Still Using Excel Templates to Track Your Races in 2026?

If you’re a runner who’s been maintaining your race history in an Excel spreadsheet, you’re not alone. Thousands of runners have built elaborate workbooks with tabs for different years, formulas to calculate PRs, and conditional formatting to highlight their best performances.

But here’s the thing: it’s 2026, and there’s a better way. RunningLog is a dedicated platform built specifically for tracking your race history, and it solves every problem that Excel creates for runners.

Let me show you exactly what you’re missing.

The Excel Trap: When Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough

Let’s be honest about what happens with that Excel race log you started three years ago:

The Manual Data Entry Nightmare

Every time you finish a race, you open that spreadsheet and manually type in the race name, date, distance, finish time, and maybe a few notes. If you’re really organized, you calculate your pace per mile or kilometer. You update your PR column. You adjust your chart.

It takes 10-15 minutes per race. Multiply that by 10-20 races per year, and you’re spending hours on data entry instead of running.

The Syncing Problem

Your race log lives on your laptop. Want to check your race history while traveling? Better hope you have access to that file. Trying to show your training partner your race times at the coffee shop? Good luck pulling up that spreadsheet on your phone.

Yes, you could save it to Google Drive or OneDrive, but then you’re dealing with version conflicts, formatting issues on mobile, and the general clunkiness of viewing spreadsheets on a 6-inch screen.

The Lost Data Disaster

Hard drives fail. Laptops get stolen. Cloud storage accounts get hacked. If your Excel file disappears, so does years of racing history. Unless you’re religiously backing up that one file (let’s be real, you’re not), your PR from that perfect weather 10K in 2019 could vanish forever.

The Comparison Confusion

Want to compare your marathon times over the years? You’ll need to filter, sort, and squint at cells. Trying to see if you’re getting faster at half marathons? Time to build a chart. Want to know how you stack up against other runners at a specific race? Excel can’t help you there.

How RunningLog Fixes Everything Wrong With Excel

RunningLog was built by a runner who got tired of the spreadsheet struggle. Here’s exactly how it makes your life easier:

1. Log Races in Seconds, Not Minutes

In Excel, you’re typing the race name, manually entering the date, typing the distance, calculating your pace, and updating your PR columns. Every single time.

In RunningLog? You fill in a simple form: race name, date, distance, and time. Done. The interface is designed specifically for race entry, so you’re not fighting with cell formatting or formulas. What took 10 minutes in Excel now takes 30 seconds.

2. Your Complete Race Archive in One Place

RunningLog maintains a detailed archive of all your races. Every result, every note, every memory—organized chronologically and easily searchable. No more scrolling through endless Excel rows trying to find that half marathon from 2019.

Want to see all your 10Ks? Filter by distance. Looking for races from a specific year? Filter by date. Need to find that race in Portland? Search by name or location. Try doing that efficiently in Excel.

3. Track Your Personal Records Automatically

Every runner wants to know their PRs. In Excel, you’re either manually checking every time you add a race, or you’ve built complex formulas that break when you add a new distance.

RunningLog tracks your personal bests automatically. Add a new 5K time, and if it’s a PR, you’ll know immediately. No formulas, no manual checking, no wondering if you actually beat your old time.

4. Mobile Access That Actually Works

Just finished a race? Pull out your phone and log it in RunningLog while you’re still catching your breath. The mobile interface is clean, fast, and designed for fingers—not for pinching and zooming on tiny spreadsheet cells.

Your race log syncs across all your devices automatically. Check your history on your laptop, add races from your phone, review your PRs on your tablet. Everything stays in sync. No emailing files to yourself or dealing with cloud storage conflicts.

5. Plan Your Future Races

Excel is good at tracking the past, terrible at planning the future. RunningLog lets you add upcoming races you’re registered for or planning to run. See what’s coming up, keep registration details handy, and visualize your racing calendar.

No more losing track of which races you signed up for or forgetting registration deadlines.

6. Add Notes and Memories

Races aren’t just times and distances—they’re experiences. RunningLog lets you add personal notes to each race. Document the weather, how you felt, what went right or wrong, who you ran with, or why this race was special.

In Excel, notes are awkward. You’re either squeezing text into cells or maintaining a separate notes column that makes your spreadsheet even messier.

7. Compare Your Performance Over Time

Want to see if you’re getting faster at half marathons? RunningLog shows your race history with filtering and search, making it easy to analyze your progress at specific distances. See trends, identify improvements, and understand your racing journey.

Excel requires building charts, updating ranges, and constantly maintaining visualization. RunningLog gives you the tools to understand your data without becoming a spreadsheet expert.

The Real Cost of Sticking With Excel

Sure, Excel is free (if you already have Microsoft Office). But what’s the real cost?

• Time: Hours spent on manual data entry and spreadsheet maintenance
• Opportunity: Missing races you’d love because you didn’t know they existed
• Connection: Running in isolation instead of engaging with the running community
• Motivation: Looking at boring spreadsheet cells instead of inspiring visual progress
• Risk: The constant threat of lost data and no automatic backups

Moving From Excel to RunningLog Takes 5 Minutes

Worried about abandoning your Excel file? Here’s the reality: you can set up your RunningLog account and add your most important races faster than you could create a new Excel chart.

Quick Start (Recommended)

Create your RunningLog account and add your last 5-10 races. That’s it. You’ll have your recent history and PRs ready to go. Most runners find they don’t actually need their complete historical data from 2015—they just need their current PRs and recent performance.

Add Your PRs First

Want to preserve your records? Take 10 minutes to add your PR race for each distance (5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon, etc.). RunningLog will recognize these as your personal records, and you’re set. Your Excel file can stay as an archive.

Keep Excel as Backup

Nobody’s forcing you to delete that spreadsheet. Keep it if it makes you feel better. But after using RunningLog for a week, you’ll realize you never open it anymore. It’ll just collect digital dust while you’re enjoying race tracking that actually works.

It’s Free to Start

RunningLog is free to use. No credit card required, no trial period that expires, no “gotcha” premium features. Create your account, start logging races, and see the difference immediately.

You’re already spending zero dollars on Excel for race tracking (well, technically you’re using a $100+ office suite for a task it wasn’t designed for, but who’s counting?). Why not spend zero dollars on a tool actually built for runners?

Your Running Journey Deserves Better Than Excel

You invest hours every week training. You pay entry fees, travel to races, and push yourself to improve. You celebrate PRs and work through disappointing performances. Your race history is a record of your dedication, progress, and passion for running.

Why would you trust something that important to a generic spreadsheet tool designed for business budgets?

RunningLog was built specifically for runners who are tired of the spreadsheet struggle. It’s faster, easier, looks better, and connects you with other runners who share your passion.

Try RunningLog Today

Setting up your account takes two minutes. Adding your first race takes thirty seconds. Seeing the difference? Instant.

Stop fighting with Excel formulas and tiny mobile cells. Stop manually typing race details you could search for. Stop tracking your running journey in a tool built for quarterly financial reports.

Create your free RunningLog account and add your first race today. You’ll wonder why you spent years doing this the hard way.

Your future self—the one logging races from their phone, discovering fellow runners, and actually enjoying race tracking—will thank you.