A running route, back to your start.

How it works

Start with a point on the map, use your device location when you ask for it, or enter latitude and longitude. There is no address search, so a home, hotel, park entrance, trailhead, or other map point is the natural starting place. Then choose your distance and, if useful, open the preferences for more footpaths, paved surfaces, or avoiding stairs recorded in the map.

The planner searches available pedestrian map data for several ways around the area. A loop is a route that returns close to its beginning; it is not a promise that every metre is pleasant, open, or suitable at the time you arrive. Compare the choices on the map and in the route cards, then inspect the crossing, access, surface, and elevation notes before you set out.

Distances and route details

The distance you choose is a target. Generated routes can be up to 10% shorter or longer, and never more than 1 km off, when the surrounding paths do not produce an exact match; a route more than 5% or 500 m off says so. Distances can be shown in kilometres or miles. The distance is the loop itself. The starting point may snap to a usable path up to 100 metres from your pin. The displayed start offset is a connector warning; that connection is not included in the route distance.

Footpaths, paved preferences, stairs, major-road crossing checks, and elevation come from available map and terrain data. Unknown is meaningful: an unavailable elevation or unmapped stair value is not treated as zero. Map snapshots can be old or incomplete, and a crossing check cannot establish access or safety.

Using a GPX

Download the selected loop and open it in a running watch, phone app, or other GPX-capable device. Support varies: some devices need a particular folder, app import, account sync, or conversion step. Test the file before relying on it.

Without a watch, open the loop on your phone (the share box’s QR code moves it from a computer) and choose “Show my position”: the map shows where you are, arrows show which way round the loop runs, and the screen stays on while the page is open. Your position stays on your phone. Runnersway does not give turn-by-turn directions or warn you when you leave the route, and it cannot guarantee that a device displays every path correctly.

Computer-generated routes are unverified. Check gates, crossings, private land, construction, weather, daylight, and current local conditions yourself. A map line is an invitation to investigate, not field inspection.

Coverage and map data

Map data comes from a weekly OpenStreetMap snapshot kept on our own server and prepared in advance, so a search usually takes a few seconds wherever you start. Sometimes the map for a part of the world has to be opened first, which adds a few seconds more. Coverage can be limited in polar regions, near the date line, or wherever the available pedestrian network is sparse. If a search cannot produce a useful loop, move the start or try another distance and preference.

Routes use OpenStreetMap-derived map data and terrain estimates. The planner is for discovering running loops, not for maintaining an athletics-track directory or certifying measured race courses. Check the map snapshot date and local conditions before running.

Terrain data

Estimated climbing comes from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM, 3 arc-second), kept on our own server. Where that copy has a gap, the same grid is taken from the Terrain Tiles open dataset on AWS, which combines SRTM with national elevation data. North of 60° or south of 56° there is no SRTM coverage, and climbing is shown as unknown rather than flat.

Terrain Tiles sources ask for this attribution:

• ArcticDEM terrain data DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under National Science Foundation awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736;
• Australia terrain data © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017;
• Austria terrain data © offene Daten Österreichs – Digitales Geländemodell (DGM) Österreich;
• Canada terrain data contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada;
• Europe terrain data produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union - EU-DEM layers;
• Global ETOPO1 terrain data U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
• Mexico terrain data source: INEGI, Continental relief, 2016;
• New Zealand terrain data Copyright 2011 Crown copyright (c) Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Government (All rights reserved);
• Norway terrain data © Kartverket;
• United Kingdom terrain data © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved;
• United States 3DEP (formerly NED) and global GMTED2010 and SRTM terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Looking for running tracks near you?

If you mean an athletics track for laps or interval training, Runnersway does not list track facilities, public opening hours, or entry fees. Check the facility operator for current access; a track shown on a map may belong to a school or club.

If you mean nearby paths for a run, choose your starting point in the route planner and choose your distance. Open Run preferences and choose “More footpaths” to favor mapped paths. This is a preference, not a guarantee of a traffic-free route, a particular surface, or public access. Compare the options and check local conditions before setting out.

The engine behind TTDI’s running routes

Runnersway powers more than this planner. It is the engine that generates running routes for Things to Do In (TTDI), a travel guide that helps you explore a destination and plan your stay.

The same route-generation engine you use here helps TTDI connect hotel choices with runs from their door. Its city running guides bring together route maps, distance and crossing information, and downloadable GPX files, so you can look at the run as well as the room.

These routes are computer-generated too. Check access, crossings and current conditions before heading out.

Your data

If you choose “Use my location,” the browser asks for GPS permission. Runnersway does not request GPS automatically. A precise pin selected on the map or entered in the form is sent to the Runnersway service to generate a route. Map and terrain data come from copies kept on our own server, so your starting point is not sent to a map-data provider. Only if the map copy were unavailable would a rounded area, never your precise pin, be requested from a public Overpass API server.

Before you choose a start, the map may show an approximate area based on an IP location hint when available. The browser map loads OpenStreetMap tiles. Runnersway also currently loads Google Analytics automatically to understand product use; its events are intended to describe actions and aggregate choices, not route coordinates. Read our privacy policy for details, including potential commercial uses of anonymized data.

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