How many runners are there in the United States? That depends on who you ask and who you define as a runner. According to the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA), more than 22 million Americans ran in 1996. That’s about one in 12 Americans! However, the NSGA figures count anyone who ran more than five times that year as a runner. So that statistic includes all those people who made a New Year’s resolution to run, hit the roads a few times a week for a month, but then gave it up as they lost motivation (does this describe you?).
I’m not saying that it’s not great that 22 million Americans ran more than five times in 1996. But running is different from something like camping, which, according to the NSGA, more than 44 million Americans did in 1996. The hard-core outdoorsy crowd might not agree with me here, but if you go camping once a month or so, you can safely say that you’re a camper.
Running is different. Within even a week of training, your cardiovascular fitness starts to improve. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true—stop running, and you start to lose the benefits. If you run 10 times in a month and then give it up for six months, you’ll be starting from scratch if you take it up again. Contrast that with camping, where you might take a few trips in the summer and then not go again until spring. I’d bet you wouldn’t find yourself just standing at the campsite, baffled as to how to set up a tent, start a fire, and so on.
To be a runner, you have to keep at it. That’s why the statistics gathered by American Sports Data (ASD), a research organization that tracks Americans’ participation in 58 sports and activities, provide more accurate numbers. In addition to overall participation, this organization tracks what it calls “frequent participation.” For running, frequent participation means going at least 100 times in a year. That number seems right to me. If you run at least 100 times per year, you’re probably running about twice a week. That’s really the minimum of what you can do and expect to make progress in terms of endurance, distance, and so on.
Just a little more than 8 million Americans met ASD’s definition of frequent participants in running in 1996. It’s not 22 million, but it’s still a lot of people—roughly 3 percent of the American population running at least twice a week. Even more encouraging is the fact that more than 5 million Americans ran at least 150 days in 1996, according to ASD. That’s almost every other day. Only fitness walking and lifting with free weights can claim more adherents at this level of participation.
I’m not saying that it’s not great that 22 million Americans ran more than five times in 1996. But running is different from something like camping, which, according to the NSGA, more than 44 million Americans did in 1996. The hard-core outdoorsy crowd might not agree with me here, but if you go camping once a month or so, you can safely say that you’re a camper.
Running is different. Within even a week of training, your cardiovascular fitness starts to improve. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true—stop running, and you start to lose the benefits. If you run 10 times in a month and then give it up for six months, you’ll be starting from scratch if you take it up again. Contrast that with camping, where you might take a few trips in the summer and then not go again until spring. I’d bet you wouldn’t find yourself just standing at the campsite, baffled as to how to set up a tent, start a fire, and so on.
To be a runner, you have to keep at it. That’s why the statistics gathered by American Sports Data (ASD), a research organization that tracks Americans’ participation in 58 sports and activities, provide more accurate numbers. In addition to overall participation, this organization tracks what it calls “frequent participation.” For running, frequent participation means going at least 100 times in a year. That number seems right to me. If you run at least 100 times per year, you’re probably running about twice a week. That’s really the minimum of what you can do and expect to make progress in terms of endurance, distance, and so on.
Just a little more than 8 million Americans met ASD’s definition of frequent participants in running in 1996. It’s not 22 million, but it’s still a lot of people—roughly 3 percent of the American population running at least twice a week. Even more encouraging is the fact that more than 5 million Americans ran at least 150 days in 1996, according to ASD. That’s almost every other day. Only fitness walking and lifting with free weights can claim more adherents at this level of participation.
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