I started running 5 years ago and it completely changed me. Recently, I decided to train for my first marathon and needed something more than just tracking my runs to motivate me. I noticed all the apps currently available are just trackers and route finders, but nothing has solved the problem of consistency. So I thought of combining the basic idea of the Forest app with running and created a small app for myself which would reward me with plants and trees for my runs.

I am not a mobile developer but then i came across Capacitor. Since I knew Next.js and have been working with it for the past 2 years, I built the app with it. I started using it and showed it to some of my friends and they really liked it. The gamification gave me a mental boost of planting more trees and plants in my virtual garden and just seeing it flourish made me happy. Then I decided to publish it on Play Store and also built it for iOS devices as many of my friends had iPhones. It took weeks to build and release them after brutal and lengthy reviews from both the stores.

Running has taught me to keep moving further, one step at a time and the journey of building the app was just like that. I wanted to share the app with all the people who are just starting out running and with the experienced folks who want to make their runs mean something.

The app is Run&Grow: https://runandgrow.com