How WakeRoute works

WakeRoute turns your GPX files into interactive, animated maps. You can use it for almost any GPS-based activity: running, cycling, driving, boating, skiing, hiking, or multi-person races.

This page walks through: how to export GPX, upload tracks, understand the animation, combine overlapping routes, and share or revisit runs later.

At a glance

Upload one or more GPX files.
WakeRoute detects when tracks overlap in time.
Overlapping tracks are grouped into a single “run”.
Everyone shares the same run link; new uploads can update the same link.
The animation shows speed, timing, and (optionally) distances to reference points.

1 What is a GPX file?

A GPX file is a standard format for GPS tracks. Most tracking apps and devices can export your activities as GPX:

Sports watches / wearables (Garmin, Apple Watch via 3rd party apps, etc.).
Fitness apps (Strava, Komoot, Runkeeper, many bike computers).
Navigation tools (loggers on boats, car trackers, custom hardware, etc.).

GPX files typically contain a series of points with:

Latitude / longitude.
A timestamp for each point.
Optionally, speed, elevation, and other data.

Example: You finish a 45-minute bike ride tracked in Strava, tap “Export GPX”, and save the file to your computer. That file can be uploaded directly to WakeRoute.

2 Upload page: creating a new animation

Fields on the upload form

Track title (optional): A short name for your track, e.g. “Morning ride” or “Boat 3”. If you leave it blank, WakeRoute uses the GPX’s internal name or the filename.
Page title (optional): A label for the whole run, e.g. “Saturday 10k with friends” or “Weekend road trip day 1”.
GPX file: The file exported from your app or device.

What happens when you click “Generate animation”

WakeRoute saves your GPX file and reads all the GPS points and timestamps.
It detects the local timezone from the coordinates.
It calculates:
- Start and end times of the track.
- Speed between each pair of points.
It checks whether this track overlaps in time with any existing tracks (more on that below).
It creates (or updates) a run: an HTML page with an interactive map and animation controls.

Example: You upload “Morning Run.gpx”. WakeRoute creates a new run and gives you a link like /sail/abc123. That link is your “home base” for that activity.

3 How overlapping tracks are grouped into a single run

WakeRoute is designed to handle situations where multiple people record overlapping activities at roughly the same time. For example:

Two cyclists ride the same route together but upload their GPX files separately.
A group drive with several cars, each with its own tracker.
Multiple boats, skiers, or runners moving at the same time in the same area.

Overlap detection

For each upload, WakeRoute:

Computes the local start time and end time of the track.
Compares that time window with all existing tracks in its index.
If the new track’s time range overlaps an existing track’s time range (even partially), it considers them part of the same run.

Run IDs and shared links

Internally, each run has a run ID, e.g. abc123. All overlapping tracks share the same run ID, so they share the same URL:

Example:
1. You upload a walk at 9:00–9:30 and get /sail/run42 with just your track.
2. A friend uploads a bike ride from 9:10–9:45. WakeRoute detects overlap and connects that track to run42.
3. Now /sail/run42 shows both tracks animated together.

If someone else opens the original link after additional overlapping tracks are added, they’ll see the updated, combined animation.

4 The animation view: controls & features

Timeline & play/pause

A slider at the bottom represents time from the earliest track point to the latest.
Moving the slider manually scrubs through time, updating all markers on the map.
A play / pause button advances the slider automatically, replaying the run as an animation.
A small time display shows the current time point in local time.

Colored tracks by speed

Each track is drawn on the map with segments colored by speed. For example:

Slow segments appear in cooler colors.
Fast segments appear in warmer colors.

A legend shows the speed scale (for example, in knots for boating or km/h / mph, depending on your configuration).

Markers for current position

Each track has a small marker (dot) that moves along as the animation progresses. Tooltips or labels on these markers can show:

The track name (e.g. “Runner A”, “Car 2”).
The current distance to the next reference point (if marks are configured).
Other context like time and speed at that moment.

Example: In a multi-car road trip, each car’s marker moves along the route. You can watch who is ahead, who stopped longer, and how speeds differ on highways vs city streets.

5 Optional: distance to “marks” or reference points

WakeRoute can optionally use a list of marks or reference points along your route. These are just named coordinates: they could be turns on a course, checkpoints, intersections, buoy locations, parking lots, etc.

For each track, WakeRoute can:

Infer which marks were actually used (based on closest approach).
Determine which mark a point is “heading to” next.
Calculate the distance from the current position to that next mark.

During the animation, you can see:

Each track’s current distance to the next mark.
The differences in distance between multiple tracks (e.g., who is 0.15 units ahead/behind relative to the leader).

Example: You define marks at important intersections in a city. During the animation, WakeRoute shows that Car A is 0.3 km from the next intersection, while Car B is 0.5 km away, making it easy to see who is “ahead” in practical terms.

If your deployment has a “marks & cities” configuration page, you can define different sets of marks per city and reuse them across runs.

6 Recent runs & sharing links

Recent runs page

The Recent runs page lists recently generated runs (based on their creation time and metadata). For each run you’ll usually see:

Run title (e.g. “Saturday Group Ride”).
Approximate date and time window.
Number of tracks included in the run.

Clicking a run entry opens the animation view for that run.

Sharing

The URL of a run (something like /sail/<run_id>) is sharable with others. Anyone with the link can see the map and animation in their browser, without needing to re-upload GPX files.

Example: After a weekend hike, you upload everyone’s tracks. You then send the run link to the group chat so everyone can replay the hike and see where paths diverged or who took which shortcut.

7 Tips, examples, and troubleshooting

Good use cases

Running / walking: Compare pace and route choices on repeated runs.
Cycling: Overlay multiple riders’ data from the same group ride.
Driving: Visualize a road trip day, compare different cars or routes.
Boating or water sports: Replay tacks, turns, or races across multiple boats.
Hiking / skiing: Understand how groups spread out over time on the mountain.

When tracks don’t combine as expected

Make sure the activities actually overlap in time. If one track ends hours before another begins, they will be separate runs.
Check device time settings. If one device’s clock is off by many hours, the time windows might not overlap correctly.
If you see multiple entries in the Recent page for what should be one run, it may be from older runs created before combination logic or cleanup were applied. New uploads should follow the consistent “shared run ID” behavior.

GPX export tips

Prefer exports that include timestamps and full GPS detail. If you see options like “route only” vs “full activity”, pick the full one.
If the track looks very coarse (few points) the animation will still work, but speed and distance estimates may be less smooth.