The new opiate of the middle-class masses

Saturday, October 14, 2006
Anne Marie Owens
National Post

When the enthusiasts make their way through the streets of Toronto or alongside the shores of Prince Edward Island this weekend, when they fill the downtown in Chicago and Washington, D.C., after that, it is unlikely they will be pelted with derisive epithets or rotten apples.
There was a time, not so long ago, when practitioners of long-distance running were the subject of societal ridicule for an extreme athletic pursuit that was regarded as freakish. These days, however, marathon running is the quintessence of mainstream. It has become so common among the ranks of upwardly mobile professionals that participating in such a race is almost expected -- the ancient event has been transformed into a thoroughly modern status symbol that singlehandedly conveys fitness, financial success, work-life balance and an unerring ability to do it all.

"If you look at a cross-section of marathoners in a big race, it would be almost identical to a cross-section of the urban middle class," says Ian Ritchie, a sociologist who studies sport and is a marathoner himself. "The event reinforces the values which are important to that class: individual ability, merit as a reward system, self-discipline, hard work, organization, constantly striving for self-improvement." Between 400,000 and 500,000 people across North America run marathons in a single year, with October the busiest month of all.

In just a couple of decades, a predominantly solitary pursuit has become a group-bonding activity; a male-dominated sport is being gradually overtaken by high-powered, multi-tasking women; and what was once an elite event is increasingly being propelled by the middle-class masses. Prof. Ritchie, who teaches in the physical education department of Ontario's Brock University, says that until recently people who undertook such extreme physical exertion were widely regarded as societal freaks, and even in the 1970s, "passers-by would regularly yell and throw objects at runners, considering them deviant."

He says the image of the long-distance runner has been overhauled and remade in the image of modern society, "Sport has often been used to reinforce notions of class, of gender, of society ... This has now come to reinforce status as a person who is successful and who can do it all. There is a lot of positive status in our society to being the kind of person who can hold down a job, be physically active, raise a family, and find the time to run this kind of distance."
He also points out that most of the marathoners participating in these events are the opposite of those who dominate the prize-winning - where the medal holders still often hail from the traditions of the great black long-distance runners from small African villages. The majority of participants these days are white, middle-aged, urban professionals.

John Stanton has witnessed the cultural revolution in running firsthand, and benefited greatly from it. The Edmonton-based founder of the Running Room, a chain of stores that offers a one-stop service and supply centre for all manner of runners, began running marathons in the mid-1980s when the sport fit into an era where crush-your-opponent racquetball prevailed, Wall Street's Gordon Gekko crushed the financial competition onscreen and the credo of all runners, he says, "was go hard, or go home."

Back then, his competitors in marathons were 80% male, and the competition was hard-driving: When he and a friend were clocking in for three-hour, 20-minute marathons, their times were often regarded as not even worth showing up. These days, three hours, 20 minutes is beyond a respectable time, it is deemed downright competitive in most races. The average time for all runners in marathons in the U.S. last year was four hours, 45 minutes. The mean finishing time in the Ottawa marathon in 1984 was about three-and-a-half hours; this year, the mean finishing time was four hours, 20 minutes, says Mr. Stanton. So what has changed? The number of participants, for one thing. Events that were once sparsely attended now draw people in the thousands. An Ottawa marathon, for example, drew 25,000 participants this year. In 1984, there were only 2,500. There has also been a huge gender shift. In the Okanagan marathon in British Columbia recently, 60% of the competitors were women.

Mr. Stanton says that where the first boom in marathon running was characterized by odd, loner-type runners involved in a solitary pursuit, this latest boom has been fuelled by the social potential of running as a community of enthusiasts, a supportive network.
His company realized the possibility early on when it began offering group runs in the late 1980s. There are now 90 Running Rooms across North America and this group approach is now the dominant training model for marathoners. "Running has brought a sense of community at a time when we really need it," says Mr. Stanton. "It allows us to disconnect briefly from technology and it allows us to interact with people."

