This seems like a semi ridiculous point to make. Many people who work up the strength to do a marathon are folks who will bike commute to work, and who walk or run when possible. I think amount of petroleum used to prevent blisters and chafing is small compared to what these people save by living healthier, active lifestyles day in and day out.

Additionally, better, plant-based (Aloe Vera and glyceride) anti-chafing products are gaining popularity over the plain old petroleum jelly.

#71 - 76% Ran for charity.

And I think this figure might be an overestimate. Bodyglide is also very popular amongst runners for preventing chaffing and doesn't contain petroleum.

LOL, you did mean it an a joke? As in not to be taken as a serious reason why we are running out of fossil fuels?

What about the energy they are using by doing this activity

as a rough calculation

It takes approximately 100 Kcalories to run a mile and a marathon is approximately 26 miles so every runner uses 2600kcalories multiply this by the number of runners (35,000) equals 910 Million Kcalories which takes a lot of food to replace.

Just though I would add this .

David (marathon runner)

what an idiotic article.

Im glad to see that the tree huggers are finally starting to admit that global climate change has NO affect on hurricanes.
maybe soon they will realize that the people of this world do not have the affect on this planet that they think they do. Sorry, but you guys are all going to look like fools in ten to twenty years.

Llyod,

Since you haven't indicated you're joking, then one has to assume you're rather dim: the amount of petroleum used by runners is on the scale of worldwide use, infinitesimal.

I hope that, for the sake of the site, you retract, or that a treehuger editor resects. This entry cheapens your publication.

I wish the editors/authors of this site would make a commitment to investigating legitimate environmental issues from an intellectual standpoint. One of the problems with putting out articles such as this is that when critics of the green movement visit this site, they are left with the impression that being 'green' is synonymous with being 'soft in the head'.

What about the energy they are using by doing this activity

as a rough calculation

It takes approximately 100 Kcalories to run a mile and a marathon is approximately 26 miles so every runner uses 2600kcalories multiply this by the number of runners (35,000) equals 910 Million Kcalories which takes a lot of food to replace.

Just though I would add this .

David (marathon runner)

not particularly amusing and exacerbating my opinion that treehugger is stumbling in their attempts to bring relevant environmental news to the people.

It seems as if somedays treehugger authors are just desperate to write their quota of articles for the week irrespective of the quality.

if you want to retain a following of educated, interested readers please cease with such articles.

honestly, you are exacerbating my opinion that TreeHugger readers have NO sense of humour. It's not so much an article as a single quote. It's time to get over yourself.

And as for anonymous who calls Lloyd dim - pot calling the kettle black, apparently. Oh, and it's spelled LLOYD not LLYOD

BACK IN THE HOLES, TROLLS.

Are we all unable to take a joke?

And failing that, did nobody see the "Humour" tag at the bottom of the article?

In my opinion, it's good to have little jabs like this, to get us to laugh at ourselves. It keeps us from getting too self-righteous about environmental causes, which makes our entire movement more approachable to and resonant with the public at large. Treehugger PROtip: If it looks like a silly article, take it with a grain of salt. The writers here have a sense of humour.

Chaffing is a very serious issue and shouldn't be joked about. :p

I think it is great that people run. I am a little annoyed with all of the shirts that are given at these events, more from the stand point of reduce or reuse. I am a runner and if I would race as often as I'd like, I'd have a heck of a lot more drawers filled with shirts. I know I should give them away (which some of them I do) I'd just much rather see Organic Cotton shirts, or possibly no shirts. Its a situation that I hope to bring to fruitation, some might see this as small.

However if people understand the small and why it should be undone, then perhaps they will understand other things in the reduce, reuse, and recycle situation.

I would suggest that using fossil fuels in this manner is better than the alternative. Tree Huggers should be wanting fossil fuels to run out.