Over the course of about six weeks, 11 of us put the Kickr Run to the test. Our testing panel included members of the New York Times Running Club, people training for marathons, and novice runners who don’t usually use treadmills. Most runners spent around 20 minutes on the machine, while I logged around 15 total hours on it.
Overall, we found that the belt is quiet, and the deck is solid. The Kickr Run uses a continuous belt, which the company’s website says is quieter than slatted surfaces seen on some high-end treadmills. The machine does take up a lot of space, though. Wahoo lists its dimensions as 72 by 38 by 58 inches, and the deck is not foldable. The entire apparatus weighs 410 pounds.
The Kickr Run’s minimalist display only shows incline percentage and pace (for example, a 12-minute pace at 5 miles per hour). A company spokesperson said this is because most runners don’t talk about their times in relation to miles per hour, but by their pace.
It doesn’t have a monitor like the one on the NordicTrack Commercial 1750, which has been our top pick in our guide to treadmills for many years. But you can access interactive workouts on the Kickr Run by connecting to Zwift via a TV, laptop, tablet, or phone. The machine’s 16.5-by-11-inch media console has plenty of space to securely place a laptop. I’ve tried to prop up a separate media device on almost every treadmill I’ve tested over the past two years, and the Kickr Run’s holster is one of the few that prevented shaking. It actually provided the best experience I’ve ever had working on a computer while walking on a treadmill. (A nice bonus, but far from the lone reason to drop roughly $5,000 on a machine like this.)
You can control the speed and incline using levers on the treadmill arms—right lever for speed, left one for incline and decline—which take some getting used to. Its maximum speed is a 4-minute mile (15 mph), and it inclines up to 15% and declines to -3%. Both the incline/decline and acceleration controls change rapidly.
To start the Kickr Run, you give a slight push forward on the right lever, which will move the belt at a slow speed. A further nudge forward increases the speed to a medium rate (you’ll see the time on the display decrease), while a harder push forward increases the speed at a rapid rate. (You can increase the rate in one-second increments if you hold the lever all the way forward.)
The treadmill can be stopped in a few ways: It has a stop button on the main panel and an emergency stop cord, but if you stand on the side panels at any point during a run, the belt will also come to a stop.The machine does not gradually slow down before stopping, so be prepared for a sudden, jarring stop.
It has other safety measures, like a protective plate at the back of the belt to prevent children or objects from being pulled under the treadmill. If you tap the acceleration lever when no one is standing on the treadmill, the belt won’t start.
