{"id":9502,"date":"2016-12-22T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/12\/22\/dancer-prancer-runner-and-artist-holiday-cheer-courtesy-of-gps\/"},"modified":"2016-12-22T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T21:40:00","slug":"dancer-prancer-runner-and-artist-holiday-cheer-courtesy-of-gps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/dancer-prancer-runner-and-artist-holiday-cheer-courtesy-of-gps\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancer, Prancer, Runner \u2014 And Artist? Holiday Cheer, Courtesy Of GPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Dwyer<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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Jolly old Santa himself. Unpictured: the sweat, pain and \u2014 possibly? \u2014 tears that went into tracing his form on the map. Owen Delaney\/Courtesy of Strava<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Owen Delaney\/Courtesy of Strava<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The plan began with an idle thought.<\/p>\n

Glancing at a map earlier this month, Owen Delaney<\/a> realized something funny: Seen from above, the Diana Fountain in London’s Bushy Park bears a striking resemblance to the bulbous nose of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer \u2014 at least, it would if that famous nose of his were blue. At any rate, that fountain-nose would look better if seen in the context of a full face.<\/p>\n

So, Delaney decided to do it himself.<\/p>\n

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The run that started it all: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Well, make that a blue nose \u2014 for the Diana Fountain in London’s Bushy Park. Owen Delaney\/Courtesy of Strava<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Owen Delaney\/Courtesy of Strava<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Using Strava<\/a>, a social network that allows athletes to track and share the routes of their workouts, he traced the path of his run through Bushy Park using GPS. The result was a squiggly (and probably sweaty) take on a favorite holiday character, seen from a bird’s-eye view.<\/p>\n

Then, Delaney kept going. He tried to sketch Santa Claus the next day \u2014 an illustration that required a little off-road running.<\/p>\n

“That was the toughest one,” Delaney says. “Trying to run [Santa’s] eyes and eyebrows through knee deep bracken, in the dark, it was very unforgiving on the legs! Then I thought, ‘Why not try and come up with something different every day until Christmas?’ “<\/p>\n

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