Build a Strava Clone in 5 Minutes with MagicRail

MagicRail Admin

MagicRail Admin

— 2 min read
Build a Strava Clone in 5 Minutes with MagicRail

If you’ve ever wanted to build your own fitness tracker app like Strava, you probably know the hardest part isn’t the front end — it’s building a scalable backend to store, retrieve, and analyze location data.

That’s where MagicRail comes in. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to build a simple Strava-style running tracker in just 5 minutes using the MagicRail API.

Why Use MagicRail?

Traditionally, you’d need to:

  • Set up a database (Postgres + PostGIS or MongoDB).
  • Handle scaling as trips grow.
  • Write custom APIs to log, query, and manage routes.

With MagicRail, all of that is a single API call. You just send us location points (latitude, longitude, elevation, timestamp, metadata), and we handle:

✅ Storage & scaling

✅ Trip grouping (start, stop, retrieve)

✅ Easy querying for analytics or map rendering

Step 1 — Create an Account & API Key

Head over to MagicRail.io and sign up.

Once logged in, grab your API key from the dashboard.

We’ll use this to authenticate requests.

Step 2 — Start a Trip

Think of a trip as a run, bike ride, or workout session.

curl -X POST "https://api.magicrail.io/v1/trips" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Morning Run"
  }'

This creates a new trip and returns a tripId.

Step 3 — Log Location Points

Now let’s stream location data into MagicRail. Each point includes latitude, longitude, timestamp, and optional metadata (like heart rate or pace).

curl -X POST "https://api.magicrail.io/v1/trips/TRIP_ID/locations" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "latitude": 40.7128,
    "longitude": -74.0060,
    "elevation": 12,
    "time": "2025-09-29T07:10:00Z",
    "metadata": {
      "heartRate": 135,
      "pace": "6:45/km"
    }
  }'

Send as many points as you like — every few seconds during a run, for example.

Step 4 — End the Trip

When the workout ends, close out the trip:

curl -X POST "https://api.magicrail.io/v1/trips/TRIP_ID/end" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Step 5 — Retrieve & Display the Route

Now we can fetch the full trip history and display it on a map.

curl -X GET "https://api.magicrail.io/v1/trips/TRIP_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

You’ll get back JSON with all the points, metadata, and stats. Drop it into Mapbox, Leaflet, or Google Maps to visualize the run — just like Strava 🚴‍♀️🏃‍♂️.

What’s Next?

You now have a working Strava-style tracker in under 5 minutes.

Ideas to extend this project:

  • Add charts for pace, elevation gain, or heart rate.
  • Build a leaderboard with friends.
  • Store workouts in your fitness history.
  • Add city autocomplete (via MagicRail’s City Suggest API) for naming runs like “Central Park Loop.”

Final Thoughts

MagicRail takes care of the hard part — scalable trip logging — so you can focus on building engaging user experiences.

👉 Ready to build your own Strava clone? Sign up for free and start tracking your first run today.

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