The Epic Corporate Marathon of Strava, Cult-Favorite Fitness App

While running a half-marathon in Philadelphia a few years ago, Courtney Kitchen noticed another woman near her running roughly her pace: She seemed like she’d make a great training buddy. But there wasn’t an opportune moment for the pair to exchange phone numbers at the race, so later that day, Kitchen opened Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, and browsed through its Flyby feature, which allows users to see other athletes they’ve recently run near. Kitchen spotted her from her photo and pace, messaged her, and the pair began running together shortly thereafter.

“It turned out that we lived a town over from each other,” said Kitchen, 23. “It was during Covid, so we were both at home, and we started running together a lot of days of the week.”

Strava has 125 million users—athletes, from beginners to professionals, who are mostly runners and cyclists but could also be skiers, golfers, kite surfers or participants in a host of other sports. Many of them use Strava to track their progress privately, not engaging with any social capabilities. But others use Strava for its hallmark features—sharing routes and speeds with old friends, while also using the app to make new ones.