Making a solo run feel like a race

Most running apps are trackers. They are great at telling you what you did, and quiet while you are doing it. RoadRacers asked a different question: what if a run felt like a race?

A race you can see

Join a live race and everyone appears on one map, their positions updating as they run. You always know who is ahead and by how much, which is the part of racing a tracker can’t give you.

Every finish lands on a leaderboard with the times, so the run ends with a result rather than just a distance.

Trackers record the run. A race gives it a finish line.

A reason to come back tomorrow

• XP for every race, and divisions to climb from Rookie Bronze up
• A feed of real runs with the route, pace and photos
• Profiles that show races, posts and division at a glance
• Notifications when friends start a race or beat your time

A mascot with a job

We drew a panther mascot and the race art around it, so the app feels like a game rather than a spreadsheet of splits. It celebrates every finish, and runners can customise their own.

One build, three surfaces

RoadRacers ships as an iOS and Android app, an API, and a website for invitations and administration. The live races run over real-time connections, maps come from Mapbox, subscriptions run through RevenueCat, and race narration uses ElevenLabs.

Before release, we audited the app against the App Store guidelines and kept a record of every control, so the launch did not stall in review.

What shipped

• iOS and Android app
• Live races and leaderboards
• Feed, profiles and divisions
• Panther mascot and race art
• Marketing and admin website