Pro Endurance Series: Running Manager · published
Pro Endurance Series: Running Manager doesn't start with a race. It starts with a person.
Before the first stride you decide who your athlete is, where they come from, how far they can possibly go, and what kind of runner they'll be when things fall apart.
This devlog walks through the whole runner creation flow, window by window.
An endurance manager isn't about one race — it's about a sporting lifetime. These are the rules of the world your athlete will live in:
• Four divisions. Amateur → National → Continental → Elite. You go up and you go down. Every season adds points: the best get promoted, the rest get relegated.
• The season is a loop. Train → Goals → Compete → Recover, and start over. 52 weeks to plan your peak form for the moments that matter.
• Four distances. 5K, 10K, Half and Marathon. You pick one as your specialty, but you can compete in all of them.
• Everything affects your athlete. Nutrition, injuries, psychology, sponsorship, equipment, rest, staff and economy. There are no neutral decisions.
• The big events are real targets. London, Berlin, Boston, New York, Tokyo, Valencia... each with its own prestige and field.
• The end goal is a legacy. Records, titles and history: decades of simulation with 1,000+ runners, 90+ races, 100+ events, 50+ countries and 16+ circuits.
Everything you choose during creation shapes that journey.
Let's go window by window.
A welcome screen that sums the game up in seven cards: your story and the divisions, promotions and relegations, distances and specialty, the season calendar, everything that affects your athlete, the big events, and the road to becoming a legend.
It's purely informational — context before configuration.
This is where you decide how much game you actually want to play.
Three modes:
• Full Simulation (recommended, complexity 5/5, ~9-10 h per season): you control absolutely everything — training, nutrition, equipment, staff, life events, injuries and recovery, race strategy, finance and sponsorships, calendar and medical decisions.
• Custom Simulation (3/5, ~4-5 h): you toggle areas on and off one by one — training, equipment, staff, nutrition, events, injuries, finance, sponsorships and strategy. Anything you disable is handled by the AI.
• Just Run (2/5, ~2-3 h): you focus on competing and the AI takes care of the rest.
On the right-hand column there's also the history level:
Realistic records — marks from legends and stars, consistent with each race's division.
Start from scratch — no prior history; records are written from 2027 onwards as you play.
The identity sheet.
And, above all, where you begin.
First name, surname, short name (the one you'll see in standings and broadcasts), date of birth (day, month and year), nationality with a full country list, hometown, gender (male; female coming soon), and two sliders for height and weight that define the athlete's build.
This is the part we cared most about:
The runner you pick here is the one you'll later see in the race simulator, running inside the pack.
There's a carousel of 3D models (32 available) and a separate portrait/appearance carousel (21).
The viewer expands to a large view so you can watch the running animation up close, with access to Edit face.
These are the two most important decisions in the whole creation flow:
• Previous experience — where you start.
Amateur, National, Continental or Elite.
It's not cosmetic: it sets your starting division and your initial attributes.
Amateur ("has run out of passion and personal challenge") begins with low values; National is college athletics with a solid base; Continental is a semi-professional who's already raced strong road events; Elite arrives established, among the world's best.
Switch the option and you watch the attribute bars rise and fall in real time.
• Potential — how far you can go.
Amateur, National, Continental or Elite, with an approximate numeric ceiling.
It's your athlete's growth limit, and this is where age comes in:
A young runner with Elite potential has many seasons ahead to approach that ceiling; a veteran starting at Continental will hit their ceiling sooner but have fewer years to cash it in.
Choosing a date of birth is, in practice, choosing how many seasons of runway you give yourself.
Below that you get the Athlete life block — height, weight, age, nationality, city and starting division — and the initial attributes:
Endurance · Speed · Economy · Threshold · Strength · Mental · Recovery · Tactics
Four options, each with its own logic:
• 5K — Speed, Economy and Threshold rule.
• 10K — Speed, Economy, Threshold and some Endurance.
• Half — Threshold and Endurance, with some speed.
• Marathon — pure Endurance and Economy (speed barely counts).
Switching specialty recalculates your attributes and highlights the key ones in gold, so you can see at a glance what you'll actually be good at.
If you're starting from the bottom, you choose the country of the popular races you'll run as an amateur — San Silvestre, Turkey Trot, parkruns...
Spain, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Italy or Kenya.
Below, the featured races of that circuit are shown — one per distance, with your specialty's race highlighted.
Pick the United Kingdom and you get:
Manchester Marathon · Warwick Half · Bolton 10K · Southampton 5K
Pick the United States and you get:
Duluth Marathon · Rochester Half · Milwaukee 10K · Dallas 5K
Important: the circuit only shapes your first steps.
From the higher divisions onwards the calendar is international, so the country you choose is your starting point, not your ceiling.
This is where your runner stops being a set of bars and becomes somebody.
Traits are grouped into five families and they cost: good traits spend points (+), flaws give them back (−).
Climber (+2) · Good descender (+1) · Economical stride (+3) · Finishing sprint (+3) · Fast recovery (+2)
Flaws: Injury prone (−2) · Fragile (−2)
Rises to the occasion (+2) · Pain tolerant (+3) · Highly competitive (+2) · Cool head (+2) · Nerves of steel (+3)
Flaws: Crumbles when losing (−2) · Favourite's pressure (−2)
Fast starter (+1) · Closer (+3) · Solo attacker (+2) · Wheel sucker (+2)
Good in the cold (+1) · Wind breaker (+2) · Altitude lungs (+3)
Flaws: Poor in heat (−2) · Hates the rain (−1)
Local hero (+1)
The budget is 5 points, with a maximum of 5 traits and 3 flaws.
That limit is the heart of the step.
If you want Nerves of steel and Economical stride, you'll probably have to accept that your athlete crumbles when losing.
Chosen traits are listed on the right with their description — and they're what will later explain why your runner blows up in Valencia at 30°C, or why nobody beats him over the last 400 metres.
The final card:
Photo, name, country · city · gender · specialty, plus the trait chips, starting division and potential ceiling.
Below that:
Height · Weight · Age · Specialty · Experience · Starting division · Potential · Amateur circuit
On the right, the definitive initial attributes and the confirmation:
"Athlete ready to start"
Before week one, your athlete's presentation screen:
Nationality, age, specialty, pro debut year and place of residence.
Your starting point:
Current division · Initial world ranking · Global potential
The global potential stays hidden — ???
And your first goal, with a star difficulty rating and a season progress bar.
Below, the eight pillars of a career:
Seasons · Training · Competition · Ranking · Team · Sponsorships · Travel · Achievements
And from there, the season planner:
Goals · Calendar · Summary
Week 1 of 52.
1. The division you start in
Via previous experience: sets your starting level and your attributes.
2. Your distance specialty
Decides which attributes actually matter.
3. Age and potential
How many seasons you have, and how high you can climb.
4. The runner model
The athlete you'll watch race in the simulator.
5. The traits
What makes him win or lose once the plan breaks.
And, if you start from the bottom, the circuit:
The country whose popular races you'll run in your first chapter.
See you in the next devlog. 🏃