What it says on the tin! The goal of Race Away is simple: run East on the X axis, as far as you can in the alloted time, and cover more distance than the others. The higher your ranking, the more points you earn! If you die, you get sent back ALL the way to the beginning, so slow and steady might be a better strategy than fast and furious.
Beds allow you to skip night and avoid the curse of phantoms, but will NOT set your spawn. Horses are disabled to ensure you're running on foot, and Nether portals are inaccessible - no shortcuts for you!
Each player is running at their own pace. While you can group with others, as the event lasts several days, you can start running whenever you want.
Unless noted otherwise, the top 30 runners get Merit Points based on their best position, in decreasing order. That is, the top runner gets 30, the second place 29, third place 28, and so on.