This article is from: JSTOR Daily, original title: The Critique of Pure Marathon, Interface news translation, translator: Liu slip
On November 3, a total of more than 50,000 people participated in the New York Marathon, and 40 of them won prizes. There are more than 20,000 female players and nearly 40,000 people from New York State to participate in this competition.
The marathon today began with the “running boom” that emerged in the 1970s, when typical entrants (all men) met a now-outdated prototype image: a persevering and lonely working-class runner.
However, today’s marathon has emerged as a new runner: casual runners not only outnumber the ambitious contestants, but they are also richer and may be women.
One of the most well-known figures in the old prototype of runners is the protagonist of Alan Sillitoe’s short story The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
Smith was jailed for stealing bread and started running in prison. He ran for miles in the scorching sun or the bitter cold, enduring this lonely but gratifying temporary relief. When he showed the talent of long-distance runners, the manager of the juvenile guilty school was eager to see him participate in the All England race on behalf of the Reformatory. Finally, out of the contempt for “the dean’s ambitions”, Smith deliberately lost the game. His anti-hero behavior was regarded by some as “Christian” and by others as “unrepentant.”
Smith refused to use his talent to be a role model for his “class.” Here, if running is a metaphor, it is the innate suffering in the metaphor of difficult life.
Smith represents the old prototype, and the new prototype is almost the opposite. Running is a completeDifferent metaphors: it represents our general desire and ability for self-improvement.
In the film “Mama’s Marathon”, the young woman Brittany Forgler learned to love herself through marathon training. People like Brittany are self-satisfied, full of suspicion, and don’t care about the time or place of the game. Instead, she is interested in a self-improvement that is often oriented outside, and running promotes and gradually represents this self-improvement.
Similarly, in the real-life New York Marathon, more and more players wear carbon-plate sneakers designed for professional marathon runners, wearing high-end GPS watches to participate in expensive road races. Participants are also more inclined to position themselves as professionals who seek personal recognition rather than winning the game.
Some changes in the marathon’s demographics (most notably, the increasing number of women participating in endurance sports and the establishment of wheelchair awards for special awards) are undoubtedly positive, the scale of the competition and its commercialization Reflecting the changes in the amateur long-distance running culture, it also responded to this change. The amateur long-distance running culture has become more active in responding to the “healthy culture” and has also created a “healthy culture”.
Some specific changes in the New York Marathon took place at the institutional level. In 1970, Fred Lebow founded the marathon, one of the 55 finalists of the time. In his 22 years as the tournament director, the Marathon and its sponsoring organization, the New York Road Runners Association, has grown from a major event and organization that attracts serious runners to a larger scale, a broader market, and more profit. Organizational form.
Pamela Cooper explains in the Journal of Sport History:
Before the “marathon boom” of the 1970s, marathon runners were contestants who wanted themselves (if they couldn’t win) to be at least in the top ten or compete for age group awards. The marathon is usually closed after four hours, and the players who complete the competition will not be recorded. The new marathon usually thinks the event is not a game, but a subjective reward. It is a spiritual achievement.
Interestingly, Lebo himself ranked 45th out of 55 players in 4 hours and 12 minutes, which is at a moderate level today.
However, Cooper claims that the trend of the marathon runners has changed. she wasEmphasizing the sport also marks a change in society: “When the marathon is small, the serious runners are usually blue-collar men.” But as the New York Marathon and other events begin to focus on attracting the sponsors and participation of richer runners. “The new runners come from the upper echelons of society, and they are concerned about personal health.” In 1983, 90% of the members of the “New York Road Runners” Association were college graduates.
In 1998, Vincent Serravallo wrote in the magazine Race, Gender & Class that the number of practitioners in only five occupations is extremely high: Lawyers, physicians, engineers, administrators and educators. At the time, the number of men participating in the marathon was still almost twice that of women.
Serravalo analyzes the high cost of marathon training and competition: the time required to reach a sufficient mileage record in physical training, many runners prefer high-density nutritional health foods, and many people buy equipment ( Including the “lyrca pants” that are now ridiculous and outdated.
Serravalo’s analysis includes prices in the late 1990s (only the registration fee for the New York Marathon has risen from $70 in 1998 to $255 in 2019, which is 2.5 times the inflation rate). As mentioned earlier, it is quite common to see runners wearing top-of-the-line GPS watches and wearing lightweight carbon-plate shoes originally designed for professional athletes. The retail price of this shoe is usually $250.
Sportsman of the 1979 New York Marathon
Sellavalo’s argument is that class restrictions and positive reinforcement (positive reinforcement, such as rewarding certain behaviors, actorsIt tends to repeat these behaviors – an explanation of why the rich marathon participants are overrepresented.
For example, she points out that high-income people are more likely to “enjoy the benefits of cleaner, safer, and more comfortable running, which is thanks to the living environment brought about by high incomes.” They are in higher positions and work more flexibly (such as running at lunchtime or going home early after a crucial long training session ), they are rich in income and can purchase goods and services that he believes are essential for proper training (clothing, shoes, appointment physiotherapists to preventive care, or go to the gym Conduct strength training, and they have different class cultures.
Serravalo refers to the class culture inside and outside the professional life, but there is no clear overlap between the two. A person who works with casual runners or marathon runners is also more likely to meet other runners in their personal lives and provide support for runners. The concept of class culture is not only reflected in the disintegration of the working class runners’ prototypes, but also in the marathon narrative as a personal ascension metaphor. Cooper attributes the narrative to the leadership of Lebo.
Cooper said in the biography of “New York Road Runners that Lebo is “this running revolution There are not many leaders who are optimistic.” Perhaps this is why the marathon as a metaphor for personal progress can cause widespread resonance. After World War II, Lebo immigrated from Romania to New York and began to run with NYRR (New York Road Runners Association). At the time, NYRR was only one of them. Temporary running club managed by members. Under his leadership, the New York City Marathon began to award bonuses to professional athletes, and female players began to participate in the competition. The legacy of Lebo is both inclusive and the direction of the industry.
Although more and more women are participating in endurance sports, more than half of the New York City marathon participants are male. Serravalo attributes this continuing difference to gender socialization, especially in relation to the workload of women outside of work and the high proportion of women in areas such as social work and kindergarten teaching, and lack of support in these areas. The culture of marathon training. Serravalo pointed out that scholars (mainly male) enjoys a high level of professional and logistical support in marathon training, while primary school teachers (mainly female< /span>) is all lacking.
1999 New York Marathon
Despite this, during the Lebo period, the proportion of female players in the New York City Marathon increased exponentially. Undoubtedly, this is mostly due to broader changes such as Article 9 of the Education Act Amendment, but Cooper believes that another important reason is that “women’s running events may show the possibility of marathon profit for the first time. .”
The New York Road Runners Association hosted the first women’s marathon (10 kilometers in length, held in Central Park, still in place ), this comes from the idea of a public relations company.
The first women’s marathon launched a sponsorship and marketing model targeting rich runners, which was eventually adopted in the marathon. In 1978, the marathon issued a T-shirt for the event, which was both inspiring and as a boasting capital, and of course for the sponsors. Although a competition T-shirt with multiple company logos is now common, the Perrier logo on the left sleeve of this white-green T-shirt was groundbreaking.
In 1978, Neil Amdur wrote for Runner magazine, “Connecting new marathon runners to possible corporate sponsorships,” saying both “will take the image of long-distance running from Personal struggles have turned into a shared joy for the entire city.”
As the size of the marathon expands and its popularity grows, the New York Road Runners Association, which was once chaotic and managed by volunteers, is becoming more and more public.