TL;DR
Strava is still the go-to app for tracking and sharing every run, but a marathon is more than a string of GPS files; it's a months-long project with travel plans, gear choices, race-week tasks, and lessons you'll forget unless you save them somewhere. 42Cal Pro fills that gap: for $4.79 a month or $37 a year you can store each race result in detail (with a dedicated race log), customize race-specific checklists, and watch an automatically updating dashboard tell the story of your racing career. Coming soon: one-click Strava imports, checklists that auto-date themselves along a smart timeline, exportable charts and PDF race reports, and course-aware insights. Keep Strava for daily miles, and use 42Cal Pro to lock in every detail between registration and finish-line photo so the hard-won lessons are never lost or unplanned.
Table of contents
The problem Strava never meant to solve
Picture Lara, a first-time Chicago-Marathon qualifier. She already logs every run on her Coros and hence Strava. But the moment she clicks "Register," her life explodes into a dozen new tabs:
- Hotel bookings and flight alerts
- Shoe spreadsheets and YouTube gear reviews
- A Google Doc called "Chicago packing list (v3)"
- Screenshots of the course map and last year's weather
- A sticky note on her monitor: "Order gels by Aug 15!"
- A nagging injury that should be managed carefully
Strava is perfect for capturing Lara's training miles, applauding her tempo-run PRs, and comparing long-run data with friends. Yet once race day looms, decisive factors (logistics, gear choices, taper notes, how she felt at each split) lie scattered across Dropbox folders, notes apps, and memory. Two months after the medal, all those details fade, leaving only a .FIT file (a Strava entry) and a selfie in a foil blanket.
Why does that matter? Because like all human, distance runners improve by pattern recognition:
- How many miles did I run in the ten weeks before each PR?
- Did racing in carbon supershoes pay off, or did my calves revolt, what about the shoes used in training?
- Which checklist items saved me from race-morning chaos, and which were fluff?
If you don't log that context, you'll never connect the dots. That is the gap 42Cal Pro was born to fill, expanding on the free race-directory at 42Cal.com.
What each platform was built to do
| Platform | Core DNA | "Job to be done" | Business Model | Price as of May 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strava | Social fitness network & GPS logger | Capture & compare every workout | Freemium → subscription for deeper analytics | ≈ US $11.99 / mo or $79.99 / yr (Strava) |
| 42Cal Pro | Race-centered performance journal ("Race OS") | Plan, execute & remember every race forever | Subscription (no ads) | US $4.79 / mo or $37 / yr |
Key takeaway: Strava optimizes for daily activity capture; 42Cal Pro optimizes for infrequent but high-stakes events and the stories that surround them.
Strava's newest features: brilliant, but still training-centric
Strava keeps widening its analytics toolset:
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Performance Predictions estimates finish times for 5 K to Marathon based on your run history (Strava News).
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Athlete Intelligence translates complex workout data into plain-language takeaways and recently exited beta (Strava News).
Fantastic for everyday motivation, but neither feature stores what actually happened on race day (travel fatigue, heat swings, nutrition mishaps). Even Strava's support thread notes that the predictions assume flat terrain and can't account for external factors (Strava Community Hub).
Pain points for marathoners and how 42Cal Pro covers them right now
| Strava limitation (in race context) | Consequence | 42Cal Pro answer |
|---|---|---|
| Race planning scattered across apps | Missed deadlines, race week stress | Customizable checklists: every new event spawns a template (travel, gear, admin). Users tweak or delete items; no dates are forced--deadlines stay in your calendar. |
| Lifetime race history fragmented | Hard to see career-long trends | Race-Vault Dashboard updates instantly when you enter a result: PR curve, shoe ROI, mileage vs. outcome graphs. |
| Race context fades after a selfie | Lessons forgotten | Rich log fields: weather, travel fatigue, fueling notes, photos, post-race thoughts. |
| Privacy worries | Some runners dislike auto-sharing | No sharing at all: unless you consciously screenshot your dashboard or race page and post it. There are no public URLs and no social feed. |
Our philosophy: 42Cal Pro focuses on story, not prediction. It deliberately avoids AI forecasts or auto-ingesting GPS files, for now. Think scrapbook + project manager, not number-cruncher.
Inside 42Cal Pro today: features that matter
a) Manual race logging
Entering a race takes < 60 seconds:
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Race name & date
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Official finish time
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Gear tags (shoes, gels, watch) [optional]
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Race notes ("30 kph headwind last 10 km; gels at 45/75 min; stomach felt fine.")
The entry slides into your timeline, updating every graph instantly.
b) Dashboard views
- PR curve: visualise every marathon PB, from your first 5:12:43 to that sub-3 dream.
- Mileage vs. time: plot training volume (if you log it) against race outcomes.
- Gear ROI: see which shoe models delivered the goods.
- "Story" stream: scrollable journal of anecdotes and lessons.
