Besides what the person said above, when you are learning English, it's best to be as literal or obvious with your meaning as you can be. :) Otherwise, the meaning of verbs and phrases can get very confusing.
In the example you give, I would say that the best and most accurate way to say that would be:
I climbed up the tree.
Try to use a verb that is as close to your meaning as possible!
With that said, walking and running can be used interchangeably a lot of the time, and don't always mean that you literally walked or ran. Example:
I ran to the store for eggs and milk.
That doesn't necessarily mean I actually RAN to the store. It just means I took a quick trip to the store. Or if I'm "running errands" it just means that I'm out performing those tasks.