StravArt: the art of drawing while you run

It all started with a desire to break away from standard training plans and escape a certain monotony. “I started running during Covid and ran my first half marathon in Paris in 2022. I wanted to approach running differently,” says Emilie Yip, a professional engineer. In 2023, she set out to run along Paris’s metro lines after studying the underground route of each of the network’s 14 lines. “That became my weekly long run while I was training for my first marathon. The longest is Line 8, at 25km,” laughs Yip, who enjoys posting her routes on Instagram.

In Lyon, Guillaume Lazert has been hooked on GPS drawing for four years. He discovered an online challenge to recreate the totems from Koh Lanta. The thirty-something, already a keen walker, took up the challenge and never looked back. He started with simple drawings, then quickly began exploring the whole of France. GPS drawing became an excuse to travel. “In 2023, ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, I created the Olympic rings in Lyon over 41km,” he explains. He then decided to recreate the sporting symbol in every French city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. “I set off every weekend,” says the devoted route artist. Nîmes, Lille, Marseille, Dijon, Avignon, Turin and Geneva were among the stops. In total, he travelled to around twenty cities in France and abroad.

The groundwork

When he was starting out, Guillaume, known as gl.gps.drawing on Instagram, took screenshots and plotted every waypoint by hand on the map. That improvised, resourceful approach has since evolved: he now uses Visu GPX, exports the route to Google and opens it in Google Maps. His Paris-based counterpart also started out with Google Maps. “I quickly found myself limited by the number of points. I use Strava Premium, which has a route-planning feature. I draw on my computer using that feature,” says Emilie Yip. 

Running, pastry and Super Mario

StravArt brings colour to running and sparks plenty of curiosity. “The Strava team contacted me, and I made my profile public,” says Emilie Yip, who loves telling stories through her runs. In 2024, she decided to celebrate French pastry, choosing a different sweet treat for every outing between January and July, all the way to the Marathon pour Tous on 10 August. Chocolate éclairs, Bourdaloue tart, macarons and millefeuille set the theme for each of her long runs. Never one to rest on her laurels, Shot de caféine laced up again in December 2024 to give her small community a Christmas present. “From 1 to 20 December, I ran a loop around one arrondissement every day. On the final day, I was able to reveal a giant snail. In total, I covered 222km,” says the passionate runner, who would like to set up a run club dedicated to StravArt. At the start of 2025, she set out to conquer the GR routes around Paris and never misses an opportunity to share the experience with her followers, continuing to build a community and, who knows, inspire new runners to take up running or StravArt.

When he looks back through his work, there is no question that his Super Mario stands out as one of the most complex routes. “I created it over 110km through the streets of Paris, and every detail was crucial to achieving the final result,” explains Guillaume Lazert, who devotes all his free time to the hobby. These days, his passion has opened professional doors, allowing him to move into a new role within his company. In Lyon, he has spent the past few weeks bringing together a small group for a mystery run. Over roughly ten kilometres, he leads them along a route that reveals a drawing linked to the date once they reach the finish.

It is an idea he hopes to develop further, giving people another reason to enjoy running.