Let me get this out of the way.
The moment I tell someone I built a running app, I can see it happen in real time. Their eyes go slightly distant. They're already typing it in their head.
"But I already have Strava."
I get it. I really do. I use Strava too.
But here's the thing nobody says out loud: Strava does not care that you finished your first 21K. It doesn't know your bib is sitting on your desk right now waiting to be remembered. It has no idea there's a fun run happening in Cebu next Sunday that your whole barkada is joining.
Strava is a training tool. A really good one. RunMate is something else entirely.
What Strava is actually for
Strava is built around one question: How did your run go today?
It tracks your pace, your splits, your elevation, your heart rate if you have a watch. It connects you with other athletes through segments — those little competitive stretches of road where you can see if you beat your best time or your friend's. It is, at its core, a fitness tracker with a social layer built on top of workouts.
And that's great. If you're training for a marathon and you want to analyze your tempo runs, Strava is your app. Nobody is taking that away from you.
But ask Strava to show you every race you've ever finished? It can't. Ask it to show off your medal wall? Nothing. Ask it what fun runs are coming up in Cebu this weekend? It has no idea your city exists in that way.
Strava is built for training. RunMate is built for racing.
What RunMate is actually for
RunMate starts where most running apps stop — at the finish line.
You crossed it. You got a medal. You have a bib with your name and your number on it. You have a finish time buried somewhere in a Facebook event post that you will never find again in three months.
RunMate is where all of that lives. Log the race, upload your bib photo and your medal photo, record your finish time and your notes about how the morning felt. Over time, that becomes something real. A record of who you are as a runner — not just how fast you ran last Tuesday, but every race you've ever finished and what it meant.
That's the medal wall. Every race, every medal, in one place. Private if you want, or shareable with anyone. Your profile at runmateapp.com/u/yourname is yours to keep and show off. See runner profiles →
There's also a race calendar for Cebu — curated fun runs so you always know what's coming up. And if you run with a crew, there are Groups — a proper place to organize your barkada, schedule races together, and RSVP without losing the details in a Messenger thread.
None of that is in Strava. Not because Strava is bad, but because it was never trying to do any of it.
The question isn't which app to use
It's what each app is for.
Use Strava to train. Use RunMate to remember.
If you run races — fun runs, half marathons, the Cebu Marathon, that charity 5K your office joined — and you want a real record of all of it, RunMate is the app Strava was never going to build. Because Strava's job is your daily run. RunMate's job is your running life.
They're not competing. They just answer different questions.
Strava asks: How did you run today?
RunMate asks: Who are you as a runner?
If you've never tried it, your profile takes about two minutes to set up. No app download needed — it runs in your phone browser.
Norman
Founder, RunMate