If you’re a runner, you’ve probably heard of Strava. It’s one of the most popular platforms for recording runs, tracking your fitness and sharing activities with other athletes.
But what if you’re more interested in planning your next run rather than recording your last one?
That’s where Map My Distance (MMD) comes in.
While Strava is widely known for tracking activities, analysing performance and connecting athletes, Map My Distance puts route planning at the centre of the experience.
Whether you’re planning a solo morning run, preparing for a trail race or creating a route for a group of friends, MMD gives you the tools to map out where you want to go before you set off.
And when you’ve completed something memorable, you can save your best achievements in a dedicated place instead of letting them disappear among hundreds of everyday activities.
Let’s look at how the two platforms differ and why you might want to use both.
Strava: Track Your Runs and Monitor Your Progress
Strava is primarily known as an activity-tracking and social fitness platform.
It’s a great way to record your runs, monitor your training and see what your friends and other athletes have been doing.
You can use Strava to:
- Record running and cycling activities
- Track distance, pace and performance
- Analyse your training progress
- Follow friends and other athletes
- Take part in challenges
- Compare performances on segments
- View personal records and achievements
- Create and discover routes with a subscription
For runners who want detailed training records, performance analysis and an active community, Strava offers plenty of value.
But not every run needs to start with tracking your performance.
Sometimes, you just want to figure out where you’re going.
Map My Distance: Plan Your Runs Before You Go
Map My Distance is designed to make route planning simple, flexible and accessible.
Instead of focusing mainly on the activities you’ve already completed, MMD helps you plan the routes you want to explore next.
You can open the interactive map, choose your starting point and create a route that follows the roads, paths and trails you want to use.
As you build your route, you can measure the distance and inspect the elevation profile to get a better understanding of what lies ahead.
With MMD, you can:
- Create running routes online for free
- Measure route distances as you plan
- View route elevation profiles
- Adjust your route before heading out
- Save your favourite routes
- Organise routes into folders
- Share individual routes with friends
- Collaborate on routes with other users
- Export saved routes as GPX files with MMD Pro
Whether you’re planning a quick 5K, a long weekend run or a challenging mountain route, you can work everything out before putting on your running shoes.
Plan Solo Runs or Share Routes With Friends
One of the most useful reasons to plan a route online is being able to share it with someone else.
Imagine you’re organising a Saturday morning run with a group of friends.
Instead of trying to explain the route in a WhatsApp message or asking everyone to remember where to turn, you can create the route in MMD and share the link.
Everyone can see where the run starts, where it goes and how far they’ll be running.
This makes MMD useful for:
- Weekend running groups
- Running clubs
- Friends training for the same event
- Group trail runs
- Charity runs
- Social running meetups
- Organised training sessions
You can even collaborate with other MMD users when planning a route, making it easier to work together on the details.
And the platform isn’t limited to running. The same tools can be used to plan walking, hiking and cycling routes.
The goal is simple: make it easier to plan an adventure and bring other people along.
Your Best Running Achievements Deserve Their Own Space
There’s another important difference in how we think about Map My Distance.
Your everyday training runs are valuable, but some runs mean much more than others.
Think about your first marathon, longest trail run, fastest 10K or the day you conquered a particularly challenging mountain route.
Those are the achievements you want to remember.
Strava does track personal records, best efforts and achievements, and it offers ways to review those performances.
However, when you’re recording several activities every week, the original activity and its memories can still become harder to revisit as your training history grows.
With Map My Distance, we want your proudest moments to have their own dedicated home.
Instead of treating every activity as equally important, MMD’s achievements experience is focused on the runs, races and adventures you personally want to remember.
That might include:
- Your first 5K, 10K or half marathon
- Your first marathon or ultramarathon
- Your longest run
- Your biggest elevation gain
- Your favourite trail race
- Your most challenging adventure
- A memorable run with friends
- A personal milestone that means something special to you
Not every achievement needs to be a personal best or a fast finishing time.
Sometimes your proudest achievement might simply be completing a difficult route you once thought was impossible.
MMD gives those moments a place in your running story.
More Than Personal Bests: Keep the Memories Too
A personal best tells you how fast you ran… But it doesn’t always tell the full story.
Perhaps your first 50 km trail race took place in terrible weather. Maybe you climbed a mountain with friends, completed your first marathon after months of training or discovered an unforgettable route while travelling.
Those memories are worth keeping.
Map My Distance’s approach to achievements is about celebrating those meaningful experiences alongside traditional running statistics.
You can build a collection of your proudest running milestones and return to them without searching through months or years of ordinary training activities.
It’s a different way of looking at your running history.
Strava helps you understand your performance. MMD helps you highlight the adventures and achievements you want to remember.
Can You Plan Running Routes on Strava?
Yes. Strava also offers route-planning tools, including custom routes and suggested routes.
However, creating new routes through Strava’s route builder requires a subscription.
With Map My Distance, you can start creating routes for free.
You can draw a route, measure its distance, view the elevation profile and save routes within the Free account limits.
This makes MMD an appealing option if you primarily want a straightforward way to plan a run without paying for a full fitness-tracking subscription.
When you need additional tools, MMD Pro unlocks features such as GPX route export, advanced elevation insights and unlimited saved routes.
Map My Distance vs Strava: Key Differences
| Feature | Map My Distance | Strava |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | Planning and organising routes | Tracking activities and fitness |
| Create custom routes for free | Yes | Subscription required |
| Measure route distance | Yes | Yes |
| View route elevation | Yes | Yes |
| Save planned routes | Yes, even on the Free plan | Yes, with subscription route tools |
| Share routes with friends | Yes | Yes |
| Collaborate on route planning | Yes | Sharing and route tools |
| Export planned routes as GPX | MMD Pro | Supported through Strava route tools |
| GPS activity recording | Not the main focus | Yes |
| Performance and training analysis | Not the main focus | Yes |
| Personal records and achievements | Curated achievement collection | Automatic best efforts, records and achievements |
Both platforms have useful features, but they’re built around different priorities.
Should You Use Map My Distance or Strava?
The answer depends on what you’re trying to do.
Choose Strava if: You want to record your runs, monitor your fitness, analyse training performance, take part in challenges and connect with a large community of athletes.
Choose Map My Distance if: You want to plan routes on an interactive map, check distance and elevation, organise future adventures, share routes with friends and keep a dedicated collection of your best running achievements.
Use both if: You enjoy tracking your runs on Strava but want a dedicated place to plan routes and organise the adventures you have ahead.
You don’t have to choose one and give up the other.
In fact, using MMD for route planning and Strava for activity tracking can be a practical combination.
Start Planning Your Next Run With Map My Distance
Whether you’re preparing for an upcoming race, planning a group run or simply looking for somewhere new to explore, having a route ready beforehand makes a difference.
Map My Distance gives you the freedom to create routes online, measure distances, check elevation and save your favourite routes.
You can begin using the free version immediately, without needing a paid subscription just to start planning.
And as your collection of routes and adventures grows, MMD Pro gives you more tools to organise, analyse and export them.
Strava is a great place to track what you’ve done. Map My Distance is a place to plan what’s next and remember your best adventures.
