Garmin Challenges and Badges

frankwbrown

I'm creating this discussion to share with others my interest in Garmin Challenges and Badges. I know a number of MFP members who have recently gotten a Garmin fitness tracker and who have expressed an interest in Garmin's challenges. So this is a primer to familiarize newcomers with the Garmin badge/challenge landscape.

I've been a Garmin user for over ten years now. As a new user, I saw I was earning badges for my activities. I found these badges very motivating and began actively pursuing them rather than just earning them haphazardly/incidentally. Each badge earns you one to eight points, and there are levels that correspond to having achieved a certain number of points. So, naturally, I wanted to get to the next level, and then the next, etc.
(The points have no value; you don't win anything with them. Beyond giving you bragging rights, they serve only to motivate you and give you a record of your progress.)

There are a lot of badges covering all kinds of activities: running, walking, cycling, steps, yoga, strength, dance, scuba diving, on and on. You are automatically awarded these badges upon completing the required activity.
But there is another category of badges that are earned by completing a challenge. You must explicitly join these challenges in order to earn the badges associated with them. I didn't realize this until just under four years ago. Now, at the end of each month, I look forward to seeing what challenges Garmin will create for the following month.

So, all you fellow Garmin and MFP users out there, this discussion is for you.

frankwbrown

An informative blog relating to Garmin's challenges/badges is https://blog.garminbadges.com/.
You will always find an entry about new challenges on this blog, usually just a couple days before they show up in Garmin Connect.

A post was made today listing the January 2025 challenges and badges. There will be ten full month challenges, three quarterly challenges and six weekend/week challenges. Check them out here:
https://blog.garminbadges.com/2024/12/january-2025-challenges-and-badges.html
(or wait for them to show up in Garmin Connect)

• January Weekend 40K - Record a 40 km (24.86 mi) cycling activity January 3-5
• January Weekend Walking - Complete a 3-mile walk January 10 - 12
• January Swim Week - Record 1,000 meters of swimming January 12 - 18
• January Weekend 10K - Complete a run of at least 10 km January 17 - 19
• January Weekend 5K - Complete a run of at least 5 km January 24 - 26
• January Ride to 100 - Record 100 km of cycling January 26 - 31
• Active January - Record 20 activities of at least 20 minutes each
• January Time to Ride - Record 20 hours of cycling in January
• January Rundown - Run 50 miles in January
• January Time to Run - Record 10 hours of running in January
• January Step Month - 300,000 steps in January
• Disney, Marvel, & Star Wars Steps - Record 10 days of 10,000 steps in January
• January Gains - Record four hours of strength activities
• January Time to Swim - Record 4 hours of swimming in January
• January Walking - Walk 30 miles in January
• January Warrior - Record 4 hours of yoga activities in January
• 2025 Cycling - Stage 1 - Record 675 km of cycling during January thru March
• 2025 Running Stage 1 - Run 300 km (186.42 miles) during January thru March
• 2025 Walking Stage 1 - Walk 91 miles during January thru March

frankwbrown

Be sure to do an activity on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to earn these two badges, worht one point each:

• Finish Strong 2024 - Record an activity on New Year's Eve
• Strong Start 2025 - Record an activity on New Year's Day

frankwbrown

FYI for newbies: In addition to the predefined [challenges]/badges and the monthly challenges/badges (referenced above), there is a third category of challenges. These are challenges that you or other Garmin users create. There are only four types of challenges:

• Steps - the most steps wins.
• Running - the farthest running distance wins.
• Cycling - the farthest cycling distance wins.
• Swimming - the farthest swimming distance wins.

The period of these challenges can be a day, a weekend, a week, a month, a year, or a custom period specified by you.

These are challenges that you create and challenge other Garmin users to join. You must have connections with other users in order to do these challenges. Other users can challenge you as well, but of course you are not required to join, just as they are not required to join your challenge.

frankwbrown

I should mention one other type of challenge that's relatively new (since March of 2023).
These new challenges are called expeditions. There's a group of Hikes (for steps) and a group of Climbs (for floors climbed). There are 17 hikes ranging from the Great Wall (~28k steps) to the Camino de Santiago (~4.9 million steps). There are 12 climbs ranging from Kosciuszko (7,309 feet) to Everest (~29,000 feet).

They are challenges you must join, just like the monthly challenges, but there's essentially no end date (i.e. the end date is 2099!) and there's no specific start date - start them whenever you want. However, you can join only one at a time of each. Once you complete one, you can join another. You can complete them in any order you want. I've chosen to do them from shortest to longest.

You will find these in the Connect App under Challenges.. Start An Expedition.