Mizuno posed this question and had the University of North Carolina Business School do an analysis of studies that were already out there. Obviously, there were some assumptions made and some leaps of faith taken, but the conclusions were interesting.
Here are some of the interesting findings:
- 29.3 million happier marriages
- 48.1 million fewer cigarettes smoked daily
- exercise can reduce anger rates by 83%
- 14 billion fewer hours spent online
My favorite though: 135 million more victory beers
Here’s their reasoning:
Beer math: Half of all current runners enter races – so if everybody ran, and half of all new runners also entered a race and had one victory beer afterward, there would be millions more celebratory suds down the hatch.
See, they’ve proved my whole point – run for beer. ’nuff said.
It’s an interesting analysis. I enjoyed reading the study (yes, I read the whole thing, yes, I’m a geek). There is a huge assumption that everyone who is a non-runner could be a runner and an even bigger assumption that it would be good for them, but for *many* people there are benefits to running. I believe that for nearly all people, there are benefits of exercise. Just getting off your chair and moving, however you choose to move, is going to have benefits.
I’m a runner. I run for my mental health. I run to be a better mom and a better wife. I run to be strong. I run to be healthy. I run for the challenges it offers me.
Why do you run? What do you think about the study?
In related news, I ran a total of 47.5 miles in the last 5 days! 5 more weeks until 5 half marathons in 5 days!
I loved reading through this study. In a world that is becoming more and more obese, I’m hopeful that these statistics will encourage more people to get up off the couch and move. Many people think you have to be fast to be a runner, which is certainly not true. I’ve been running for almost a year now, and still consider myself slow by most running standards. Despite my speed, I’ve still reaped many of the benefits that this study highlighted, including greater happiness, less stress, and overall better health.
It’s a fine idea, but we lack the infrastructure to make it happen. When I answered this question on Miss Zippy’s Blog, I noted we would see an influx of 18x the runners we have now ( a runner being someone who ran 100 times in 52 weeks) and I can’t think of any running trail in Houston that could accommodate that. Memorial Park sees several thousand runners each day (and even more on the weekend). Multiply that by 18x and that’s more than almost every marathon out there. Even my neighborhood, which has 21 miles of paved trails and sidewalks would be hard-pressed to handle such an influx of runners. It’s an interesting concept and I am all for people being as active as possible, but I think we are better off with people being active across a variety of sports.
I like the beer math!!! I know that running helps me justify stuff like that for sure!
Thanks for sharing the study! I definitely geek out over this stuff too!
I love Mizuno and love, love, LOVE this campaign. Such a wonderful concept. I wish more people ran. More run buddies!
I saw that this week, too. I also thought it was amazing that they said there would be 40% (or something like that) less homelessness. It’s amazing.
I know for sure that my running has prevented a few homicides. LOL