Running is a fundamental human activity and holds an important place in popular culture. In recent decades it has exploded in popularity as a leisure pursuit, with marathons and endurance challenges exerting a strong fascination. This is the first book to examine running and endurance through a socio-cultural lens. Based on original qualitative research from sport sociology, anthropology and history, the book examines how we conceptualise endurance, why we run and with what outcomes, and whether the ability to endure is an innate human characteristic or a socially-constructed concept. It is fascinating reading for anybody working in the sociology of sport or the body, or cultural studies.

1. Critical Considerations of Runners and Running Part 1: Running Beginnings 2. "Astounding Exploits" and "Laborious Undertakings": Nineteenth-Century Pedestrianism and the Cultural Meanings of Endurance 3. On the Entangled Origins of Mud Running: "Overcivilization," Physical Culture, and Overcoming Obstacles in the Spartan Race 4. Charting the Development of Contemporary Endurance Running Training Theory 5. Beyond Boston and Kathrine Switzer: Women's Participation in Distance Running Part 2: Running Because 6. Foot Trouble: The Minimalist Running Movement 7. Disrupting Identity: An Affective Embodied Reading of Runner's World 8. Boston Strong: Sport, Terror/ism, and the Spectacle Pedagogy of Citizenship 9. Lopez Lomong: Enduring Life 10. Enduring Disability, Ableism, and Whiteness: Three Readings of Inspirational Endurance Athletes in Canada Part 3: Running Bodies 11. "My hormones were all messed up": Understanding Female Runners Experiences of Amenorrhea 12. Ultrarunning: Space, Place, and Social Experience 13. An Interdisciplinary Conversation About Running Between Two Academics Who Run 14. Hitting a Purple Patch: Building High Performance Runners at Runtleborough University 15. Digging In: The Sociological Phenomenology of "Doing Endurance" in Distance-Running 16. Enduring Ideas