No - Runna does not notify you when marathon lotteries or registrations open. It will not warn you that the London Marathon ballot is about to close, that Berlin registration just went live, or that Paris is about to sell out. That is not what Runna is built for - and honestly, it would be a strange feature to bolt on.
Runna is one of the best things to happen to marathon training in years. But it makes one quiet assumption: that you already have a race bib. If you do not, Runna cannot help you get one.
What Runna Is Designed To Do
Runna is a personalised training plan app. You give it your goal race, your current fitness, and how many days a week you can run. It produces a plan with structured workouts, pace targets, and adaptation when you miss a session or feel rough. The plans are good, the interface is clean, and the integration with watches and Strava is solid.
Everything in the product orbits around the plan. Workouts, pace zones, race-day predictions, recovery suggestions. Race calendars, ballot dates, and registration windows are not part of that orbit - and there is no reason to expect them to be.
The Gap This Leaves
The catch is that for the biggest, most desirable marathons - the kind of races people use Runna to train for - getting in is harder than the training. The NYC Marathon lottery has a 2-3 percent acceptance rate. The London Marathon ballot opens once a year and closes within days. The Tokyo Marathon draw runs on a tight window. Miss the registration, and your training plan has nowhere to go.
Runna will happily build you a plan for any of these races. It will not tell you when to apply.
What Runna Users Pair It With
The simplest fix is a small, dedicated alert tool that sits next to Runna without overlapping. BibsAlert monitors the official websites of major marathons worldwide and sends an email the instant registration or a ballot opens. That is the entire product. No training plans, no tracking, no overlap with anything Runna does.
It covers all six World Marathon Majors plus other major international races - the full list is on the tracked races page. Ten dollars a year, no account needed, and once it is set up there is nothing to manage. Emails arrive when something happens.
The workflow most runners settle on: BibsAlert tells you the ballot opened, you apply, and once you have an entry you fire up Runna and start the plan.
Runna gets you to race day. BibsAlert makes sure there is a race day to get to. The two work better together than either does alone.
The Full Stack
If you are already a Runna user, your toolkit is mostly complete. The pieces that fit naturally around it:
- Runna - the training plan and the workouts.
- Strava or Garmin Connect - tracking, history, and the social layer.
- BibsAlert - the race entry alerts that the others do not cover.
For the full breakdown of how these apps overlap and where each one earns its place, see the marathon runner toolkit guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Runna send marathon lottery alerts?
No. Runna is a training plan app - it builds personalised plans for your goal race but does not monitor when registrations or ballots open. Runners typically pair Runna with a dedicated alert tool like BibsAlert to cover both sides.
Does Runna tell you when race registrations open?
No. Runna assumes you already have a race entry when you start your plan. It does not track race calendars or registration windows.
How do Runna users find out when marathon ballots open?
Most rely on a separate service that monitors official race pages and sends an email when registration goes live. BibsAlert is built specifically for this and works alongside Runna without overlap. You can also check the marathon calendar to plan your season.