What if everyone ran?
This was the question tackled by MBA students in their quest to see how society would benefit overall is every single American ran. I cam upon the article ‘Number Crunchers’ in the September edition of Runner’s World magazine. It was a fantastic article that highlighted all the good that can be done from running. According to the article, if every American ran:
- The U.S. GDP would rise by $25 billion (that’s a whole lotta dough…)
- The United States could save $143 billion in annual health-care costs (yowsa!!)
- Americans would bake 1.62 billion more birthday cakes (hey, even if it’s cake it’s better to cook your own food so you have control over the ingredients)
- Homelessness could be reduced by 46% (what a wonderful world that would be)
- Thirty-seven percent more people would smile (c’mon, that’s fantastic! the world needs more smiles – always)
- There would be 163,607 fewer divorces (hmm…as a proud divorcee, I highly doubt running would have saved my marriage (lol), but I can see how running could save a marriage. If you’re out running, you can’t argue right?!)
These stats were also shared in a recent Mizuno advertisement. To future promote their philosophy, #ifeverybodyran, they have an amazing app called The Mizuno Baton. Basically the company will donate $1 for every mile ran with the app to a non profit called Back on My Feet. I just love when being healthy can no only benefit yourself, but other people as well!
Another great app is Charity Miles. You can walk, run or bike to log miles on the app and select a charity to receive the funds ($.10 per mil for biking and $0.25 per mile for walking/running)
So basically, what I am trying to say is that RUNNING IS AWESOME!!
Do you use any charity apps while you run? I would love to know if there are others! Feel free to leave a comment 🙂
Leave a Reply