I've considered running enough Events on my own to qualify for a badge. (70 hours)
If I play in my own games do my hours count towards that amount or just the other players?

The player hours are for what you submit to run, (and then actually show up to run and submit the tickets for) not how many players sign up or show up. So you will know when your events are accepted if you have 70 player hours. Otherwise you would essentially be penalized for no shows.

But if you are counting yourself as a player, just make sure you reduce the number of available tickets (for example if it is a board game that takes up to 8 and you plan on playing, you should list the event for 7 players). 

Is it enough to say I ran the game and played in it for x hours or do I have to have a ticket for myself? In other words, if I run a game for four with myself as a player but bring in 3 tickets from the other players do i get credit for my play without one?

As the GM, you never count yourself and you never turn in tickets for yourself.  It doesn't matter whether or not you actually play in the game; player-hours are based on what you submit, not how many tickets you turn in.

OK, this is what I wanted to know in the first place. Might have to cancel some submitted Events as I don't want to spend half of every day running games just to try and reach 70 hours.

After some reflection, these are games I want to play in and would likely be seeking them out when registering for Events anyway. May as well run them myself then I have a guaranteed seat!
 

And it really does not take up too much time to earn 70 player hours. For example, I could run 3 RPG events for 6 players/4 hours and earn 72 hours. That is only 4 hours per day - leaving you plenty of time for other things.

I don't know what game you are thinking of running, but even if it is only a 2 hour game for 4 players (8 player hours), that is still only about 6 hours per day you would be giving up, and also playing the game you want to play while earning a free badge.