• Seattle Times, Wednesday, July 7, 2010 10:38 AM

Could be, if Amy Martinez' report has legs, that all those former Curves members are running for the hills, dales and flats. Her story leads with Alice Lawson who, seeing troublesome economic times ahead, dropped a gym membership in early 2009 and took up running instead. Last month, she completed her first half-marathon.

In fact, the number of marathon finishers rose nearly 10% between 2008 and 2009 to 467,000, according to nonprofit Running USA, and half-marathon finishers jumped 24% from 900,000 in 2008 to 1.1 million in 2009.

"Running appears to be not recession-proof, but at least it's recession-resistant," says David Willey, editor of Runner's World magazine. "People tend to focus on things they can control, and they want to get healthier, so they start running more."

One thing they can control is how much they spend on equipment. Despite the upsurge, running-shoe sales rose only 2% last year while sales of running apparel dropped 3%, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. "With running, you can wear that ratty old T-shirt, and you can wear cutoffs if you want," points Chet James, owner of specialty running store Super Jock 'n Jill.

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