Running Achievement Badges

There are many ways to keep motivated on Zwift. Taking part in the regular missions, joining group runs and workouts, doing your own solo workout, racing, or simply exploring the variety of Watopian landscapes!

However, a very popular pastime on Zwift is going after Achievement Badges. Log in to the game and head to the menu, where you’ll see a rosette icon that takes you to the badges section.

General Achievements

The top set of badges are general achievements applicable to both running and riding. There are 12 in all. For example, you get badges for running 3, 7 or 14 days in a row. Interestingly, the 14-day badge used to be called the Unemployed badge – but in 2020 it was renamed the Working from Home badge!

There are also badges here for giving and receiving Ride Ons, completing a workout, doing a u-turn, or successfully pairing your phone to Zwift through the Companion app. These are all badges that you can achieve almost by default simply by running regularly on Zwift.

Running Achievements

If you are also a rider you’ll scroll past the Cycling Achievements before you reach the Running Achievements set. There are currently 11 Running Achievements available. As with the General Achievements, some of these you will gain simply from your regular training:

Running 1 mile, 5k, or 10k in a single session will earn you badges and you’ll earn another for your first Zwift Half Marathon distance. Then there are cumulative distance badges: you’ll earn a badge when you reach 100 miles of running on Zwift, another when you reach 500 miles, and the ultimate goal is the Pursuit of Happiness badge which you can wear proudly once you have logged 1000 miles of Zwift running!

Finally, in this section you’ll find the speed badges. Challenge yourself to see how fast you can run a mile. There is a badge for a 9-minute mile, as well as 8, 7, and 6-minute mile awards.

Route Achievements

The most popular badges are doubtless the Route Achievements. Both the Watopia and New York Zwift worlds have run-specific routes and each of these routes has its own achievement badge.

Although some of the run-specific routes incorporate roads that are open to both runners and cyclists, the full route badges can only be achieved by runners. It’s also important to note that while runners can of course run the many available mixed-use cycling/running routes, they are not awarded Achievement Badges for completing them. Runners can only earn route badges for run-specific routes.

There are six route badges to collect on Watopia, and five in New York. The shortest route and the easiest badge to get is on the 400m May Field track. Once around and the badge is yours! The longest route is Flat Irons in New York. It will take almost 15 kilometers // 9 miles of running to complete.

One very important note on Route Achievement badges is to continue running until the badge pops up on screen. You may think you have completed the distance and wonder why the badge hasn’t appeared. Often you might need to run an extra 200 or 300 meters. Just remember to keep running and, as long as you have run the correct route, the badge will definitely pop up.

Extra Credit

There are a couple of run-specific badges to earn in the extra credit section. If you are ever brave enough to run a full marathon on Zwift, then the Going the Distance badge will be yours. And if you are super speedy, you might be able to get your hands on the Olympian badge for running one mile in under 5 minutes!

If you manage to achieve either of those feats, you might also earn the Bigger than Jensie badge for receiving 100 Ride Ons in a single session.

Missions

You’ll also earn badges for any missions you complete. There isn’t always an active running mission, and when launched they are available for a limited time. Recent examples include the Run the Worlds mission, in which you were asked to run one session in each of the Zwift worlds, and the 10,000 Calories mission, where runners had one month to burn 10,000 calories while running on Zwift.

There you have it – a complete look at Achievements Badges for Zwift runners. Hopefully, these will help you push just a bit harder to achieve your goals!