| I have asked the question: what body results from ultrarunning? I investigate ultrarunning embodiment using ethnographic and autoethnographic techniques. I interviewed and observed runners as they trained and competed in ultramarathons, collected race reports and online data. Many interviews were conducted while I ran alongside my participants. I relied on insights provided through embodiment theory by theorists including Bourdieu, Merleau-Ponty and Csikszentmihalyi in making sense of ultrarunning embodiment. I applied a grounded approach allowing results to emerge from my participants' experiences. Six meta-themes arose as major components of ultrarunning embodiment. I chose the most ubiquitous, prominent, centralizing feature (i.e. pain, injury and suffering - PIS) for further discussion. It became apparent that PIS is a central, omnipresent aspect of ultrarunning that helps define and make sense of one's body. Embodiment of PIS becomes a central facet of one's identity as ultrarunner, contributing to one's perception of reality. |
