Some People Smoke and Drink, I Run: Addiction to Running through an Ethnographic Lens

Recreational long-distance runners' exercising levels often considerably exceed those necessary for keeping healthy. As their running careers unfold, many runners become inspired not so much by fitness and health but by other corollaries of running, such as capacity to endure high levels of pain and exhaustion or novel bodily experiences. As I show in the ethnographic example of Estonian runners, a low-resolution explanation of such a shift in runners' motivations allows it to be understood in conventional terms of addiction. Three symptoms commonly highlighted in definitions of exercise addiction - tolerance, continuance, and withdrawal - were particularly salient in the careers of many interviewed runners. However, the reasons for developing these symptoms were not merely psycho-physiological and their implications were not clear-cut which calls for a more nuanced approach to runners' bodily experiences, the meanings attributed to these, as well as running addiction and its relationship with health and well-being.

Automated summary

Recreational long-distance runners often exercise at levels higher than necessary for health due to motivations beyond fitness, such as endurance and novel bodily experiences. The ethnographic example of Estonian runners demonstrates that the reasons for exercise addiction are not solely psycho-physiological, requiring a nuanced understanding of runners' bodily experiences and their relationship with health and well-being.