Speaker
Description
With its horizonal pursuit of longer distances stretching to and beyond one hundred miles, ultra-running is the contemporary neoliberal sport par excellence. Participation in races of this length requires a meticulously trained body and the willingness to endure physical and mental degradation. Over hours, runners excavate the energetic resources of their athletic frames, mirroring neoliberalism’s own precarious pursuit of ‘renewal in the face of adversity’ (Kiely 2018). Furthermore, the very construction of the ultra-running body is governed by a neoliberal discourse of ‘healthification’ (Lisle 2016), a process of streamlined diet and training that necessitates a significant physical, emotional and time investment. Such focus on one’s own performance shapes the neoliberal body of ultra-running; a body that is the product of individualist, optimising behaviours that indulge ‘techniques of the self’ (Lisle 2016) to succeed. I argue that this approach to embodied experience is espoused in landmark ultra-running memoirs by Jurek (Eat and Run), Roll (Finding Ultra) and Jornet (Run or Die) as a method of self-improvement. These athlete-authors assert that the cultivation of a robust, pain enduring body is essential to unlocking the transient, self-actualising state associated with distance running. Yet, the genre ignores the fact that such radical self-help methods encourage the colonisation of ‘non-work’ (Bridel 2013) periods with excessive running. It transposes neoliberal optimisation culture upon leisure time. Additionally, the memoirs glean over the fact that whilst the ultra-running body is demonstrably strong and athletic, the practice simultaneously hollows out and weakens the body, heightening risk to injury, fatigue and physical longevity.
