Wahoo Fitness Announces KICKR RUN Treadmill with Control-Free Running Mode

What You Need To Know

Let’s talk treadmills. Yes, surely everyone’s favorite way to run. We all love to strap in and adjust our pace with a series of buttons that we can barely reach from the middle of the belt, right? Well, no. But that’s where Wahoo Fitness’s latest launch, the KICKR RUN, comes in. It announced the brand-new treadmill ahead of an official debut at the Boston Run Show, offering several exciting details ahead of a full launch in the months to come.

While we’d still rather get our miles in around the Baltimore harbor or in one of the city’s several parks, there’s a lot to like about the KICKR RUN, so let’s get into what’s to come.

What’s a Wahoo Fitness KICKR RUN?

On the surface, the KICKR RUN is, well, a treadmill. But it’s not like other treadmills — it’s a cool treadmill. It looks closer to the cockpit of an advanced spaceship than to a treadmill that you’d slog along on at Planet Fitness, though. The KICKR RUN has a relatively slim set of controls with just three or four buttons and a simple readout for your pace and grade as you run along.

Perhaps the more exciting part of the KICKR RUN is the fact that it has a mount for a 17-inch display, whether that’s a tablet, laptop, or any other screen you need. It sounds way better than one of those generic displays that promises video playback of an exotic trail but just kind of leaves you feeling motion-sick. Just think — you could watch the live broadcast of the NYC Marathon from your laptop while you run along from the comfort of your home. Oh, and the KICKR RUN offers 24W wired charging speeds via a USB-C port, so your iPhone can live forever.

Honestly, so far, the KICKR RUN sounds like a treadmill — a fancy treadmill, but still a treadmill. But now, it’s time to get into one of the modes that we’re most excited to try: RunFree mode.

How does RunFree mode work?

Alright, so this is easily the coolest part of the Wahoo KICKR RUN. Essentially, RunFree lets you, well, run free. You don’t have to worry about pressing buttons to increase or decrease your speed; you just speed yourself up or slow yourself down, and the treadmill adjusts automatically.

From an in-depth DC Rainmaker breakdown, RunFree is kind of like the best of a treadmill’s manual mode combined with fancy sensors that track your pace second by second. It uses a time-of-flight sensor located below the giant “Stop” button to identify your position on the treadmill and speed up or slow down accordingly. When you get closer to the controls, the KICKR RUN speeds up, and then as you fall back, it slows down. Per DC Rainmaker, the adjustments happen incredibly quickly, but we’ll have to wait a little longer before we can try the KICKR RUN for ourselves.

There are several other modes you can hop into on the KICKR RUN, including integrations with Wahoo and Zwift, so we’ll be sure to come back with plenty more impressions once we get a few miles in.

When can you get one? How much will it cost?

If you’re itching to grab a KICKR RUN and RunFree, you’ll have to wait a little while. Wahoo Fitness has confirmed a US launch is coming in 2024, with a global launch following later in 2025. We expect this to mean sometime this summer, hopefully before the Paris Olympics kick off.

You’ll also want to start saving your money ASAP, as the KICKR RUN will set you back a cool $5,000.