The Power of Running

I was thinking that with so many people burning calories by running, if only that energy could be harnessed it might put a dent in the energy crisis. So for fun, I compared the energy exerted by runners to other worldly things that consume energy.


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<a href="http://www.runner.com/the-power-of-running" ><img title="power-of-running" src="http://www.runner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Power-of-running.jpg" alt="The Power of Running Infographic" width="568" height="2280" /></a>
<br /> <a href=http://www.runner.com>Runner.com - Information and Inspiration for the Runner</a>

• Total calories burned by core runners in one year equals 4,234,278,397,440
• That’s enough to power the electricity needs for 1,771,622 homes for a year.
• That is equivalent to all the homes in Los Angeles and San Francisco combined
• Total energy used by all core runners is equivalent to 177,162,208 gallons of gasoline
• That’s enough to power a Boeing 747 around the world 1,093 times
• That’s also equivalent to the energy expended by 177 atomic bombs the size of Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
• Calories a man runner burns per year of running equals 175,386 which is enough to power an LCD TV for 107 days
• Calories a woman runner burns per year of running equals 119,574 enough to power a clothes washer for 6 months
• An average woman running a marathon will burn enough calories to power a 60 watt bulb for 8 days
• An average man running a marathon will burn enough calories to power a laptop computer for 8 days
• For a half marathon, a woman runner will burn enough calories to charge cell phone for more than 21 days
• For a half marathon, a man runner will burn enough calories to run a clock radio for over 3.5 days
• The total calories burned by all finishers of the New York City Marathon equals 145,154,457, that is enough to light up NYC for 7 .5 hours

The figures used are for the core runner, which is a person that runs fifty or more times per year. Many sources were used to derive this information. Since there are many variables involved, I used averages (i.e. for runners weight, miles per week, LCD TV size, etc) so the results are estimates. Primary sources include, General Electric, Running USA, Runners World, Popular Mechanics, msnbc and the University of Washington.