Time your sprints.
No specialised equipment needed.
Your watch will time your sprints. Anywhere.
Apple Watch + iPhone · Free · No account
Start your session any time, wherever is convenient. Warm up and sprint - every 100, 200 and 400 metres you cross is timed by SpeedRun on your Apple Watch.
Your sprinting progress is tracked in the SpeedRun iPhone app and stored with full Apple Fitness compatibility.
The method
What the watch is actually doing.
Tap SPRINT, take the 3-2-1 countdown, and run. It reads GPS and motion the whole way and finds the 100, 200 and 400 m marks inside your effort, so each distance is timed without you touching the watch mid-sprint. Nothing to set up, nothing to carry, nothing to plant at the finish line.
It is a field instrument, not a photo finish. There is no start gun and no camera at the line. What it measures is the ground you covered and how fast you covered it, and we would rather say that plainly than quote a number we cannot stand behind.
Every rep
Each sprint, taken apart.
The speed curve, your cadence, the peak, and the second you hit it. Every rep is kept, so a good one stops being a memory and becomes a number you can go back to.
- 100 M
- 200 M
- 400 M
The records
Top speed, and best average.
Best average speed is kept separately for 100, 200 and 400 m, the three competition distances. All-time bests sit beside your rolling recent form, so you can tell whether you are actually getting faster or just remembering a good day.
Also true
The parts other apps charge for.
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COST
Free. No subscription, no ads, no trial that ends.
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PRIVACY
Nothing leaves your device. No account, no servers, no analytics, no tracking.
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APPLE HEALTH
Real Apple Health workouts. GPS route, heart rate, running form. Your runs live where the rest of your training already does.
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AUDIO
Voice callouts and a cadence metronome in your earphones, so you can keep your eyes up.
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AUTO SPRINTS
Auto sprints, if you want them. Switch it on and the watch starts each rep the moment it sees you go.
Questions
A sprint timer for your Apple Watch, in plain words.
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Is SpeedRun a sprint timer or a running tracker?
A sprint timer first. It runs as a normal outdoor run on your Apple Watch, and when you tap SPRINT it times every 100, 200 and 400 m you cross inside the effort and keeps your peak speed. The whole run is saved to Apple Health as a real outdoor workout, so it is a running tracker too.
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How does the watch time a sprint without timing gates?
It reads GPS and motion the whole way and finds the fastest continuous 100, 200 and 400 m windows inside your sprint. Nothing is planted at either end and you never touch the watch mid-sprint. Run past the distance, ease off, and the split is on your wrist.
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Does it show my top running speed?
Yes. Your speed is shown live in metres per second during the sprint, and the app keeps the peak of every sprint, your all-time top speed in m/s and km/h, and your best average speed separately for 100, 200 and 400 m.
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How accurate is a GPS sprint timer on a watch?
It is a field instrument, not a photo finish. On a straight under open sky, rep-to-rep and week-to-week comparisons are solid, which is what training needs. It is not a race time to the hundredth. Peaks at or above 12.5 m/s are treated as GPS artifacts, because the fastest human peak on record is about 12.3 to 12.4 m/s.
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Do I need an Apple Watch?
Yes. The measurement happens on the watch, so an Apple Watch is required. The iPhone app shows your history, records and trends, and it is included.
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Is SpeedRun free?
Free, with no subscription, no ads and no trial that ends. There is no account and nothing leaves your device: no servers, no analytics, no tracking.
Guides
Sprint training, in plain words.
How to time a sprint with the watch, how fast people actually run, a speed chart, the interval sessions with evidence behind them, and how to start sprinting without getting hurt. Written by the people who built the app, with every source named.
How to time a sprint with your Apple Watch, with no track and no timing gates
A sprint timer normally means a track, timing gates and a helper with a stopwatch. Here is how the watch on your wrist times your 100, 200 and 400 m sprints anywhere, what it measures, and how far to trust the number.
Read the guideHow fast can you run? Sprint speed from a jog to the world record
What is a good sprint speed, in metres per second and km/h, and how a 100 m time turns into a speed. The world records, what footballers hit on a pitch, a few animals for scale, and how to find your own number.
Read the guideSprint pace chart, metres per second to km/h, mph, pace and 100 m time
A sprint speed conversion chart. Read any speed in m/s as km/h, mph and minutes per kilometre, and see the 100, 200 and 400 m time that speed gives if you could hold it the whole way.
Read the guideA high-intensity running trainer with the evidence attached, 4 x 4 and 10-20-30
Two interval sessions from published studies, with the sources named. What each session is, what "hard" means, why they build the engine that sprinting and the 400 m need, and how to run them with a sprint timer and cadence metronome on your wrist.
Read the guideSprint training for adults, how to start running fast without getting hurt
Sprinting is the most rewarding thing a runner can add and the easiest to overdo. How many fast efforts a week is safe, why the last rep is the dangerous one, what a stress fracture feels like before it hurts, and a first month that works.
Read the guideDoes Apple Watch show your top running speed? How to see your sprint speed on the wrist
Apple's Workout app gives you pace and splits, not the top speed of a sprint or your best 100 m. Here is what the watch records on its own, what it does not surface, and how to get your peak speed and per-distance bests from the same sensors.
Read the guideSo how fast are you, actually?
Requires an Apple Watch. iPhone companion included.