Kiwi ultrarunner Peter Mitchell has turned Melbourne’s streets and parks into his own personal Strava sketchpad–and his latest niche is oddly specific: foot-shaped running routes.
In the past month alone, Mitchell–better known on Strava as “Peter GPS Artist”–has mapped out seven foot-shaped GPS routes (all completed on foot, pun intended) and shared them to his Strava page. His latest creation is a three-kilometre foot, bunion included.
All of these recent runs took place at Melbourne’s Fred Smith Reserve–and they’re ultrarunner-friendly, complete with the imperfections found on real, beat-up feet. Another three-kilometre route, for instance, depicts a foot with a black second toenail, aptly named “Black-Toenailed Runners Foot.” The series even features a three-part GPS “animation” of wiggling toes.
Last week, for his 51st birthday, Mitchell ran 51 km while mapping out a set of footprints, hopping over fences and running through hospital lobbies to get the lines perfect. “Still leaving digital footprints a year on from my epic 50th birthday ultra,” he wrote, a nod to the 169-km, 20-hour “Running the World” project he completed last year, outlining a massive world map across Melbourne.
From a spinning globe for Earth Day to a viral “hyperpigmentation” meme, Mitchell will turn just about anything into a Strava GPS masterpiece. His creative routes have earned him a loyal following, with more than 7,000 fans on Strava and 4,500 on Instagram.
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