✓ Run Challenges - Allow Walk to count as well

[ccrossan]

I think it would be great for the 'Run' challenges to also allow for 'Walk' to count towards getting the challenge badge for people who are less able-bodied. At the moment only Run, Virtual Run and Wheelchair are available. While this is fantastic for wheelchair users, it excludes people who aren't able to run but do not have mobility issues requiring a wheelchair. For example, I have a heart condition which means that it is actually quite an achievement for me to walk 10km in one activity and it would be nice to get a badge without having to pretend to run the distance required.

[anchskier]

@Scout - Once again, Strava started something without thinking it through.  Adding walks is fine, but ONLY if you apply the same auto-flag system to the walk activities that you do to runs.  Currently, the running challenges are flooded with "walks" that are clearly drives or just such bad GPS that it shows averaging nearly 60mph.  These would generally be filtered out if they were posted as runs, but it is clear your auto-flag system does not look at walks the same. 

[jobrob]

ARghh, nooooo! why? this means running targets for those of us who walk and run have now become way to easy and there will be no consistency with previous year's trophy cabinets. people who wanted walks to count towards a run target could just record their walks as runs, I don't understand why anyone would do this.  

[Nicholas_W]

I have to agree with runprime and others in that if users want a 10k challenge award but are unable to run it then simply log the activity as a run. I walk as well as run so this change has affected me; I've just returned from a walk with my wife and uploaded the activity to find that I've completed the 10k Challenge - something I intended to do by running before the end of the month.
I run a modest monthly mileage but I try to complete the 10k Challenge each month because I like to feel I can still manage that distance. Believe me, running that distance is much more of challenge to me than walking it and takes approximately half the time.
I'd prefer things to remain the way they were but if not maybe the challenge could be updated if you subsequently walk or run it faster than you did to achieve the award initially?

[PauliusG]

@Scout are you serious right now? 🙂
Did you read the comments? That's not what we wanted. We asking for the exact opposite.

Please, just fix it this mess 😕

[justinfalconer]

This change has ruined the challenge for me. If it's not fixed I'll gladly switch to another app. 

So brutal. 

[Irreverent-Run]

Sorry, but this is stupid.

There are walking challenges, there are running challenges, the clue is in the name.

What next, can we include cycling in the alpine skiing badge, because I quite fancy the badge but can't ski.

Get a grip Strava.

Create a new walk/run badge or something, don't devalue or dilute the sense of achievement of running 100k in a month

[CaLeX3000]

@Scout Dissapointment all over. 

There is a real easy solution for the few persons like Topicstarter. > Change your activity if you think it qualifies as running. If you dont think it qualifies as running, then why the change?

Make the running challenge for running and add others for walking please. 

[momalley]

This seems to have been incorporated as of 2024, however it would have probably been better just to set up walk challenges as a separate category. Running is running and walking is walking. 

[RobertoElGringo]

I don't think many people on Strava are aware that these boards exist. I have only arrived here because someone shared a link in the January 100 km monthly running challenge (which now apparently allows walking). If someone wants to call their walks "runs," then that is up to them. No one is going to police that, right? I think each individual can decide at what pace their walks become runs. For me, the dividing line between walking and running is somewhere between 8 minutes and 7:30 per km average for a particular workout. I have suddenly reached the 100 km running challenge without hardly doing any running at all this month, and that has kind of taken the wind out of my sails. If walking remains part of the running challenge next month, I probably won't join that challenge at all--because it no longer is a running challenge. Maybe it should be renamed total distance challenge. Why not just go ahead and include cycling and swimming in that challenge too? And maybe Sunday drives? I jest, but do you get my point?

Here's my suggestion: Reinstate the 50 km monthly walking challenge, and maybe add a 100 km monthly walking challenge too? You could let running count toward that now, couldn't you? And I bet not a single walker would mind. (And most runners are probably capable of walking, right?) But I would mind. They are different activities to me. They are even different Olympic sports. I don't mind virtual running, indoor running, or wheel-chairs counting toward running challenges because I don't do those activities, and they would never count toward a running challenge that I complete. (Unless I were no longer able to run outside, or I became wheelchair bound.)

I had an injury awhile back, so I actually walk now more than I run. I keep track of both separately. I have had a 5 km run badge streak going for many months now (and I occasionally score the 10 km and Half Marathon badges too). I actually failed to keep my 50 km monthly walking challenge streak one month last year, and I was very disappointed--but that is sport, right? Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Each challenge means a different thing. One type of Strava challenge is being able to run or ride a particular distance in one go. (Maybe there should be separate walking/hiking and swimming badges for that too.) The other type of challenge is more about consistency over an entire month. Both are great, and the more badges you have for various activities the better. But please to water down any of the challenges. 

Thank you for reading this far.  

[Rossco76]

Absolutely pointless having walks count as runs, this is an activity tracking app. So the activities should stay separate, especially considering there is already a walking challenge. 

On the side of balance if this must persist, just generate a new challenge for running only, as in the same as we've always had. Because what we have now just infuriates everyone. Plus it is ruining peoples ability to track, the whole point of the platform. All the data is just screwed and inaccurate now!!

[Kondzio167]

+1 to what @Rossco76 said.

The idea was terrible. I would love to hear that we are going to count distance separately for running, walking, and cycling.

[mellonhead]

Think it's ridiculous, it's completely messed up my usage of Strava and if anything demotivated me and fellow Strava users. After what must be 10 years this will be the call that makes me move away from Strava which is a shame as me and close family have always used these challenges for motivation. 

How can there be a walking challenge and a running challenge yet walking counts towards the running challenge, I think the decision maker behind this needs to be reviewed.

[RobertoElGringo]

@Soren  @Sunny415 

How and when can one vote on these issues? And how many Strava users actually voted when walking was added to the running challenges? In reading the comments on the 100 km month running challenge, and here on these boards, it seems that there are a lot more users who are against this change than may have been represented in the vote. I'm afraid that Strava did not do a very thorough sampling of its users' opinions this time around.  

[counech]

Hi,

+1 to approv the comments posted after january 1, 2024 : There are walking challenges, there are running challenges, the clue is in the name.

Both of them could be called "activities" challenges (in number of hours or number of kilometers).

running is not walinkg. 

Thanks to strava to review callenges

[ThamesLollipop]

Walking is not running. This change destroys motivation. I have a multi-year streak of 100km running badges per month, which are now completely devalued.

I walk/hike too, and I like to capture those activities, but they should not count towards monthly running goals.

Please fix this.