51% running shoes, 49% gasoline

For the past dozen years or so I've only worn one type of trainer; the Nike Pegasus (29 currently).  Now many people might say they aren't the greatest shoe, and I really don't care because they work for me.  Twelve years of essentially injury free running can be attributed to many things, and shoes are certainly one of them.  I generally order multiple pairs of Pegasus trainers at a time, and fortunately there is a shoe store in town that has always given me a good deal which I am very thankful for.  I often discard a pair of shoes at 450 miles, which is 4 to 5 weeks of running.  I always like to start a new pair of shoes on a Monday, so sometimes I may toss a pair of shoes at less then 450 miles, but generally never try to go above that. I hose down and clean old shoes and if they seem clean enough and reasonable enough (450 miles isn't much to most people), I try to give them to charity or put them in one of those recycling shoe bins so they don't go to the dump immediately.

I like to do my runs from home, but that isn't always possible.  We do workouts here and there around the city, and for me the only way to make it to practice (I live in the suburbs) is by driving my Jeep.  I'm not a huge fan of gas guzzling SUV's and I often wish I had something smaller and more practical.  But the cost to purchase a new vehicle is prohibitively expensive compared to keeping a 12 year old, low mileage vehicle.  I mostly justify driving a Jeep by saying that I don't drive it very far or often, generally a couple times a week into the city and maybe a small trip within Richmond.  I fortunately live across the street from my bank, grocery store, produce store, liquor store, and butcher shop, so I can walk to the essentials.  While I avoid the Jeep as much as possible, it is still a necessary part of my life and from time to time it needs gas.  Living in Metro Vancouver means expensive gas.  Anything over $1.30/liter is normal and at the current rate of $1.23/liter I feel like I'm stealing money from the oil companies (very sad). I can generally go 4 to 5 weeks on a single tank of gas.  I've actually kept logs for the past couple years recording my mileage between fill ups and gas consumption.  The on-board computer says, the Jeep uses 14.1L/100k lifetime.

So where am I going with this? I've often wondered what costs more, driving my Jeep or running.  In the past I've loosely done the calculations in my head while running and figured they were mostly comparable.  So I though it would be fun to actually do the math and figure out what actually costs more.  For some simplicity, I'm not going to calculate in flats and spikes in the running equation or oil changes and maintenance in the vehicle equation.  This will be a straight up mile for mile comparison - Pegasus vs. Jeep.   Oh, I'm also going to use regular cost/value for this.

Nike Pegasus - $140.00.  At 450 miles per pair it costs me $0.311 per mile.

Mr. Jeep. - 70L tank and gas at $1.23/L = $86.10 per fill up.  450km average or 280miles per tank.
At 280 miles and $86 to fill up it costs me $0.307 per mile. 

Mr. Jeep in Pumpkingate 2011

In reality the shoes cost me less per mile because I don't pay $140 a pair and gas isn't generally $1.23 a liter.  But we're only talking about a penny or two per mile here if I recalculated this.  So what does that mean?  I think I'm more of an environmental concern then an SUV.  In fact, if I used a smaller, fuel efficient car that used less gas and went further per liter used, I am (running) a far greater concern to the environment then a vehicle.  I feel bad now. At least I use recyclable bags at the grocery store, a coffee mug to avoid paper cups, and turn the heat down and opt for sweaters in the winter to save energy.  I feel better now.