English Translation
I am running to the station.
Would “laufe”, instead of “renne”, also fit here?
It confuses me a little bit, because I just had the sentence:
Lauf um dein leben
But I m guessing this one is kind of a fixed expression
Laufen can mean “to run” but is also used frequently as “to walk”, whereas rennen means to run, to race, to sprint. No walking with rennen.
Deep L and Google Translate both use “Ich renne zum Bahnhof.” It is implied here that the person is in a big hurry as the train will be leaving very shortly, so he/she (Ich) is sprinting to the station. With that context in mind, ‘rennen’ works better.
When I inputted into Deep L “Ich laufe zum Bahnhof.” it gave me “I’m walking to the station.” (same with Google Translate) With Deep L it gives us alternatives (which I like). 3 of the 5 alternatives had walking, but 2 alternatives did have running. And we both know laufen means to run or to walk.
So, I would say “Ich laufe zum Bahnhof.” is not grammatically incorrect or anything, but using renne is more natural sounding with this context.
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I wanted to show the Translator from my Netzverb Deutsch dictionary app (I absolutely love this dictionary. It’s translator gives explanations plus alternatives, unlike Google Translate or Deep L. It will tell me if a sentence is technically correct but not common (unnatural sounding) and then gives me more authentic sounding sentences, etc.)
I inputted “Ich laufe zum Bahnhof.” and the Netzverb translator said this:
English translation: “I am walking to the train station.”
Explanation: This translates literally as “I am walking to the train station.” Alternatives depending on context: “I walk to the station” (simple present, habitual action) or “I’m going to the station” (if the mode of travel is not important). “Bahnhof” specifically means train station, “station” alone might be ambiguous in English.
Then I inputted “Ich renne zum Bahnhof.”
English translation: I’m running to the station.
Explanation: Literal translation: “I’m running to the station.” Alternatives depending on context: “I’m running to the train station.” (more specific) * “I’m rushing to the station.” (if emphasizing hurry). Note on grammar: “Ich renne” is present tense, in English present continuous (“I’m running”) conveys the ongoing action.
I think I had seen or heard about this distinction between rennen and laufen before; what got me confused is that just before or after this one, I also had the cloze “Lauf um dein leben” as “run for your life” (which, with this definition of laufen and rennen, could be intertpreted as “walk for your life”, which is little odd, isn’t it 
). So I kept writing lauf zum banhof, instead of renn.
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Another discussion about the distinction between rennen and laufen:
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