Abstract

The senses of heat have to date been under-examined, including in the sociology of sport and physical cultures. Drawing on theorizations of the senses and ‘sensory work’, the purpose of this article is to investigate via phenomenological sociology the under-researched lived sense of temperature. Based on ethnographic and autoethnographic data emanating from our physical culture of distance running in the United Kingdom, here we examine the lived experiences of thermoception, thermoregulation and the ways in which ‘temperature work’ constitutes an axiomatic part of the craft practice of this particular sporting subculture. Key findings are structured into three thermal themes: (1) the salience of temperature work and temperature learning for runners as thermal objects; (2) thermal attunement and intercorporeality between runners; (3) thermoceptive ‘collective resonance’ (Ingold, 1993) of running groups. We highlight the insights available to sociologists of sport and physical cultures in engaging with these three mutually influencing levels of analysis, which enable the development of the social-scientific study of temperature.