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. The map fills the screen, and the bar above it (your race, the live distance, Undo and Save) stays in view as you scroll.

A line at the top of the map always says what to do next: where to click first, how to end a course, and when the line has overshot a turn (with a button that fixes it).

Everything else is in sections beside the map: Start and finish, Course checks, Elevation, GPX file and Map settings. Click a section's heading to open or close it. On a tablet or phone the sections sit under the map, and a row of buttons just below the map jumps to each one. The drawing tools are behind a Tools button there, so they do not cover the map.

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. As you draw, the bar shows the distance so far beside the race's official distance, and how far there is to go. Drawing never changes the official distance.

2. Tap the map to drop points

   In Snap mode (the default), each new segment follows roads and trails automatically, and each point you click lands on the nearest road or trail the map knows. Switch to Manual for straight lines, cross-country stretches, track laps, anywhere the road network is wrong or a trail is missing from the map. A Manual point stays exactly where you click. The mode applies per segment, so you can mix both in one course. If Snap finds no road or trail between two clicks it draws a straight line and tells you so.

3. Refine

   Drag any point to move it (the route re-snaps around it). To add a point in the middle of a line, hover the line and drag the small dot that appears (or right-click the line; on a phone, press and hold it). Click a point to delete it or flip that segment between snap and straight.

4. Overshot a turn?

   A click a little past a corner sends the line past it and straight back. Course checks spots these and says how far the overshoot is. Show me takes you there, and Trim it moves that point back to the corner. The same two buttons show in the line at the top of the map.

5. Running a road twice

   A click always continues the course from where it ends, even on a road it already uses. So for a stretch you run again, just keep clicking along it.

6. 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.

7. Out and back? Go back the same way

   Draw the way out, then click Back the same way. The course returns to the start along its own line. The way back stays linked to the way out, so if you move a point on the way out later, the way back moves with it. A stretch that is run both ways shows arrows in both directions, each on its own side of the line.

8. Read the mile markers

   Each mile has a small dot on the course and a label set off to one side, so the label never hides the line. Zoomed out on a long course you see every second or fifth mile; zoom in and they all come back.

9. Save

   The Save button shows how many things changed. Pick what to publish, anything unchecked stays as local work-in-progress on your device. In an event that uses a shared Start and Finish (below), every changed course is saved together instead, so they always line up.

A shared Start and Finish

Most events have one start line and one finish line, whatever the distance. In Course Studio they are spots that belong to the whole event, shown on the map as a small round dot: checkered for a finish (or a start and finish in one place), green for a start on its own. Every race that uses a spot starts or finishes on exactly the same place, and the label beside the dot names the races that use it.

1. Draw your first race

   Its first point becomes the event's Start. When you reach the end, click Finish here, or Close loop if it ends where it began (the spot then reads Start and finish). A race you never finish gets a Finish spot where its line ends when you save.

2. Draw the next race

   Pick it in the dropdown and click the map. It begins at the same Start automatically, and your click becomes its second point. A course that comes back through its own Start (two loops from one start) can click the Start dot to pass through it; choose Close loop to end there instead.

3. Give a race its own start or finish

   In the Start and finish panel, use Starts at and Finishes at. Choose another spot, or A new spot for a race with its own line, like a kids' dash that starts up the road. For a race you have not drawn yet, the line at the top of the map has the same choice as a button: Start somewhere else. Your first click then places that race's own start.

4. Move, turn, rename

   Drag a dot to move it: every race that uses it moves with it. Click a dot to rename it. A Start or Finish you make while drawing in Snap sits on the road, not beside it. A spot can be deleted once no race uses it.

If your courses were drawn before spots existed, the panel shows a Set up Start and Finish button instead. It places the spots for you: starts within 30 meters of each other share one Start, and the same for finishes. It is one step you can undo, and nothing is saved until you press Save. Until you set it up, your courses stay exactly as they are.

Races that share a road or trail

When a 5K runs the first mile of the 10K, draw that mile once. Follow copies part of another race's course exactly, so the two lines sit on top of each other instead of wobbling side by side, and it keeps them linked.

1. Turn on Follow

   It sits next to Snap and Manual once there is a course to follow (or press F). The other courses step forward on the map, and a box beside the map explains Follow and walks you through its three steps. Hide the box with Got it, hide this (Follow stays on); What is this? brings it back.

2. Click where your race joins the other course

   If your race is already on that course, for example at a shared Start, this click is done for you.

3. Click where it leaves

   Move along the other course and a green line shows the stretch you are about to follow. It works in either direction. Click near that course's start, finish or a spot's dot to land exactly on it. Stopping on a Finish dot finishes your race there.

4. Carry on

   Follow another stretch, or switch back to Snap or Manual for the part that is your race's own.

• A followed stretch has a thin green line down its middle.
• Change the course being followed and every race that follows it updates in the same step. Course Studio tells you which ones.
• The points where a followed stretch begins and ends are green. Drag one along the course it follows and it slides. Drag it off that course and your race goes its own way there, while everything else stays attached. At a turnaround, the race runs out to where you dropped the point and comes back the same way (for a mile that turns a little past the 5K's turn). Delete that new point to take it back.
• You can also pull the middle of a followed stretch off its course: hover the line, drag the small dot away, and the race makes a short detour through that spot. The two green points either side slide to set where it leaves and rejoins.
• The other races show faintly while you draw, in the colors listed at the corner of the map. Hide them with Other races in Map settings.

