How to draw pictures for Christmas while running with a GPS tracker
An Englishman, keen on running, used a GPS tracker of physical activity in order to draw Christmas pictures on a map. Owen Delaney, 40, ran Santa Claus, snowflake and Christmas tree using the Strava running app, which marks routes using GPS. The resulting images can be shared with other users.
The man started making drawings running when he realized that Diana's fountain in Bushy Park near his home in Teddington in South-West London is a great nose for Rudolph the deer. Owen spent hours planning each run, some of which took several more hours.
The father of two children has been running for 12 years. "I started making drawings for fun, really. The idea first came to mind a couple of years ago when I was doing something similar for an online contest," says the runner.
"I had no plans to continue after the first picture, but some of my friends liked it, so the next day I made a drawing of Santa Claus, and then I thought that I should do something new every day until Christmas. In my youth, I did a lot of comics and sometimes hand-painted Christmas cards. It seems to me that this is a similar theme, but I never imagined that I would be able to use a park instead of a canvas. Technology has opened up new fun ways of creativity."
Owen Delaney posted his drawings on the Internet and received a positive reaction from thousands of people. "I was just shocked by the attention that all this attracted. And that's fine, everyone seems to like it. I got a lot of nice comments from different people. That's what motivates me to continue. We all need something simple and joyful this year, it seems to me," says a fan of running.
The longest run was Santa Claus (11.4 km), and the shortest was the Christmas ball (1.9 km). "I like that it makes people smile. Although my children are a little confused by all this. I show them pictures after I finish my run, and they just look at me with strange eyes, as if I've gone off the rails. The kids are very smart."