How to get a GPX file of your race course

1. The organiser's file

Look on the race website’s course page and in the athlete guide for a GPX download. If there is one, use it: it is the route as measured, start to finish, for that year. The Berlin Marathon publishes one, for example.

Many races show only a map, or an embedded route on a site such as Strava or Garmin Connect. Check the year: routes change, and an old file can put a climb in the wrong place.

2. Open map data

Some big races are mapped as routes in OpenStreetMap, the open world map. Search it for the race name; a route that comes up can be used freely under its open licence with credit. Volunteers draw these, so quality varies: the London Marathon route we used came out 1.0% long and needed repair. Exporting a route as GPX takes a separate tool, so this suits technical users best.

3. A recorded run of the course

If you or a friend ran last year’s edition, the activity is a GPX away: Strava and Garmin Connect both offer an export to GPX from the activity’s menu (step by step). Recorded tracks usually come out longer than the race distance. Official courses are measured along the shortest line a runner can take, and GPS drifts among tall buildings and drops out in tunnels. A small overrun is fine; the plan keeps the shape of the course.

4. Draw it yourself

With only a map to go on, trace the route in a free route planner such as gpx.studio, which snaps to roads, fills in elevation and exports GPX. Zoom in at turnarounds and loops; a missed out-and-back section is the usual mistake.

Four checks before you trust the file

1. It has elevation. Without altitude on each point there is nothing to grade, and the planner falls back to an even plan and tells you so.
2. It is one track, start to finish. Warm-up loops, a jog back to the hotel or a second course in the same file all get joined into the race.
3. The distance is close to official. Within about 2% is normal for a recorded or drawn route. Much more and something is missing or doubled.
4. The climbing is believable. Many elevation sources measure the top of whatever is there, buildings and trees included, which turns a flat city course into a hilly one. On such data the Berlin course read 190 m of climbing; Berlin’s own ground survey gives 54 m. If the organiser states a total climb, compare it.

Where our course files come from

Each course page uses the organiser’s file where one is published and free to use, and OpenStreetMap where it isn’t. Elevation comes from each country’s ground-level survey, not a surface model.