The ROI of Running

One of the hardest things about discussing coaching with companies and large organizations is the discussion of ROI (return on investment). While I understand the importance of this measurement, it can be notoriously difficult to prove on paper using hard numbers when it comes to coaching. How do you quantify how much improvement was made by an executive as a result of coaching? How do you quantify the monetary impact of this improvement on the organization? It gets complicated…

I was contemplating the various aspects of ROI for a project I was working on while running the other day. I was hoping for creativity or divine inspiration… I was hoping for a miracle. What I got was… not a miracle. I started to think about the ROI of life and all of the things that make up a life. The ROI of sleeping, cooking, the daily commute, of yelling at my kids, of running. Some of these activities had a very low ROI and I have made a mental “note to self“ to seriously look into the ROI of yelling at my kids (which seemed at first glance to have the lowest ROI of the list). Some of the activities on the list had an incredibly high ROI for me personally, or at least that was my gut feeling, but if I were forced to PROVE this… Would I be able to? I decided to give it a try with running.

And this is my challenge with ROI when used as a measurement for intangibles. Because, once calculated on paper, running has a very low ROI. Although it is the least time intensive of the sports that I engage in (you don’t have to go to a pool or find a bicycle and a cycling trail), running still requires quite a bit of time. I stretch before my run, after the run, maybe do some strengthening exercises and then I have to shower. I might, depending on what is on the books for the rest of the day, do my hair and make up. Looking as good as I do (?!?!?!) takes a lot of time… Time is money, which leads back to the ROI question. If I use my usual hourly rate, a typical run (including prep time, run, stretching and shower, etc) probably costs me around 75 to 100 Euros per run. I won’t bother to calculate the opportunity cost of being out of pocket for that hour. But even so, if you consider that I generally run 3 – 4 times per week, that starts to add up. Then there are all of the supplies to buy to support my running habit… shoes (150 Euros), GPS watch (200 to 500+ Euros), exercise clothes (highly variable, but maybe 100+ Euros a year?), ibuprofen (also highly variable and hopefully LESS than 100 Euros per year)… which brings me to the cost of a physio… I average 3 to 4 visits a year at approx. 100 Euros a visit… This starts to look expensive… (Side note: I am the type of girl who LOVES a good excel spreadsheet!! As I type this post, I have 4 different spreadsheets open on my computer). I open a new spreadsheet, plug in the numbers and excel informs me that the approximate cost to me per year to be a runner is over 12,500 Euros!! Is that possible? On paper I NEED to give up this sport!!

In ROI terms, what return do I get on this investment? I have not closed any business deals while running or because of running. I have never held a “running coaching session”, although I consistently propose them. I lecture on Sustaining Executive Performance, which I can do because I have credibility in this area as a runner, but payment for those sessions does not cover the initial “investment”. So on paper, running has a negative ROI.

So, why do I run? Well, here I could cite all of the scientific evidence that exists which proves that exercise is critical to my health and to my long-term high performance as an executive. I could talk about the oxygen boost it gives my brain, which makes me smarter for up to 48 hours after my run. I could say that being physically active boosts my energy levels and that this (while counterintuitive) is supported by science. I could say that as humans we have evolved to move and that our current sedentary lifestyle is (quite literally) killing us. I could say that physical activity cuts my chances of getting Alzheimers and cancer.

I could say all of these things and they would be true, and yet not true. While it is easy to justify physical fitness and exercise, I run more than you actually need to in order to gain these benefits.

In the end, if pushed, I would say that I run because I need to run. Because it quiets my mind and it gives me the mental space I need to think and dream. As a single mom, this is no small thing! It really is the ONE small selfish thing that I do for myself… that I give myself permission to do for myself. We all spend so much of our time working for others. I see it in my coaching practice all the time. Work-Life balance is such a key theme. What we often forget is that taking the time to take care of ourselves allows us to better care for and manage others. It gives us the internal emotional structures to self manage. It makes us better managers. It makes us better people.

So the ROI of things like running and of coaching… For me, incalculable (literally)! For me the impact on my life and the impact I see on others is priceless. In life, as in business, some of the most important things we do and the biggest factors in our success, might not be easily defined by ROI. While I agree that it is an important and useful concept, if we focus only on the RETURN, on what is in it for us or our organization, we miss out. We need to dig deeper. I hope to find a way to measure the impact of the intangible things we do for ourselves (and indirectly for others) one day. But for now I will keep the faith that intangibles do have a huge ROI, even if we can not measure it properly yet. And I will also keep running. Because it makes me a better person, even if my spreadsheet tells me a different story.