Self‐Accomplishment Through Running*

Abstract

Self transformation as a personal and shared social experience is shown to be achievable through distance running. Ethnographic materials, extensive interviews, and questionnaire results obtained over a two‐year period show how distance running becomes a meaningful activity that is central to a runner's daily routine as well as a progressive personal identity. The researchers examine the motives and felt self‐accomplishments for a wide range of runners, e.g., “joggers” to “marathoners” to “world‐class” competitors, and then show how each is informed by other realms of meaning, especially the work and the family contexts. The place of running in the context of broader social changes which promote the enhancement of physical well‐being is shown, as are the runners' concerns that the unique running experience may be coopted by organizational and bureaucratic demands.