Why I run with Strava
By: Julia Winder
I haven’t always been a runner. I grew up swimming, did crew in college, and always had a team around me supporting my athletic endeavors. After a bad ski accident and a few knee surgeries, I signed up for a half marathon as a way to prove to myself that I could fully recover and get back to the sports I loved. After not being able to run for a year, every single mile was rewarding. It only took that one race, and I was hooked on running. Since then, running and races have become part of my everyday life in San Francisco. I found a new athletic outlet but missed the community and camaraderie of team sports.
That is until I started running with Strava. My use of Strava started off just as a utility, a tool to track my runs and bike rides. But it’s become much more than that for me — I found a team again. As I started recording more and more runs, I discovered a whole community of runners and bikers — each striving for something unique. The ability to measure my progress and improvement is empowering as I set new goals, but knowing I have an entire community behind me only fuels my drive further.
After a long run, my favorite thing to do is to post an update to my Strava feed. It is rewarding to see the kudos roll in and to see how hard I pushed myself. The community aspect of Strava is paramount to the experience — I love having a place to relive my last adventure, give kudos to a friend who just crushed a run, and plan my next activity. Most of all, it’s awesome to be connected with millions of athletes around the world that are doing the same runs and adventures that I love to do.
I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside the Strava team over the past year, and it’s been the ultimate dream of combining my professional and personal lives. Over the past few months, we’ve been brainstorming and iterating on the maps. We were working to find the perfect balance of design and performance with athletes at the forefront of every decision.
Since the new maps launched, it’s been incredible to watch Strava activities come to life. It’s so much more than a line on a map. The updates now tell the full story of each athlete’s endeavor. For example, I hiked the Grand Canyon last year, and when I posted it at the time, I was proud of my accomplishment. But with the new maps, looking at that route brings me right back to what it felt like to be on that trail. The level of detail and granularity, especially around terrain, adds context that wasn’t there before and paints a picture of how I pushed myself.
The increased terrain shading, elevation markers, and minimalist design allow the signature Strava orange line to shine through, detailing the incredible place that is the Grand Canyon.
Why do you run with Strava? Follow me on Strava to let me know, and update your Strava app or download it for iOS and Android to see your routes on the map.
