Disclaimer: I received a premium subscription to RunGo to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), new applicants start Nov 1st! and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! All opinions are my own.
I am a big fan of technology and apps but usually not the first to be aware of them unless I have had some time to sit down and read about them or learn from a friend. Before I received the opportunity to try RunGo I had an experience where I was in Florida trying to find a route to get 10 miles in safely. I was in a neighborhood I am not familiar with and no running friends in the area. I tried my friend Google to find routes which resulted in 2 hours before I put a call out to Twitter to help me. If I only had the app at that time I might not have resorted to the treadmill at the hotel for all those miles.
So what is RunGo? It is a free app (available on both Apple and Android devices) that allows you to quickly create running routes on your phone, tablet or desktop and run those routes offline.
Features
My favorite is the turn by turn directions without having to look at your phone or appear to not have an idea of where you are. As a female runner I want to appear more confident and comfortable in my settings to protect myself and have the ability to be more aware of my surroundings because the directions are taken care of. It also can help those that are visually impaired. There is a blog post by a visually impaired runner you can read about here.
Ease of creating routes and making them public or private. This can also work within running groups to be able to view data. It took me no longer than 5 minutes to create a route from my small phone.
Ability to use routes already created and learn about the route if the user created points of interest along the way. The Fairmont hotel has used the app for one of their properties to give you a guided tour of the grounds which is great for a traveler and runner/walker.
One of the premium features I really liked was the interval timer. You can set reminders for how often to fuel, when to run/walk, there are custom intervals, walk or run intervals, you can choose to have them repeat or only appear once. I love that you could hear the intervals but the adding of when to fuel is genius particularly if you have fallen off pace and use miles to decide when to fuel (no need to do math in your head)!
Essential running stats: elevation, pace, splits, time, distance are a feature.
A lovely voice will tell you how far you have gone, when you are 1/4 , 1/2 etc done with your route, your pace if you set it to tell you, how many minutes you have been running without having to look at your watch or phone.
Auto pause during running so there is no need to pull out your phone to stop your run. I did notice about a 15 second lag on this but it is consistent so if training with RunGo you would be able to use this as a training tool or instead of a watch based device if that is not yet in your budget.
All of the above features being able to be used offline via download. This is great for trail runners where there is spotty cell coverage. You can also download to Apple watch and there is no need to carry your phone with you at all!
Here is the route that took me 5 minutes on my phone, part of that time was looking at the website for the Hot Chocolate Race to make sure I had the route correct.
So what does the $10 a year Premium get you vs. the free version?
You can create groups to track overall progress within a group that outsiders to the group cannot see.
Premium verified routes which is great if you travel to new areas
Live tracking so family can view and track your run
Interval training as I mentioned above
Export GPX which means a running group, training program etc could give you an instant download to a route so you do not need to spend time creating one.
I think for the interval training alone I would pay for the upgrade but the safety of the live tracking and the entire above make it well worth the price. It also helps the developer continue to progress and update the app. The free version is great as well if you are unsure if RunGo is right for you.
We will be discussing how amazing this app is on Tuesday, October 31st for #BibChat at 8pm central time with giveaways! If you have any questions we can answer them then or ask away on Twitter @littleblueyes2 @RunGoApp @BibRave or Instagram @littleblueyes2 @rungoapp @BibRave
