RunFlex
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RunFlex

Describe a run. Discover a route. RunFlex.

 
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The difference

Everyone else hands you someone else's route.

Every other running app

Drag a line vertex by vertex, or run a loop some stranger saved in 2016.

RunFlex

Ask for woods, water, hills or flat, and that's what the route has.

Side by side

What nobody else does. And everything they do.

The difference is how the route gets made. It still takes you from one postcode to another, or round a loop of the distance you want.

What RunFlex does compared with other running route apps
Other running
route appsOther
apps		 RunFlex
Only in RunFlex
Describe the run, get a route drawn to fitWoods, water, hills or flat, in your own words. No Yes
Plan a route with your voiceSay the run you want and it draws it. Change it or accept it out loud, even mid-run. No Yes
Shows why it picked that routeThe weather, the light, and the loops it scored and dropped. No Yes
Suggests a run from today’s conditionsThe light left, the weather and how rested you are, before you’ve typed a word. No Yes
Keeps to streets it can confirm are lit1And tells you when it can’t. No Yes
Learns your pace and plans to your timeIt learns how you run, so “home by six” means home by six at your pace, not an average runner’s. No Yes
Builds the run around places you pickTake in a landmark on the way, or finish at a park, a friend’s door or your favourite coffee shop. No Yes
A playlist made for your routeTracks timed to what you’re passing, so the water song lands as you reach the canal. No Coming Soon
Change it in words“Make it flatter.” “Add two kilometres.” No Yes
The basics
From one postcode to another Yes Yes
From one street to another Yes Yes
Choose your distance, route type and surfaceLoop, out and back or one way. Road or trail. Yes Yes
See the distance and climb before you set off Yes Yes
Turn-by-turn on Apple Watch Some apps Yes

1Lighting comes from open map data, plus official street-lamp records in some areas. A routing preference, not a safety guarantee.

No black box

It shows its working.

Open a route and you can see why it picked that one. What the weather was doing, which way you've been running too often, and which of the dozen loops it scored and dropped.

  • Checks the light, the wind and how rested you are
  • Knows the streets you keep repeating
  • Scores a dozen loops before it offers you one
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Coach · drafting
Reasoning 0/5
    Draft · 78% confident ETA · 38 min

    Camden Lock → Primrose Hill loop

    Mostly towpath. Light hits the hill at 18:18 and you'll be there at 18:21.

    After dark

    It routes you down the lit streets.

    It reads the streets recorded as lit, and as unlit, in open map data, and in thirty-one areas it checks them against official street-lamp records too.

    Northern Ireland Hampshire Hertfordshire Leeds Boston San Francisco more rolling out

    This is a routing preference and not a safety guarantee. If we can't confirm the lighting on a road, we'll tell you.

    One ask, a hand of routes

    Swipe till one looks right.

    Each one comes back as a card with the distance, the climb and what it runs through. Swipe through and take whichever you fancy.

    That's one city's hand. See the running routes it drew in other towns and cities, nine apiece.

    220FT

    Ashley Rd

    0.8mi done

    8:38time

    Pulses show the taps you'd feel on your wrist

    On your wrist

    Take the phone. Or don't.

    Send the route across before you head out and the watch runs it on its own GPS, turn by turn, whether the phone's in your pocket or on the kitchen table.

    • The next turn stays at the top of the screen, counting down as you get close
    • A tap as a turn comes up, another as you close in, and a stronger one on the turn itself
    • Wander off the route and it tells you which way to get back on
    • Finishes on the watch, syncs to your phone when you're back

    Apple Watch optional · Draft on the phone, run on either

    Get early access

    Just ask

    Ask for the run out loud. Change your mind halfway round and say so.

    A word when you finish

    A few lines about the run you did, written from your route and your splits.

    Everything you've run

    The route, the pace and the line you traced, back to your first one.

    It adds up

    Streaks, personal bests and the weeks behind you. Nothing that tells you off for a quiet week.

    Before you ask

    The short answers.

    What is RunFlex?

    A running route planner that draws the route you describe. Ask for woods, water, hills, flat, well-lit streets or a time you want to be back by, and it plans a real route on real streets rather than handing you one somebody else saved.

    How is it different from the running apps I already have?

    Those are built around routes that already exist: a heatmap, a stranger's saved loop, or a blank map and a line for you to drag. RunFlex starts from what you want out of the run, draws the route to match, and shows you why it picked that one over the dozen others it scored.

    How does it know which streets are lit?

    Mostly from open map data, where streets are recorded as lit or unlit, matched to the roads you would be running. In thirty-one areas it also has official street-lamp records — Northern Ireland, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Leeds among them — which confirm streets the map leaves unrecorded. It is a routing preference and not a safety guarantee, and where the lighting can't be confirmed it tells you so.

    Do I have to take my phone?

    No. Send the route across before you head out and an Apple Watch runs it on its own GPS, turn by turn. The next turn stays at the top of the screen and counts down as you get close. You get a tap as it comes up, another as you close in and a stronger one on the turn itself, and the run syncs back to your phone when you're home.

    Where does it work?

    Routes are drawn on real streets from open map data, so anywhere the streets are mapped. How much lighting has been recorded varies from place to place, and official street-lamp records are being added area by area, which is why the form asks where you run: that list is what decides which city gets built next. Fifteen towns and cities are written up in full, nine routes each with distance, climb and surface measured: running routes, town by town.

    When can I use it, and what does it cost?

    It is still being built, and it is free while it is. Join the launch list and you'll hear when RunFlex reaches your city, and what has been added in the meantime.

    Join the launch list

    What happens to my data?

    No ads inside the app, no third-party advertising or tracking SDKs in it, no data brokers, and nothing sold. Your runs and your location are used to run the app for you and nothing else. The launch page is the one exception and its analytics are opt-in: decline the banner and none of them load.

    Read the privacy policy

    Rob running through a field at the Chiltern Hills 100k
    Chiltern Hills 100k, April 2025

    Why this exists

    I wanted the freedom to run any route I could think of.

    I'm Rob. I've been running marathons and ultras for over 20 years, mostly around London, and I kept hitting the same wall. I'd know exactly what I wanted from a run, somewhere green and back before dark, and no app could give it to me. They'd hand me a stranger's loop, or a blank map and a line to drag.

    So I started building the one I wanted. Tell RunFlex the run and it draws it on real streets, with the woods you asked for and the light you'll have by the time you get there. You'll find routes you never knew were there, even if you've been going round the same neighbourhood for years.

    It's early and it's mostly just me, which is why the list matters. Tell me where you run and I'll build your city next.

    @runflexroutes Rob Gotlieb on LinkedIn

    Launching soon

    Come and build it with me.

    It's one runner and a laptop at the moment. Tell me where you run and I'll let you know when RunFlex gets to you, and what I'm building in the meantime.

    @runflexroutes