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)