Course Studio

Open Course Studio

From your event's director dashboard, click Course Studio in the sidebar (under Event page). You get a full map editor with your sub-events ready to draw, plus side panels for course checks, elevation, GPX, and map settings.

Drawing a route

1. Pick the distance you're drawing

   The dropdown at the top lists every sub-event (5K, 10K, …). Each one gets its own route; aid stations and markers are shared across all of them.

2. Tap the map to drop points

   In Snap mode (the default), each new segment follows roads and trails automatically. Switch to Manual for straight lines, cross-country stretches, track laps, anywhere the road network is wrong. The mode applies per segment, so you can mix both in one course.

3. Refine

   Drag any point to move it (the route re-snaps around it). Click on the line to insert a point mid-segment. Click a point to delete it or flip that segment between snap and straight.

4. Close the loop

   If your start and finish are the same spot, hit Close loop (or press L) and the route snaps back to the start.

5. Save

   The Save button shows how many things changed. Pick what to publish, anything unchecked stays as local work-in-progress on your device.

Already have the course as a GPX?

Click Import in the GPX panel and pick a file exported from Strava, Garmin Connect, RideWithGPS, or any mapping tool. The track replaces the active route exactly as recorded, no re-snapping. If the file carries elevation, Run This trusts it as-is (the same numbers you saw in Strava); the moment you edit the route, elevation is recomputed from terrain data. Export goes the other way, and if you turn on GPX downloads (Edit event → Event page map, off by default), athletes get the course straight from your event page, on the web and in the app.

On a laptop that is a file download. In the Run This app it opens the phone's share sheet instead, so athletes can send the course to Garmin Connect or COROS in one tap and sync it to their watch without touching a computer.

A route image for social posts and flyers

Click Image in Course Studio's header to download your course as a PNG with no map behind it, just the route lines. The big preview is the exact file you'll get, and it redraws as you change anything. It uses the routes as they are in the builder right now, so you don't have to save first.

Check one route or several (each gets its own color, and you can pick any color for each one). Drag Thickness to make the lines bolder and Smoothing to round off choppy corners (great for trail courses; it changes only the image, never your course), turn on an Outline (with its own thickness and color) so the course stands out on a busy photo, and add Start and finish dots. The background is transparent unless you switch on Solid background. Sizes: Fit to route (shaped like the course), Square (1080 by 1080), Story (1080 by 1920) and Wide (1920 by 1080). Every file is saved at double those sizes, so it stays sharp in print.

Switch the popup to Video to download the course drawing itself, with the same look. Pick how long it takes to draw (5, 10 or 15 seconds); the finished course then holds on screen for a moment. If you check several routes, they all draw at the same time. Download MP4 is the one for Instagram Reels and Stories, Facebook, TikTok and texting (Story is the right size for Reels). An MP4 can't have a see-through background, so it uses your background color, or white if Solid background is off. Download GIF keeps the background see-through, so it is the one to drop onto a Canva design (Canva turns see-through video black). GIFs are smaller on screen and their edges are a little rougher, which is normal for the format. Both are made right in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Markers

Switch to Markers mode and pick a kind, then click the map. Twelve kinds: aid station, bathroom, parking, medical, checkpoint, road closure, packet pickup, spectator point, cutoff time, crew access, DNF/SAG, and photographer, plus a generic marker. Each takes an optional name and notes; athletes see both in the marker's popup on the event page.

Course checks

The checks panel watches your work and flags common issues: no aid stations on a 3+ mile course, the first or last aid station more than 4 miles from the start or finish, big gaps between stations, and a start/finish that's almost a loop (want to close it?). Checks are advisory, nothing blocks saving.

Publishing to your event page

Which courses athletes see

Chosen per route, on the Edit event page's Event page map card. Every distance and every other route gets its own Shown/Hidden toggle, so you can publish the 10K and hold the 5K back. That card also tells you exactly what your event page will show.

Default style for athletes

Which of the seven map styles (Terrain, Blueprint, Satellite, Outdoors, Light, Dark, Monochrome) the viewer opens with. Athletes can switch styles themselves.

Elevation profile on event page

On by default. Turn it off for pancake-flat courses where the chart adds nothing, the map, markers, and playback stay.

Let viewers download routes as GPX files

Off by default. On the Edit event page's Event page map card. When on, every displayed course gets a Download GPX button so athletes can load it into a watch or app.

Other routes

Reference routes that aren't a race distance, a parking-to-start walk, shuttle path, or expo loop. Athletes find them in the course picker under “Also on the map.”

Embedding on your own website

Click Embed in Course Studio's header to copy an iframe snippet for your race's own website. Visitors get the same interactive map (routes, markers, styles, elevation, playback) with a small “Powered by Run This” mark linking back to your event page. The snippet's URL accepts a few options: sub_event opens a specific distance, style picks the starting map style, and play=1 auto-runs the course animation on load.

The embed shows exactly the courses your event page shows. Hide a route on the Event page map card and it disappears from both, show it and it appears in both. There is nothing separate to switch on for the embed.

The Terrain style

Terrain shows your course on satellite imagery with the ground built from real elevation data, tilted so athletes can see the hills and valleys they will be running. It is the first style in the picker, and you set it as your default the same way as any other, on the Event page map card.

It is worth choosing for anything with climbing in it. On a trail or mountain course, a flat map cannot answer “how hard is this?” and Terrain can. Run the course preview with it on and the camera follows the route in 3D.

How much the ground is stretched depends on your course. A mountain course is already dramatic and is shown close to true scale, while a rolling or flat course is stretched further so its shape still reads. The distance, elevation gain, and the elevation chart beside the map always show your real figures.

Two things to know. Terrain needs a browser that can draw 3D graphics, and anywhere that cannot, the map falls back to a flat view of the same imagery rather than failing. In the Run This app, courses currently show in the flat map styles.

What athletes get

• The course line with mile markers and direction arrows, in any of the seven map styles.
• A picker to flip between distances, plus an Overview that shows every course at once in distinct colors.
• Your markers, tap any for its name and notes.
• A map that stays with the race: athletes can pan around your courses and markers with room to spare, but not off to the other side of the world. A marker placed a little way from the course keeps the map area wide enough to include it.
• An elevation profile with total gain/loss; hovering it highlights the matching spot on the map.
• Playback: a dot runs the course at 0.5×–4× speed with live distance and grade readouts, mile markers and aid stations pulse as it passes them, and crossing the finish throws a little confetti.
• Click anywhere on the elevation profile and the map flies to that exact spot on the course.
• Share links that remember the selected distance and map style, plus fullscreen.