Club Benefits
Today is the day to lace up your best running shoes and get out for a run. Why? It's Global Running Day 2026, and if you happen to be wearing one of the best Apple Watches or best Garmin watches, you can earn yourself a special award.
This is a little extra incentive to notch up a run — whether it's outside or on one of the best treadmills at the gym — it all counts. And you get a nice digital souvenir to add to your collection. I personally love collecting Apple's limited edition badges, so if I can get out the door for a quick 5K today, I definitely will.
If you're a determined Apple or Garmin wearer (or you just want a little bit of extra motivation today), then you're going to want to know how to earn these limited edition trinkets.
The good news is that in both cases, it couldn't be any simpler.
How to get the Apple Watch Global Running Day award
The simple answer is, of course, to go for a run with your Apple Watch on! You'll need to log at least 3.1 miles/5K and record it on your watch as either an outdoor run or a treadmill run for it to count, though.
Once you’re done, you’ll earn the activity award, which is styled like a running track with colorful rings surrounding ‘2026’. It’s almost exactly the same as last year’s award, in fact, just with a different date and colors in the rings. It would have been nice if Apple had changed it up, but I guess the consistency is nice if you're looking back over your trophies. I personally snagged the 2025 award, but I missed the year before.
You can earn the award using any of the best Apple Watch apps that sync workouts to the Health app, so you’re not confined to using the native Workout app on the watch.
How to get the Garmin Global Running Day award
The process is exactly the same with Garmin, all you have to do is record a running activity before the sun sets on today, June 3, 2026. As with Apple, you'll get a limited edition running badge that's a blue and white running shoe marked '2026'.
It doesn't matter if you complete the activity on a road, track, trail or treadmill — it all counts. And unlike Apple, there's no minimum distance you need to complete, but I'd encourage you to challenge yourself!
An extra bonus from Strava and Runna
There's an added bonus up for grabs today if you happen to use Strava. Recording a run of 5K or more today will give you free access to Runna Premium for two weeks. Runna is our number one pick for the best running apps and a former Tom's Guide Fitness Awards winner.
The app offers a personalized training plan that uses AI to calibrate itself based on your workouts. As your performance increases, so does the plan. If you want to know more about how this works, check out our in-depth Runna review.
If you do decide to head out for a run, whether you want to attempt a PR or just grab one of the aforementioned awards, have fun. I'm coming back from an injury that prevented my marathon attempt this season, so it's slow going for me, but I still can't help wanting to earn those badges.
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