Running USA said 2013 proved to be another historic and record breaking year for U.S. running events and overall finishers. Its 2014 State of the Sport – Part III: U.S. Race Trends report showed that the Second Running Boom is still going strongly as it enters its third decade.
The snapshot below summarizes the key race numbers and statistics from 2013 and past years.
2013 U.S. Running Snapshot:
- Females account for 10.8 million finishers nationwide (a record number) and represent the highest percentage ever reported of 57 percent from event fields. Males in 2013 also set a new high with more than 8 million finishers in U.S. races. Overall, there were 19,025,000 finishers in U.S. running events (another record).
- The number of U.S. race finishers has increased nearly 300 percent since 1990, and female representation has grown from just 25 percent to an all-time high of 57 percent in 2013; see Table 1 below.
- Total number of U.S. running events reached 28,200, another all-time high, and a 7 percent increase since 2012; see Table 3.
- The half-marathon continues to fuel the growth of the Second Running Boom with an annual increase of 6 percent finishers (1.96 million, another new high) with an astounding 61 percent female participation.
- In 2013, the 5K maintained the #1 position of all race distances with 8.3 million finishers (another record number), claiming 43 percent of all finishers in the U.S., while the half-marathon again held the #2 position with approximately 10 percent of the finishers, followed by the 10K (7.9 percent).
- Per our 2014 State of the Sport Part I special report, mud runs, obstacle runs and color-themed runs have grown exponentially in the past few years, and it is estimated that approximately a record 4 million runners participated in these mostly untimed non-traditional, adventure-type races last year.