For Trish Murphy, a 52-year-old Calgary resident who shuttles between her native Dublin, her Canadian home and various exotic locales, the only constant in her peripatetic life is her long-distance running. She took it up as a stay-at-home mother in a new city with no friends or community, where the long runs provided the regularity and discipline she desired.
"Running is not competitive, it is community," insists Ms. Murphy, who has competed in five marathons, the most recent, the legendary one in Boston. "You compete against yourself, your time, your desires to do another one ... We lead such hectic lives, running long distances gives a structure to your day, to your life really. It gives you that sense that you can do anything."
aowens@nationalpost.com

NIPPLES
The constant friction and chafing that results from clothing rubbing against tender skin leaves many long-distance runners with raw, painful and even bloody nipples. The common problem among men, always fodder for much discussion in any runner's chatroom, is usually remedied by wearing lighter fabrics or smearing on anti-chafing products prior to a run. Some runners wear Band-Aids.

BONES
As a high-impact activity, running may maintain or increase bone density and help offset osteoporosis. However, it can also put more stress on the joints than lower-impact activities such as walking and cycling. Runners can get stress fractures as a result of overuse and repeated stress to a bone, where broken surfaces are held together only by surface tension and surrounding tissues. These fractures are usually diagnosed by what is called "crescendo pain," which as the name suggests, begins at the onset of running, increases in intensity during the run and only ceases when the runner stops.

LIBIDO
Are runners better lovers? A survey that correlated sex habits and finishing times of long-distance runners in England found that runners who had sex the night before a marathon ran faster than those who did not. While half of those questioned said their sex life had been unaffected by running, 30% said the sport had improved their performance in bed.

MUSCLES
There are two different kinds of fibres in muscles, fast twitch and slow twitch, which are largely determined by genetics. Slow-twitch fibres, which contract slowly and can keep going for a long time, are the key to successful marathon running, while fast-twitch fibres, which contract quickly but are rapidly worn out, benefit sprinting. Long-distance running is an aerobic activity, utilizing oxygen, and requires a great deal of muscular endurance.

LUNGS AND RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
In order to run, the body needs to keep muscles supplied with enough oxygen to make the energy required. A key physiological attribute of a good distance runner is the body's capacity for oxygen consumption, known as VO2 max. Any kind of running, from slow jog to endurance race to all-out sprint, improves the lungs.

HEART
When a runner starts to breathe quickly and more deeply, the heart beats faster to provide more oxygen for the muscles. The arterioles, the small terminal branches of an artery, also widen to stop blood pressure getting too high. The increased cardiovascular capacity that comes from living at high altitudes is thought to be part of the key to the success of Kenya's world-famous runners.

SHINS
The repeated smacking of foot on ground puts stress on lower leg muscles and can cause a condition called shin splints. These sharp pains on impact are caused by small tears in the muscles where they attach to the tibia bone. Many novice runners develop shin splints because they wear worn-out or improper shoes, or because they run too much too soon. Rest is required to allow the tears to heal.

BOWELS
Running is good for maintaining regular bowel movements and has been linked to a decreased incidence of colon cancer. The downside of such regularity is the frequency of what are known as "runner's trots," which afflict 20% to 50% of distance runners, with symptoms ranging from cramping and nausea to bouts of flatulence and diarrhea. The problem is so common that running clubs and online chatrooms devote considerable attention to prevention tactics, such as avoiding warm fluids before a race.

KNEE
One of the most common injuries to plague runners is the softening, wearing away and cracking of cartilage under the kneecap, or patella, that is known as runner's knee. The cartilage-against-cartilage induced swelling is caused by over-pronation, which is when the feet rotate too far inward on impact, causing the kneecap to twist sideways.

FEET
A force three- to five-times body weight can be absorbed with each step. The constant pounding is so intense during a long-distance run that it results in a temporary loss of height - surprising evidence suggests that marathon runners finish a race two centimetres shorter than they were at the outset, due largely to the impact of feet hitting ground. Many runners lose toenails and most develop hard calluses where their feet rub their shoes.