RunInk

How to Turn Your Strava Runs Into a Poster

Updated August 2026 · 5 min read

You've logged the miles — a marathon, a year of training, or every street of your city. Here are the three realistic ways to get those runs off your phone and onto a wall, with the honest trade-offs of each.

Single-run poster: a 102 km ultra route drawn in red on a cream map, with distance, time, pace, elevation and heart-rate stats Composite heat-map poster: 697 London runs layered in white on black, with combined distance and time stats
The two kinds of poster: one run with its stats (left) — or every run you've logged in a city, layered into one heat map (right, 697 runs).

Option 1: A connected editor (fastest)

The least-friction path is a tool that connects to Strava directly, so you never touch a GPX file. RunInk is built for exactly this:

  1. Connect Strava. One click — your runs, rides and hikes load straight into the editor.
  2. Pick a run — or all of them. A single race makes a classic route poster. Composite mode layers every run in a city into one heat-map artwork (separate guide here).
  3. Style it. Choose a theme, poster size, title and stats. The preview is exactly what prints — what you see is what you get.
  4. Export free, or order a print. The high-resolution file is free (delivered by email). Matte prints start at $32 (£24.99 in the UK) with shipping included; the 50 × 70 cm also comes framed.
The same run rendered in the Japanese Ink theme: red route on cream paper The same run rendered in the Blueprint theme: white route on architectural blue The same run rendered in the Neon theme: glowing route on dark ground
The same run, three of the themes — Japanese Ink, Blueprint, Neon. Switching is one click, so try them all before you print.
Design yours free

Print sizes and prices

SizePosterFramed
30 × 40 cm$32 · UK £24.99—
40 × 60 cm$42 · UK £32.99—
50 × 70 cm$49 · UK £39.99$139 (US/CA $209) · UK £99.99

All prints are matte; shipping to the US, Canada, the UK (printed in the UK, priced in pounds), Australia and most of Europe is included in the price. Designing and the HD export are free — you only pay if you want the physical print.

Option 2: DIY from a Strava export

If you want full creative control and don't mind the work:

  1. Export your activities from Strava (Settings → My Account → Download or Delete Your Account → Download Request gets you everything as GPX; single activities export from the activity page).
  2. Plot the routes with a tool like QGIS, or a script (Python + matplotlib/folium is the usual route).
  3. Design the poster at print resolution — 300 DPI at your target size — in Figma, Canva or Affinity.
  4. Send the PDF/PNG to a local print shop.

Budget an evening for the first attempt. The common failure mode is resolution: a screenshot of a map will look crisp on screen and muddy at 50 × 70 cm.

Option 3: Single-race print services

If you want one specific race commemorated and prefer to hand the design off entirely, several services specialise in single-route artwork from a GPX upload — TrackToPrint, RoutePrinter and Cadence Prints are established options, and VeloViewer goes deep on data visualisations (including 3D). They're a good fit for a "frame my marathon" gift; they're not built for the every-run-you've-done composite.

Which should you pick?

FAQ

Do I need to export GPX files?

Not with a connected editor — Strava authorisation loads your activities directly. GPX exports are only needed for the DIY route or upload-based services.

Is the free export print-quality?

RunInk's free export is a high-resolution file delivered by email — good enough to print yourself. The paid prints are rendered at 300 DPI and professionally printed on matte stock.

Does it work for rides and hikes too?

Yes — anything with a GPS track in Strava: runs, rides, hikes, walks.