It's very good to make a running route before you run. You don't have to think about where to run or where to turn and it can be hard to run as much as you should, because you don't know the distance.
In the beginning is very good to run to some point and then back. For example, if you have to run 20 minutes, so just run to some point (shop, cross street, park) 10 minutes and then back. But after some time you should change this route, maybe run to another side or something like that, because it can get really boring to do the same route everyday.
If you start to run longer distances (5-10km) it would be great to know the length of your route before running. You can just count the distance with your bike, a car. If you are running in city area the google maps really can be helpful. If you don't have such posibility and you are running in forests (what is really great) where you can't count it, you should just try to run 1km in stadion as fast as you are running all the time. So let's say you run 1km in 5.30minutes. So if your running training takes 27min 30 secs it means that you ran about 5 km :) I always do it.
If you just have posibility, run in forests. Find beautiful routes. Forest's paths are very good for your foot. It is great to run in nature. It is even more healthy. You will love running more if you run in lovely places :).