Beyond the Runner's High: How Female Collegiate Distance Runners Develop Athletic Identity to Find Purpose and Place in the World
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This thesis provides a window into the unique ways in which distance runners experience the world. After conducting extensive interviews with competitive collegiate female distance runners, I identified central themes and common experiences that richly convey these runners’ athletic narratives. The questions these athletes address include: Why wake up an extra hour early before class or work to complete the daily run? Why complete a grueling workout when no one is watching? Why is injury such a big deal? Why race if it’s so painful and stressful? I interweave athletes’ personal anecdotes with key concepts from two theoretical frameworks – Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus and Michel Foucault’s biopower – to illustrate the myriad ways in which distance runners construct and maintain athletic identity. I explore the ways in which distance runners develop unique relationships with their bodies; in particular, how their place on an elite team causes them to become cogs within a machine. These stories illustrate how an athlete derives self-worth from her body’s ability to function efficiently within the training system and to represent the discipline, sacrifice, and restriction so integral to the elite athlete lifestyle. Most of all, these athletic narratives show how distance running provides the space for the relentless pursuit of self-betterment, which gives athletes a sense of belonging, purpose, and control over their bodies and minds. Put simply, this thesis explores how athletes use the sport of distance running as way to transcend their ordinary selves.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2018 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Maxwell, Julia Rose |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Luhrmann, Tanya |
| Advisor | Sato, Kyoko |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford |
|---|---|
| Subject | Thesis |
| Subject | Honors |
| Subject | Science Technology and Society |
| Subject | Athletics |
| Subject | Runners |
| Subject | Sports |
| Subject | Anecdotal |
| Subject | Interviews |
| Subject | Habitus |
| Subject | Biopower |
| Subject | Body Awareness |
| Subject | Body Image |
| Subject | Injury |
| Subject | Purpose |
| Subject | Belonging |
| Subject | Relationship with Body |
| Subject | Eating Disorders |
| Subject | Food choices |
| Subject | Body Dysmorphia |
| Subject | Identity |
| Subject | Team |
| Subject | Social Community |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Maxwell, Julia Rose. (2018). Beyond the Runner's High: How female collegiate distance runners develop athletic identity to find purpose and place in the world. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Stanford University, Stanford CA.
Collection
Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses
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- Contact
- jrm6@stanford.edu
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