
Last fall I wanted to find out about the cultures of triathetes and marathon runners for a course I was taking that studied the anthropology of food from a multiple perspectives: functional, economic, materialist and semiotics or structuralist view points. I've always been interested in how triathletes and long-distance runners seem to have different ways of viewing the world and doing things than the average person since I started racing in the late Eighties. Things have changed since then, but much of what I experienced as an old school triathlete and marathoner– such as modifying my diet to feature more easily digestible carbs and staying hydrated (e.g. the dietary primacy of bananas, bagels, pasta and water) and eating on the run (literally)– are much the same.
The result was a 35-page research paper summarizing my findings from secondary and primary research sources.
Here's a few high lights:
• Each of the triathletes I interviewed told me they often ate alone and shared a meal only in the evening
• About 81% of surveyed marathon and ultra runners ate more often than three times a day (Appendix B: 18)
• When asked how they choose what to eat, “health and athletic performance benefits” was the most common response for both triathletes (70%) and marathon (34%) (Appendix A: 14; Appendix B:14).
• The categories of good foods and bad foods seem to get temporarily reversed once many of the athletes finished their race. What is normally a “bad food” is now a “reward” or a “treat” and consumed with gusto (Appendix A: 26; Appendix B: 26) after the race.
• Energy gels are consumed by 45.8% of the surveyed marathon runners “frequently”
• Of the triathlete respondents, 71% are professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, environmental engineers, computer engineers, teachers, college professors, scientists, etc.
• Of the triathlete respondents, 42% have the leisure time to train 10 hours or more a week
• Of the marathon runner respondents, 81% are professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, environmental engineers, computer engineers, teachers, college professors, scientists, etc.
To access the PDF form of my research paper titled Ideas, Beliefs and Rituals Regarding the Foodways of American Triathletes and Marathon Runners please click here >
This summer I hope to delve deeper into the sport sub-cultures of triathlon and running by looking at the bio-cultural processes at work just before an athlete competes in a race and just after he or she finishes. New runner- and triathlete-specific online surveys for this research will be posted at this blog soon.

I utilized a materialist theoretical model using the social sciences concept of one’s unconscious habits, known as habitus, as developed by Pierre Bourdieu in order to describe the significance of their food ways as being influenced by their socio-economic class and ideals of the dominant American culture. Though one’s cultural habitus is unconscious it presupposes one's beliefs, identity and daily practice. Or, in the words of Pierre Bourdieu, “The habitus is necessity internalized and converted into a disposition that generates meaningful practices and meaning-giving perceptions” (Bourdieu 1984:170).
Methodology



I found that the demographic and habitus information that I found in my online survey responses were in sync with the practices and beliefs of my interviewed athletes and their food practices from what I observed at the races and in their emails and blog postings. The printed online sources included athlete blog postings. Other printed sources included books, food manufacturers’ sports nutrition articles in newsletters and sports nutrition articles in both peer-reviewed research journals and popular triathlon and running magazines (Triathlete, Runner’s World and Marathon and Beyond).

For my research results, surveys I used and list of references Please click here for my research paper PDF titled Ideas, Beliefs and Rituals Regarding the Foodways of American Triathletes and Marathon Runners >
Resources
Bourdieu, Pierre
1984 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp.200-230
Runner’s World
2008 “Media Kit: Demographic Profile, Runner’s World, retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.runnersworld.com/mediakit/rw/audience/demos.html
Triathlete Magazine
2008 “Print Media Kit”, Triathlete Magazine, retrieved on September 25, 2008, from http://www.triathletemag.com/Assets/2008PrintMediaKit.pdf
Wow your research is awesome! I have a BA in anthropology and did graduate work and research in the field too. I'm now in clinical health psychology and also doing research as I want to work with athletes. Great post! I just started my own blog at www.unrefinedathlete.com and I'm on twitter @unrefindathlete would love to stay in touch about research,etc.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article just completed your survey thanks Johan
ReplyDelete