Map-Your-Run Art by Californian Runner

Photo by Capturing the human heart. on Unsplash

Lenny Maughan, a runner from San Francisco, has been transforming his running routines into art for the last four years. How does he do this, you ask? Well, the paths he takes through the city are carefully chosen so that they form illustrations! His most recent work was Frida Kahlo, which was a 28-mile run. So far, he has 53 works. Everything began when the runners started noticing that they can draw pictures on their running maps and those were kind of like Rorschach tests, said Lenny for The Guardian. Lenny saw the potential in this and decided to make something different. 

His first work was Spock’s Vulcan hand gesture from Star Trek. He told The Guardian that he always wanted to be an artist and used to draw a lot as a child. He was a huge fan of the Etch-a-Sketch, which is similar to his current work in that both require creating images in an unbroken line. His other sketches were the Batman logo, a cat, the Starship Enterprise, etc. He figured out that the larger the route, the more fine-tuned he can make the shape.  

Maughan uses the app Strava, and if you’re a runner, you can try it too! 

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