NYC Marathon runners create art by ‘drawing’ while they run

They’re making art on the run.

New Yorkers are combatting the drudgery of marathon conditioning — or simply keeping fit — by using some of their training trots to draw numbers, letters and icons with their routes on the popular app Strava, which tracks and shares routes for runners, walkers, hikers and bikers.

The hashtag #StravaArt has 3 million views on TikTok and nearly 30,000 posts on Instagram, while Insta accounts dedicated to the conceit, such as @strav.art, attract tens of thousands of views.

Sammy Attia, a 26-year-old running the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday, told The Post. “It’s a silly way to add something to your runs, to have a goal that isn’t just about how many miles I want to do or how fast I want to run.”

For one of her training sessions, Attia, who works as a tech recruiter, took a convoluted route that her Strava artist friend, Lewis Dixon, 30, initially created.

She started in midtown East, running one block north and then one block south on Madison Avenue before heading east on 53rd Street. In Lenox Hill she zigzagged up one block, over another, before repeating the same pattern a little farther south. She made it all the way up to 90th street and Madison Avenue where she abruptly ended her run, one block away from Central Park. 

The crazy, 8.6-mile workout ultimately drew “I HEART NY” — but it wasn’t easy.

“It was very very chaotic, because you couldn’t make a wrong turn or cross the road in the wrong place,” said Attia, who has also done a lighting bolt route around Times Square and a “30” in Midtown East for a friend’s birthday.