Want to see how it works? Check the 42Cal demo @ 42Cal Pro or dive into the stats : Marathon times and training volume: data from 10000 runners.
c) Smart checklists
Every new race auto-generates three mini-lists:
| Checklist | Example items (all editable) |
|---|---|
| Travel & logistics | "Book flights", "Expo hours", "Late checkout?" |
| Gear & nutrition | "Supershoes", "Anti-chafe", "3 × Maurten 100 gels" |
| Race-week reminders | "Hydration goal = 3 L/day", "Foam-roll calves nightly" |
No deadlines are hard-coded; some runners prefix items with "T-3 days", others don't. The blank-page syndrome is solved, without locking you into someone else's plan.
d) Event discovery & bookmarking
Search from an ever growing array of curated global races via the free 42Cal race directory, bookmark and add them to your dashboard, and (upcoming feature) get opt-in reminder emails when registration opens or price tiers shift. Instant-grit for the goal-setting brain.
e) Privacy baked in
No leaderboards, kudos, or accidental leaks. Your data lives on your dashboard; public only if you decide to screenshot and share.
Roadmap: ordered by priority, but user-driven
| Sequence | Planned addition | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strava / FIT / GPX import | Back-fill historical races in one click. |
| 2 | Checklist due-date engine | Auto-shift packing/admin tasks relative to race day, ending deadline guesswork. |
| 3 | Export pack (PNG graphs & PDF reports)* | Share race recaps with coaches, sponsors, or socials. |
| 4 | Terrain-aware insights | Flag hilly or hot courses, suggest gear tweaks. |
| 5 | Event cohort chats / forums | A community layer once the user base hits critical mass. |
The order is our current plan, but if users vote to fast-track exports or deprioritise chats, we'll pivot accordingly.
Real-world vignettes: how athletes use both tools
a) The Archivist
Carlos has raced 14 marathons in 11 countries. His Strava is a glorious heatmap, but his laptop holds 14 stray "race report" docs. One Saturday he imports those results into 42Cal Pro (soon a one-click job), tags his shoes and fuelling notes, and discovers:
- Shoe X delivered all three sub-3 runs.
- Mileage above 90 km/week yielded no further gains.
- Asia travel + red-eye flights correlated with late race fades.
He re-tools next season's calendar, and his bank statement, accordingly.
b) The Project Manager
Fatima, a management consultant, qualifies for Boston 2026. Strava tracks her day-to-day sessions. 42Cal Pro stores her "Boston 2026" master checklist:
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Flights: "Book by Dec 1".
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Lodging: "Back Bay Airbnb with kitchen."
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Training plan: "Caffeine taper T-14 days."
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Uber: "Schedule for Hopkinton leaving 5 a.m."
Anxiety drops; clarity rises.
c) The Coach
Alicia coaches 25 online athletes. She asks them to log races in 42Cal Pro and (once exports ship) send PDFs after every event. During year-end reviews she scans:
- Training volume vs. finish-time deltas
- Shoe choice vs. injury patterns
- Checklist completeness vs. pre-race anxiety scores
Intentionality beats vague pep talks.
Why the two platforms should co-exist
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Different life-cycles
- Strava: millions of micro-data points daily.
- 42Cal Pro: a handful of milestone events each year.
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Complementary focus
- Strava's datasets fuel smart predictions.
- 42Cal Pro captures qualitative nuance: jet-lag, heatwaves, bib-pick-up chaos, that no algorithm can guess.
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Non-zero-sum integration
- Strava remains the training vault.
- 42Cal Pro imports, enriches, and writes race narratives.
FAQ and buyer's checklist
Is 42Cal Pro a Strava competitor?
No. Think of it as a specialised add-on for races.
Do I have to cancel Strava to justify another subscription?
No. 42Cal Pro costs less than two race-day gels per month and fills a gap Strava never intended to cover.
Will my data be public?
Only if you screenshot it yourself. There are no public pages or accidental leaks.
Why no AI predictions?
Plenty of tools already guess your time. 42Cal Pro records what truly happened and why. Insights will come, only when they add value. No more noise.
Checklist before you buy:
✅ You race at least once a year and care about improving.
✅ You juggle spreadsheets, phone notes or sticky notes for logistics.
✅ You've forgotten key details from past races and wish you hadn't.
If all three are "yes," 42Cal Pro is probably for you.
Final thoughts
A marathon is a story in five chapters:
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The dream: registration confirmation at 2 a.m.
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The grind: dark daily miles captured on smart watch or Strava.
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The logistics: gate changes and expo queues.
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The battle: the 32 km wall and the mile-24 surge.
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The lesson: what you'll tweak next cycle.
Strava captures chapter 2 better than any app on Earth. 42Cal Pro captures the other four, and binds them into a searchable lifetime library.
Ready to build yours?
Start a free trial, hand-enter your last two races, and watch your story click into place. $4.79 / mo or $37 / yr if you lock in the launch offer.
See you on the start line, last minute chaos under control.
Further reading & resources
- Explore the full, free race directory at 42Cal.com.
- Deep-dive into training-volume data on the 42Cal blog--especially the flagship post, What the data of over 100,000 runners teaches us about marathon times and training volume.
- Strava's official pricing page for the latest subscription tiers (Strava).
- Strava's press release on Performance Predictions (Apr 23 2025) (Strava News).
- TechRadar's overview of new Athlete Intelligence upgrades (techradar.com).
- Upcoming races in major cities
- Upcoming races by country
- Upcoming races by distance