It was somewhat disheartening to fail at making “Park”. I wasn’t ready to go back to it the next time I ran. The word “Club” is near the home of a friend, Lisa Mayer Knauer. I haven’t seen her in a while, pandemic and what not, so I asked her to join in the “Club” run. It worked out well. We even took a photo together.
The next weekend, I returned to Prospect Park again and made “Track” on Good Friday then “Park” on Saturday, this time with no mistake. I was finally ready to put the tool to work. I made a total of five runs:
Mar 20 - Prospect - success
Mar 21 - Park - flop
Mar 27 - Club - success
Apr 2 - Track - success
Apr 3 - Park - success
The “bad” Park
The “good” Park
Five runs uploaded
Just for illustration purposes, I entered the date range of March 20, 2021 to April 3, 2021. All five runs were loaded and of course it is not what I wanted. Fortunately, Strava Multiple Ride Mapper is well-designed and includes a few additional settings that can be adjusted. There is an option to load only certain activities, e.g. cycling, skiing, rock climbing. I am pretty much a one-sport enthusiast, so I just leave the “Activity Type” setting alone. There is also the choice of color settings for the various activities, whether they all have the same color or their own colors. You can also set the transparency and thickness of the lines for your handiwork. I have no need for any of those, the default settings are fine by me.
Of utmost usefulness for me is the ability to keep multiple sets of activities on their own layers. I need to load just the “Prospect” run itself (March 20 only) then the remaining good runs in the date range of March 27 through April 3. Before clicking Load for the second set of activities, I made sure to select “Add To Current Map” for the “Replace” setting. It worked flawlessly. But, there is a long delay in the loading of activities and there is no indication that the activities are being loaded or the progress of the loading. SMRM works on both smartphones and traditional computers. As smartphones have limited screen size, it takes much zooming around to see the map and then the controls. I strongly recommend sticking to using SMRM on computers.
In summary, SMRM is a very useful tool for Strava artists, especially if you don’t have the time or stamina to do everything in one go. Design your masterpieces in different stages and execute them over a period of time, then load them onto their own layers, but presented as one map. You can selectively load only certain types of activities, if you are that athletic and can do multiple sports. You can make your map pretty with different heat map colors, varying thicknesses for the lines, and multiple levels of transparency. Using it on a smartphone is not recommended but I do recommend that you donate to the author. It is a free tool whether you donate or not, but any donation of any amount is appreciated by the author.
Four Runs
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Text by: Linus Ly (he/him)
Photos and screenshots: Linus Ly
Edited by: Linda S. Chan (she/her)
Produced by: Linda S. Chan