17 Interesting Running Facts You Didn’t Know

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Cross Training For Runners
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Written by :

David Dack

The history of running goes back thousands of years. Epochs have changed, running styles have changed, specialized equipment has appeared, but one thing has remained constant – the feeling of flight and freedom gained during a run.

The experts of cheap paper writing service have collected 10 unusual facts about running.

Fact #1.

The record for consecutive marathons run every day equals 365 days! Belgian runner Stephane Engels, also known as “The Marathon Man”, set this record in 2011 at the age of 49.

But that same year, the daily marathon record was broken by Spaniard Ricardo Abad as part of the 500 Marathons in 500 Days program, who continued it and ended up running 607 marathons in a row.

Additional Resource – 20 Fun Facts about running

Fact #2.

Music can improve your results by up to 15%! But only if you belong to a certain group of runners. If you tend to be internally focused, music is not likely to help you. But if you’re energized by the outside environment, turn up the volume on your headphones to cross the finish line even faster.

Fact #3.

More than 1 billion pairs of running shoes are sold in the world every year.

Fact #4.

The most expensive pair of running shoes costs 370,000 British pounds. These were the sneakers of Sir Roger Roger Bannister – British track and field athlete and neurologist, European champion in the 1500 meters in 1954, Commander of the Order of the British Empire. It was in this pair of shoes that he ran the first ever 1 mile in four minutes.

Fact #5.

Did you know that sneakers even surpass women’s high-heeled shoes in the number of pairs in in-home shoe cabinets? Sneakers generally occupy the first place in the world in shoe cabinets! They represent 39% of all shoes of the average statistical earthling, while the share of high-heeled shoes barely reaches 19%. But be careful: if these shares do not correspond to reality at your home, do not try to change it against the will of your other half.

Additional Resource – Here’s the full guide to running watches

Fact #6.

You can make lots and lots of money on the run. For example, in Scotland, you don’t even need to be first at the Loch Ness Marathon to bring home 50,000 British pounds. If you manage to photograph a real Loch Ness monster during the race near the fabled lake, you’ll get that prize regardless of the result. Of course, the ideal would be to win both the race and get all the prize money.

Fact #7.

In 1961, a farmer from Australia, Cliff Young, won the ultramarathon even though he was running it for the first time. He ran 875 km in 5 days, 15 hours, and 4 minutes, beating professional runners, although Cliff ran at a rather slow pace and was far behind at first.

It turned out that the farmer didn’t take any sleep breaks and ran while everyone else was asleep. He simply didn’t know that he could take sleep breaks. He wasn’t used to running without sleep for days because he constantly had to watch the sheep and pick them up in his pastures.

Fact #8.

The average man has so much energy in his fat reserves that he could run non-stop for 3 days at about 24 km per hour. As you note, that’s quite a lot and fast. So please don’t try to replicate that at home!

Fact #9.

In a recent study, runners were asked what food they couldn’t live without. The winner was a banana!

Fact #10.

Even if you’re the slowest runner, running just for your own pleasure, you burn at least 10 calories per minute of running. That means you can “burn off” half a bar of dark chocolate in 23 minutes.

Fact #11.

Your feet have 26 bones, 33 joints, 112 ligaments, and a network of nerve branches, tendons, and blood vessels. And it all has to work in sync when you run!

Fact #12.

The marathon distance at the first few Olympic Games was about 40 km. It only gained its modern metreage in 1908, when, during the London Olympics, the marathon route was lengthened to 42 km 195 m only for the sake of the royal family, who wanted to watch the race from the windows of Windsor Castle.

Fact #13.

The oldest person to run the marathon was 100 years old. It was an Indian, Fauja Singh, born in 1911. And now you’d be surprised even more – he didn’t start running until he was 89 years old. So it’s never too late to start!

Fact #14.

12 of the world’s top 20 runners belong to the Kalenjin tribe from northwestern Kenya.

Fact #15.

According to statistics, athletes wearing red clothes win competitions most often.

Fact #16.

Running is euphoric. After a long and exhausting run, an athlete is often caught up in a state known as runner’s euphoria: he is in a great mood, feels a boost of vitality, extraordinary clarity of thought, and the ability to cope with any problem.

Fact #17.

Two of America’s greatest track and field athletes had serious illnesses in their time. The hurdler Gail Devers suffered from Graves’ disease and nearly lost both feet. However, the disease receded and she won Olympic gold in 1992. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Wilma Rudolph, who specialized in short distances, won three gold medals in track and field. Keep in mind that as a child she suffered from polio and was a very sickly child, to whom doctors predicted disability. However, her mother and self-belief have worked wonders.

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Authors Bio: Iren Dmitrieva is a Seo copywriter. She’s specialized in content creation, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. She optimizes everything to make sure people find the content organically.

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