Abstract

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.

摘要

休闲长跑运动员的锻炼水平常常大大超过保持健康所需的锻炼水平。随着跑步生涯的展开，许多跑步者的灵感并不是来自健身和健康，而是跑步的其他必然结果，例如忍受高度疼痛和疲惫的能力或新颖的身体体验。正如我在爱沙尼亚跑步者的人种学例子中所展示的那样，对跑步者动机的这种转变的“低分辨率”解释使其可以用传统的成瘾术语来理解。运动成瘾定义中经常强调的三个症状——耐受性、持续性和戒断性——在许多受访跑步者的职业生涯中尤为突出。然而，