Following my 15-miler today, I realized what might seem like the most inexpensive and environmentally friendly activity, really is not. Let’s take a look at the breakdown of today’s run:

Shoes: $100. I get ~200 miles out of a pair of my Saucony Pro Grid Hurricane 10s so that comes out to $.50 per mile. Today’s run? $7.50 in shoe wear.

Energy: You cannot run 15 miles without energy supplements. I happen to choose Powerbar Gels. I shoot for one every three miles; four for today’s run. They cost about $1.30 with tax. $1.30 x 4 = $5.20 in energy supplements. (Looking back on this in November of 2011, this was overkill)

Ice: Since this was a paved run all the way, I’ve chosen to take an ice bath. A 10lb bag of “Premium Ice” (what’s premium about it? I don’t know) from Harris Teeter is $2.30 with tax. 10lb is not enough; I need 20lb. 2 x $2.30 = $4.60 in recovery ice.

Recovery Drink: I’m a big fan of Endurox. It gives me that quick bit of energy I need after a run, it tastes good, and it has lots of good stuff in it. I typically buy jugs of it when they’re on sale for $25ish. Each jug contains 28 servings. $25/28 = $.90 in recovery drink.

There are also the specialty socks, shorts, and watches. Since they don’t really seem to wear out, I won’t include them here, but they’re worth mentioning. I’d say I run with about $200 worth of that stuff on at any time. In addition, there’s the whole time is money thing and the amount of food I’ll be consuming to make up for a 1500+ calorie burn… Yeah…

Today’s 15 mile run cost me $18.90. Luckily, we were able to run straight from the house, but there is usually driving [gas] involved in these longer runs as well. Maybe I’ll take up bridge…