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Running challenge ideas: 25 to try alone or with friends

Running challenge ideas for every level: distance, streak, explore, pace and group challenges you can do solo or with friends, plus how to keep them fair.

A challenge gives your running a point for the next few weeks. The best ones are specific, have an end date, and are hard enough to need effort but easy enough that you’ll finish. Here are twenty-five, grouped by type. Pick one and adjust the numbers to your own running.

Distance challenges

  1. Longest run of the month: a little further than your usual long run.
  2. Monthly total: your usual month plus a bit.
  3. Distance of the year in miles or km spread over the year (e.g. the year number in km).
  4. Run the length of somewhere: add up runs until you’ve “run” the length of your country’s longest river.
  5. Double your longest run over a few months, step by step.

Consistency challenges

  1. Three runs a week for a month.
  2. One extra run a week than you usually manage.
  3. Weekly streak: at least one run every week for a season. Kinder than a daily streak.
  4. Every weekday morning for two weeks, any distance.
  5. No zero weeks until the end of the year.

Explore challenges

  1. A new route every week for a month.
  2. Every park in town.
  3. Every street in your neighbourhood.
  4. Run to work once a week.
  5. A trail run once a month.

Pace and skill challenges

  1. A set distance a little quicker than your usual pace.
  2. Negative split: second half faster than the first.
  3. Even pace: every kilometre within a few seconds of each other.
  4. Hill of the month: run one hill without stopping.
  5. Your first 5K or 10K. See training for a first 5K with friends.

Group challenges

  1. Crew total: a distance or number of runs you hit together.
  2. Everyone runs this week: the group’s done when every member has run.
  3. Same challenge, own number: everyone does “longest run” this week, each with their own target.
  4. Relay month: pass a virtual baton; each person’s run is a leg.
  5. Race together: a local race the whole group enters.

Keep it fair, keep it friendly

In a mixed group, the same number for everyone doesn’t work. Give everyone the same kind of challenge with a target from their own running. Here’s how to make weekly challenges fair. Celebrate finishes, not rankings, and skip bets and prizes.

How RunPack does it

RunPack’s next version sets a weekly challenge for your crew automatically: the same kind for everyone (longest run, weekly distance, number of runs or pace), with each person’s target set from their own last four weeks of runs. Free for every crew, no prizes, no rankings. See how a RunPack crew works.

Try it with your crewRecord runs with your iPhone and share them with a private crew — runs, routes and photos only your friends can see. Free to start on iPhone.Coming soon to theApp Store

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