Follow also works on a race's own course. When a race runs the same stretch twice, turn on Follow, click your own line where the repeat starts, then where it ends. The second pass sits exactly on the first and stays linked to it.

With two or more courses, the Start and finish panel also has a Main course picker. It starts as your longest race. It is the course the other races line up with, and the course Follow picks when your race is standing on more than one.

Courses that were drawn separately

Each race's course is its own drawing. Two races recorded on the same trail on different days never quite match: zoom in and you see two lines wandering beside each other, and two starts a few steps apart. Line up courses fixes that without redrawing anything. Where two courses run the same road or trail, it puts the second exactly on top of the first and keeps them attached, the same as if you had drawn it with Follow. A stretch one race runs twice (an out and back, a second lap) becomes one line.

• It does not change where a race goes. Roads and trails that only one race uses are left exactly as they are.
• Use it for courses that were drawn or imported separately: an event from before shared courses, or a file you just imported next to a course that was already there.
• You do not need it for races you draw from a shared Start with Follow. Those are already on one line.

1. Open the preview

   When Course Studio spots courses that share a road or trail, it says so under Course checks, with a Line them up link. With two or more courses drawn, Line up courses is always there too.

2. Look before anything changes

   The map shows every course as it would be: green where it follows a course, its own color where the line is its own, and a dashed line where it is drawn now. Switch between As it is now and Lined up, and zoom in on the start, the finish and the junctions. Click a race in the list to bring it into view.

3. Tune it

   Untick a race to leave it exactly as it is drawn. The slider sets how close two lines must be to count as the same road or trail. Raise it for a wobbly GPS recording. Lower it when two different trails run side by side.

4. Line them up, then Save

   It is one step, so one Undo takes it all back, and nothing reaches your event until you press Save.

• Each race shows its distance on the map before and after. A wobbly recording usually gets a little shorter. Your official race distance never changes.
• The main course stays put and the other races move onto it. Pick a different Main course in the Start and finish panel first if the shorter race has the better line.
• In an event that has no shared Start and Finish yet, lining up sets that up too: starts or finishes within 30 meters of each other share one spot.

Changing one section

Change a section (in the tools on the map) works on one stretch of a course and leaves the rest alone. A box on the map walks you through it. Click the course where the stretch starts, then where it ends. It lights up between a green handle and a red one; drag either handle along the course to adjust. Then pick what to do in the box. Cancel closes it and changes nothing.

• Redraw it takes that stretch out and joins the two ends in the mode you are drawing in (Snap or Manual). Then click the map to shape the new stretch; each click goes in before the red ring, where it rejoins the course. Press Done when it looks right. It is the quick way to fix a bad patch in an imported recording.
• Keep its own line here is for the places where two races really are different: the mile turns at a cone 30 meters before the 5K does, or the kids' dash uses the left side of the finish chute. That stretch stops following the other course, keeps the line exactly as it is drawn, and is left alone the next time you line up courses.
• Let it line up again undoes that for the stretch you pick, and opens the preview so you can see the result first.

Already have the course as a GPX?

Open the GPX file section, click Import, 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 that race already has a course drawn, Course Studio asks first, and Undo brings the drawn line back). Markers in the file become map markers, except ones already on the map: a file you exported from Course Studio can come back in without doubling every aid station. If the file carries elevation, Run This trusts it (the same numbers you saw in Strava) and keeps it wherever the course stays on the recorded line. A course that leaves the recording for more than a short stretch is measured from terrain data instead. In an event with a shared Start and Finish, an imported course whose ends land within 30 meters of a spot joins it.

When the file runs along a course that is already drawn, Course Studio offers the same preview as Line up courses, for the race you just imported. If the watch was started a little late, the gap back to the shared Start is filled in along the other course. Choose Keep the file's line to leave the recording exactly as it is. If the file is now the longest course, it becomes the main course and the other races are offered to line up with its recorded line, each with its own checkbox: untick a race to keep the line you drew for it, or pick a different main course in the Start and finish section first. A race that runs its whole length along recorded courses takes their recorded elevation; a race with a road or trail of its own is measured 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 Course checks section watches your work and flags common issues: a turn the line overshoots and doubles back from, 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, a start/finish that's almost a loop (want to close it?), and courses that share a road or trail but are drawn as separate lines. 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.

Races on the same road

In Course Studio's Map settings, once two or more courses are drawn. When athletes look at all your courses at once, races that share a road or trail are drawn side by side so the shorter race is not hidden under the longer one. The same choice shapes the still course picture (Files, Insert then Course map, and the course map block in emails) and the course underneath a Files map. Choose On one line to stack them instead.

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 direction arrows (in both directions on an out and back) and mile markers set beside the line, in any of the seven map styles.
• A picker to flip between distances, plus an all-courses view that shows every course at once in distinct colors, with a key listing each one's distance and climb. Races that share a road run side by side there.
• A green dot where a course starts and a checkered dot where it finishes.
• Your markers, tap any for its name and notes. Markers that sit on top of each other show as one pin with a count; a tap lists what is there.
• 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 five speeds with live distance and grade readouts. The camera moves in close and follows, the part already run turns green, and mile markers and aid stations pulse as the dot passes them. Athletes can pause and resume, stop, or click the elevation profile to jump the dot to that spot. Crossing the finish throws a little confetti.
• When nothing is playing, 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.