Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Running By the Numbers.......

In case you were wondering..........

(These fun facts come from the Runner’s World blog of Dean Karnazes the “Ultra Marathon Man” who ran 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days last year for a good cause)

- In 2007, there were a billion pairs of running shoes sold worldwide

- Estimates are that there are upwards of 75 million total runners in the USA (includes all levels and abilities)

Of the 8,000 dedicated runners surveyed in the 2007 National Runner Survey:
- 53% of these runners are Male, 47% are Female
- 94% are college educated
- 93% run at least 3 days/week, 64% at least 4 days/week, 35% run 5 or more days/week
- 35% have never completed a marathon, 64% have finished at least 1 or more, 33% have finished at least 4 or more, 17% have finished 10 or more marathons

Those are the macro trends, here are some of our personal preferences (always more interesting). In the last 30 days, 28% of us have had 5 or more glasses of red wine, 26% have had 5 or more regular beers, and 23% have had 5 or more light beers. Only 16% have had 5 or more mixed drinks.

What do we think about when we run? Food, sex, work, in that order.

- Half of us listen to music while running


- 15% of us use a GPS device

- 17% of us buy our running shoes online

In the last 12 months, we’ve purchased an average of 2.9 pairs of running shoes.

Guess what our favorite restaurant chains are?
1. Subway (61%)
2. Olive Garden (43%)
3. P.F. Chang’s (35%)

Interestingly, McDonald’s came in at 20%.

When it comes to shoe brands, Asics dominates with 32%. Nike comes in at 14%, Brooks and New Balance are locked at 12%, and Saucony isn’t far behind at 11%.

Although we’re running in Asics, we’re wearing Nike. Nearly 60% of us own Nike sports apparel, almost double the closest competitors (Asics, Under Armour and Adidas all came in around 31%).


The half-marathon is our favorite distance (40%), followed by the marathon (18%), and then the 10K (15%). Only 1.8% said the ultra-marathon was their favorite distance.


As for race size, the largest races in the world are as follows:
1. JPMorgan Corporate Challenge: Frankfurt 3.5 Mile (60,000 finishers)
2. Atlanta Peachtree 10K (55,253 finishers)
3. Sydney City2Surf 14K (54,900 finishers)

The largest marathons are:
1. ING NYC Marathon (38,607 finishers)
2. London Marathon (35,701 finishers)
3. Berlin Marathon (32,530 finishers)

15 comments:

Unknown said...

I think the most interesting thing from those numbers is 94% are college educated. I wonder why that is?

RunningLaur said...

The college educated amount surprised me too. And that so many people liked mcdonalds and nike shoes! I can't get close to either!

Joe said...

That stat is pretty interesting (94% college educated). I'm going to share that with my 5th grade class. "If you start running, there's a 94% chance that you'll graduate from college!"

RunToTheFinish said...

I really loved that book..I can't be him, but it certainly made me think about my love of running

Missy said...

OK, apparently, I just need to go to Germany and run for crying out loud!

Julie said...

Well, I definitely think about food when I'm running! Always thinking about what I'm going to eat as soon as I finish. Mmmmm.....Chipotle. Hey, why didn't Chipotle make the top food chains?!

Unknown said...

That is some pretty interesting information. Nice to know that we are far from alone in our running pursuits.

Janice {Run Far} said...

that was fun thanks for sharing

joyRuN said...

Very interesting stats. Thanks for sharing!

Love McD's.

Rookie on the Run said...

Very interesting! As someone who majored in sociology in college, statistics like these fascinate me (yes, I'm a stats geek). Thanks for sharing! Fun stuff! :D

Unknown said...

Excellent post.!! I too bought my running shoes through online shopping.

Shannon said...

I absolutely CAN'T run without my tunes. When I do think over my music, it's usually things I need to do or forgot to do.

Glad your checking my blog out!

Shannon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I Run for Fun said...

Very interesting! Enjoyed reading. Thank you.

ShirleyPerly said...

Interesting! I'm amazed over half of the runners have completed a marathon. That's a lot more than I thought.