Normative concerns for endurance athletes

Abstract

Endurance athletes work at creating habits and lifestyles which correspond to Aristotle’s notion of eudomania (human flourishing). They spend time and energy dedicating themselves to their craft. They relinquish other interests in pursuit of excellence. They fully accept William James’ notion of precipitousness as they create goals and work toward achievement. In this paper, we examine normative issues related to endurance sport participation, the potential dark side of this pursuit of excellence. Our overriding concern is how best to work toward and experience human flourishing while simultaneously remaining attentive to relationships and responsibilities. In terms of potential perils associated with endurance sport, we address questions of autonomy, authenticity and identification. We contend that endurance athletes concerned with these questions benefit from transcendental and pragmatic notions of the good life.

Keywords:

• Endurance sport
• normative
• human flourishing
• practice

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the feedback and insights from editor, Paul Gaffney, on a previous version of this manuscript. The overall product is improved as a result of his careful attention and thoughtful guidance.

Notes

1. We recognize there are other active pursuits which, require feats of endurance (e.g. mountain climbing, sailing). We choose to focus on running, cycling and swimming because of our familiarity with these sports, but also because of the nature of competition (against both self and others) that these sports exhibit.

2. Smith (1998, 2000) uses these descriptions to make distinctions among joggers, runners and athletes. After reviewing other typologies such as Hopsicker and Hochstetler (2014), Ogles and Masters (2003), we are confident that his category of ‘runner’ can be adopted to any endurance sport participant who can be described in this manner, keeping in mind that all the authors we reviewed recognized blurring and ‘gray’ areas around and among categories. We also want to acknowledge the high number of professional endurance athletes who, while exhibiting qualities of perseverance and dedication to the sport, stand very little chance of actually winning a competition.

3. Throughout the paper, we use the terms eudaimonia, human flourishing, and good life interchangeably.

4. Events such as The Color Run cater to participants who value the social nature of physical activity. During The Color Run (and other similarly conceptualized events) participants cover a set distance (typically 5 k) while being sprayed by colored paint along the way.

5. The Western States Endurance Run is an event where participants cover 100 miles, starting in Squaw Valley, CA and finishing (thousands of feet of climbing/descending later) in Auburn, CA.

6. While endurance sport provides the opportunity for experiencing the humanizing aspect, participants may not necessarily experience this quality of being. Endurance training can become quite routine for many, absent the qualities of risk, reflection and immersion advanced by the pragmatists.