A total of 86,760,994 km were run in the UK in 2015

2015 Strava Insights show running landscape in the UK

Strava, the social network for athletes, has published its annual End of Year Insights for 2015. Comprising of millions of individual runs and rides, the data offers unique insight into the habits and behaviour of Britain’s cyclists and runners.

The data reveals that in 2015 a staggering 5.3 activities were uploaded and shared on the social network every second. Such an immense depth of data allows documentation and analysis of the UK’s growth in the world of running and cycling, while also providing direct comparison with the Strava community on a global scale.

Global Running

Runners around the world clocked up 52,006,574 runs on Strava, recording the equivalent of 275,648 marathons along the way, as they reached an impressive running total of 434,262,247 km. Unlike Strava’s cyclists, who chose early summer to reach their peak activity, the runners looked to the tail end of the season in order to stretch their legs and marked Sunday 13th September as the most active day for a run. Global elevation gain was one of the most astounding statistics for Strava runners, reaching the dizzying heights of 3,810,420,727 meters in total.

UK Running

The UK contributed 10,879,161 runs and 86,760,994 km to the global figures. Men recorded an average pace of 5:17/km for their average running distance of 8.4 km, while women recorded a pace of 6:13 over their 7 km runs.

During the year, men and women spent a similar amount of time pounding the roads, parks and countryside of Britain; finishing only 36 minutes apart as men totalled 14hr 38min to women’s 14hr 02min over the course of the year. London and West Yorkshire once again locked horns for most active location, with the capital’s runners completing 1,350,078 activities to its northern rival’s 416,215.

Wales proved a similarly lumpy affair for runners as it did cyclists, charting 177m of elevation on average, while also seeing Powys secure top spot in both longest average distance 9.8 km run and longest average moving time 1hr 07min.

Run Commuting

Tuesday 14th April had the most people digging out their running shoes and commuting into work, encouraging 5,751 to swap their usual mode of transport to work up a sweat instead. Commuters heading in on foot spent a minute less travelling than their cycling counterparts (38 min v 39 min) and uploaded 19,137 runs to Strava each week.

Simon Klima, UK Country Manager for Strava, commented; "This latest release of Strava's data demonstrates once again the great depth of insight which is available when collating the activities of the world's cyclists and runners."

He continued: "The UK's Strava story offers us an unprecedented opportunity to analyse and interpret a broad spectrum of data, helping to understand behaviour and habits; as well as providing real world feedback on how people utilise their local roads for both exercise and commuting."

To find out more about Strava, please visit www.strava.com