Abstract

Contributing to current sociological concerns with embodiment, and embodied learning, this chapter explores the lived experience and social ‘production’ of endurance in the sporting life-worlds of cross-country and trail running. Employing the theoretical framework of sociological phenomenology, it portrays data from three autoethnographic and autophenomenographic research projects on distance running. This particular theoretical perspective allows the investigation of endurance as cognitively, corporeally and interactionally ‘lived’ and communicated, in contrast to notions of endurance as some innate capability. The mind-body linkage is salient, too, as distance runners must learn how to endure physiologically, psychologically, and, at times, interactionally; that is, to undertake what is termed ‘endurance work’, including in relation to the physical features of the running environment. The chapter also responds to recent calls to address an important lacuna in the sociological literature: the need to investigate the embodied importance of cognition in the incorporation of culture and physical cultures. The concept of endurance work provides a powerful example of the cognitive-corporeal nexus and the mind-body-world linkage, as emphasized by existential and sociological phenomenology. Here, the focus is on how endurance is learnt, corporeally lived, recognised, and ‘produced’ by two running-women.