Pick up a many gold blocks as you can while running, gold blocks is turned into virtual coins that can be spent on buying upgrades such as 'add 3 seconds to the timer'
Reaching a checkpoint adds 1 point to your score, so the more checkpoints you reach, the higher your score.
You have a Timer that counts off the seconds till you die, run to reach the checkpoint (glowstone) Before the timer runs out to restart the clock.