Draw your run: turning real streets into GPS art
Spell a name, draw a heart, run a football — Stricca routes the letters and shapes along real streets so your GPS trace draws a picture. Here’s how it works and where it shines.
Some runs are about the miles. Some are about the message. GPS art is when your route, traced by your watch, draws something — a name, a shape, a word for someone you love.
Stricca does it on real streets. Type "write EMMA" or "draw a heart" and the engine scans the street network around your pin, finds the best nearby placement where the letters or outline actually have road support, and routes each stroke through real corridors. The little jumps between letters are pen-lifts — the classic GPS-art look.
Why it's harder than it sounds
You can't just draw a heart on a map and call it a route. The streets have to support the shape — you need roads roughly where the lines need to go. So Stricca searches placements, scores each on how faithfully the streets trace the outline, and only keeps results that actually read. Gridded city centres render cleanest; curvy suburbs distort the letters (which is half the charm).
Where it shines
- Birthdays and milestones — run someone's age, or their name.
- Proposals — yes, people have run "MARRY ME".
- Team pride — a club name, or a shape for the occasion.
It's made for sharing, and it's the kind of run that gets a reaction. Pick a town with a decent street grid, give it a word of up to eight letters, and go draw something.