The scene is a peculiar one; in a dark, baron and cold public
park, a lone runner furtively looks at a scrap of paper before pacing to his
left.
He then pauses, before turning at a 45 degree angle and darting off for
150 meters, only to return again, like some demented orienteering vagrant,
punching invisible checkpoints without rhyme or reason.
But there is a reason, for that runner was me, except this
time, he wasn’t running either. He was walking, and making art.
The idea isn’t a new or absolutely ground breaking one, but
it is incredibly addictive, and is a nice change of pace to running the same
boring courses and roads that you’ve all run a million times before.
Plus! It
forces us runners to take advantage of the opportunity to actually slow things
down, RECOVER, and walk the dogs and/or with our families. Sometimes, those
people and animals (not in that order or course) are the neglected parties in
the complicated ménage à trois that is training and simultaneously having ‘a
life’ (It’s an interesting metaphor but I hope you get the picture).
Regardless, it’s nice to give something back, even if it’s
with somewhat selfish motive.
For the uninitiated, the idea goes a lot like this…
Most professional and recreational runners carry and log
their regular running/jogging sessions with GPS watches and Aps to measure
accurate distance, paces, elevation charts, leg cadence, etc. This information
is
These sites generally also have the option of constantly
reminding you of your personal bests, how this run ranks against others, as
well as everything that everyone is doing better or worse than you. They’re
great as a yard-stick to keep track of your own performance.
Unfortunately, they’re also addictive and a fairly constant
reminder of how much better everyone else seems to be running, or how much you
have sunk into the bitter depths of continual over-self-analysis. This can be a
pretty vicious ‘cycle’; and not just if you’re a triathlete (*weak biking pun
intended).
This is absolutely where a bit of what I’ve coined as ‘Strav-art’
can save your sanity! And it works like this…
You use a map (be it a Google Maps printout or humble pencil
drawn) to sketch out a desired ‘image’. Pay particular attention to landmarks
that you can use as guide markers, as well as rotating your image so it is
facing a northern direction. Luckily Google Maps naturally orientates its maps
the correct way, so that’s a handy win for an aspiring ‘Stravartist’. The image
will have to be rather large also, simply because the satellite technology isn’t
sophisticated enough, and anyway, it’s not as fun if it’s ‘small scale’.
Next you simply put on some shoes (who knows how all-terrain
the unforseen may be?) and head out to your ‘starting point’. Probably best to
tell someone where you are going….or (even better) invite a friend to come and
join in (or simultaneously have a ‘Strav-art-off’ competition). To the best of
my knowledge, such an event hasn’t been attempted, so it could very well be a
world first (and much more comfortable way of getting into the Guinness Book of
Records than wearing a beard of bees!).
You then hit ‘start’ on your GPS device and begin your
journey, hopefully (although you will not find out until later how accurately)
charting your movements in an artistically precise manner.
So this is a call to arms to give it a try, and for all of
you to screen capture or email links of your strav-artistry to me at
funky_clay@hotmail.com
In the coming weeks I’ll showcase some of the best works sent
to me, with an in depth critique of your skills (just like a REAL art
competition!).
Good Luck and happy Stravarting!
Till next time
Clay Dawson
Intraining Sponsored Athlete and occasional Stavartist!
