A running plan told as a story

Run the plan, live the story.

Every run is an episode. You're a courier in Halden, a city where nothing with an engine moves, and your pace decides how each episode ends.

One email when it launches, nothing else. How we handle it.

Coming soon on iPhone · free to start

The Run tab: today's episode, Chapter 3, The Climb, on its picture of the radio mast, with intervals of about 36 minutes, a Start episode button and the week.

How it works

Read. Run. Find out.

A training plan like a coach would write it, with a story wrapped around every workout.

Chapter 2, Episode 1, The Far Bank: the bridge at sunset, and the start of the briefing.

Read.

Every episode starts with a briefing: a short scene from Halden, and the workout it asks of you. Easy runs, intervals, tempo runs and long runs, each one a delivery.

A live run: 818 m to go in a ring, on pace at 6:44 per km, with distance, time, target and heart rate.

Run.

Then you run it. Spoken cues at every change, a countdown before a rep ends, and a sign to ease off when you go too fast. Outdoors or on a treadmill.

How it ended: Mara's board with your name in chalk, and the story's ending, The Top.

Find out.

Hold your pace and the episode ends well. Miss it, and the story takes another turn. Either way, the next episode is waiting, and the story remembers.

Illustration: a straight road into Halden at sunset, towards a lighthouse between dark rooftops.

The story

Three years after the Fold, the city runs on foot.

Engines draw the Quiet, so nothing with a motor moves after dark. What moves is couriers. Mara runs the Depot out of the old tram station, and she needs one more.

Chapter 1 · Episode 1 · The Yard

“Jog the yard to loosen up. Then the water-tower loop, two kilometres, as hard as you can hold. I’m timing it. Don’t sprint the start and die at the end. Everyone does.”

Hold your pace and your name goes on the board in chalk. Miss it, and it's pencil.

Two months later · Chapter 8 · Last Mile

Mara buckles the straps herself. “The first day, you sprinted the start and died at the end. Show me what you’ve learned.”

Which line you get depends on day one. The story remembers.

2seasons, 14 chapters
56episodes, every one a workout
16run-walk sessions for new runners
∞jobs on the Job Board after the story

Features

A real plan, made to measure.

Underneath the story is a proper training plan. It's built from your own pace and how far you already run, and it grows with you.

From your first minute to race day

Can't run for half an hour yet? The prologue takes you there in sixteen run-walk sessions, with an old courier called Nell. Already running? You start at Chapter 1.

  • Your paces come from a benchmark or a recent race time. They move up as you get faster, and ease off when a pace keeps slipping.
  • Tell it your goal: make it a habit, run without stopping, get faster or go further. Add your year of birth if you like: from 50, the plan builds up more gently.
  • Pick a focus (speed, balanced or endurance) or let your goal choose. The story follows: training for a 5K, you cross the bridge in dashes; for a half, in long steady blocks.
  • Every workout is sized from your long run, which grows toward your goal: 5 km up to a marathon.
  • Add a race and the days before it get lighter.
  • Pause the plan for a holiday or an injury. Your streak waits for you.
The Stories tab: Season 1, The Courier of Halden, 10 of 32 episodes, with the chapters and whether each episode made the pace.

Every run counts

After each run: your route with its last kilometre, your splits and heart rate. Free runs and runs from your watch count too, for your weekly goal, your streak and your records.

  • A monthly challenge, with a Halden tale as the reward.
  • Personal records, progress over time and the shoes you ran in.
  • A weekly recap every Sunday evening: how your week went, and what's next.
A run summary: 9.00 km, the route on a map near Zeist, and a book chapter unlocked.
Your week: a note from Mara, 28.0 km with the goal met two weeks in a row, and the days as bars.

A library for the long runs

Nine classics, from Around the World in Eighty Days to Dracula. Every run of a kilometre or more unlocks the next chapter, free.

The library: reading The Thirty-Nine Steps, 8 of 10 chapters unlocked, and the list of classics.
Reading Dracula, chapter 1: Jonathan Harker's Journal.

Spoken cues

Every change announced, a split every km or mile, and "10 seconds" before a rep ends.

Heart rate

Bluetooth chest straps and watches, and AirPods Pro 3 or Powerbeats Pro 2. Zones, and easy runs guided by heart rate if you like.

Apple Health

Runs saved as workouts with route and heart rate. Runs from an Apple Watch or Garmin come in too.

Lock screen and widgets

A Live Activity while you run, and widgets with your next episode and your week.

Auto-pause and treadmill

The clock stops at a crossing and starts when you do. On a treadmill it counts your steps.

Yours, and private

No ads and no trackers. An account is optional; with one, your runs sync to a new phone.

Why I made it

A plan tells you what to run. A story makes you come back.

I tried several running apps. The plans were good, but they were expensive, and after a few weeks my motivation was gone. A plan tells you what to do, but never why you'd put your shoes on again tomorrow. A good story does: you want to know what happens next.

So I made Last Mile, next to my studies. The hardest part wasn't the code, it was the choices. What happens when you miss a run? The story takes another turn, but it never punishes you. Should the story keep talking while you run? No: you hear what you need, and the rest waits for the finish.

And the name? That's the last mile: the stretch where you have to want it.

Mike Eckhardt

Pricing

Free to start.

Run the prologue and all of Chapter 1 for free. Carry on with the story when you're hooked.

Free

€0

for as long as you like

  • The prologue and Chapter 1
  • Free runs, spoken cues, heart rate
  • History, records and weekly recaps
  • The library and the monthly tales

The whole story

€6.99 a month

or €49.99 a year · first 7 days free

  • Every chapter of both seasons
  • The Job Board: a new job for every run, after the story
  • Everything in Free

Prices in euros; the App Store shows the price in your country. Subscriptions renew until you cancel in your Apple account. Episodes you've run stay unlocked if you stop.

FAQ

Questions

When does Last Mile come out?

Soon, on iPhone. Join the waitlist and you'll get one email when it's in the App Store. Follow @lastmilerun to see it being made.

I've never run before. Is it for me?

Yes. The first questions ask how much you run now. If thirty minutes of running is too much for now, you start with the prologue: sixteen run-walk sessions that build up to it.

What happens if I miss my pace?

The episode still counts and the story still moves on; it just ends differently, and later episodes remember. Lose the trust of Halden’s neighbours and a whole chapter goes another way, but nobody gets stuck. If the same kind of workout keeps slipping, your paces ease off by themselves. You can also swap an episode for an easy run, or move it to another day.

Do I need an Apple Watch?

No. Last Mile runs on your iPhone. If you have a watch, runs it saves to Apple Health can come into Last Mile too, and a Bluetooth heart rate monitor works during runs.

Does it work on a treadmill?

Yes. Pick Treadmill before you start: the phone counts your steps, and you can correct the distance at the end.

Is it available in Dutch?

Yes. The app, the story and the cues are in English and Dutch. They follow your iPhone's language, or pick one in Settings.

Is there an Android version?

Not yet. Last Mile is iPhone-only for now.

What happens to my data?

Your runs stay on your phone, and in your account if you make one. There are no ads or trackers, and nothing is sold. Read the privacy policy.

Be there for Episode 1.

Mara's timing the first run. Get a message the day Last Mile is in the App Store.

One email when it launches, nothing else. How we handle it.