GRIT 2026

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THE CHALLENGE

Welcome to the Great American Summer GRIT!

We're heading into the heat of summer to celebrate the 250th Birthday of the United States of America by running more than ever.

Whether your goal is 25 miles or 250 miles, we're hitting the pavement together from sea to shining sea. Earn one distance badge after another as you make your way across the map. The miles will stack up. Your legs will burn. There will be days when the heat is relentless, the hills feel endless, and the finish line feels impossibly far away. But as we've seen over the past 11 editions of GRIT, we can promise you this: you will survive. And you'll be better for it.

Of course, the most important part of this entire challenge has nothing to do with miles, badges, or prizes. It's the community we've built over the years. We're basically family at this point, showing up for each other through every hard mile and every hard day. And we're always welcoming new GRIT runners to the fold. If this is your first time, welcome to the party. You picked a great summer to join us.

If you've done GRIT before, you already know the swag is legendary. Every participant will receive a custom ASICS performance t-shirt and a Fractel hat to match the summer vibes.

Each week of the challenge, we'll also be giving away great prizes from our sponsors — including two pairs of ASICS shoes valued at up to $180.

And then there are the grand prizes. ASICS shopping sprees await finishers at every mileage tier, and for those who go above and beyond, we're pulling out all the stops: two grand prizes (male and female) for the top elevation gainers of the month, and two grand prizes (male and female) for the highest mileage runners of the month.

250 years deserves 250% effort. Are you in?

Happy Birthday, America. Let's run.

HOW IT WORKS

Choose a distance goal from the levels below. Run those miles anytime between July 1 and July 31. Run more if you’re feeling good. Log your miles and land on the leaderboard. Get digital badges and a sense of incredible accomplishment. Join our Facebook group to be part of a community that stays together and celebrates our wins through the warmest month of the year.

CHECK OUT THE LEVELS:

LEVEL 1) 25 Miles - Hot Dog

LEVEL 2) 50 Miles - Baseball

LEVEL 3) 100 Miles - Apple Pie

LEVEL 4) 200 Miles - Firework

LEVEL 5) 250+ Miles - Bald Eagle

All registrants will also receive a race bib and access to our Strava club and private Winter GRIT Facebook group where we share our running journeys along the way. There’s where we’ll have our weekly photo competitions, including our infamous face-cicle challenge!

Running outside of the U.S.? You can still join for free and get all of the GRIT graphics and join our GRIT community online.