Abstract

According to the latest Sports Habits Survey (2010), running is the fifth most common physical exercise and sports activity performed by the Spanish: 5.6% of the population aged over 15 said they run regularly. However, recreational runners are far from being a homogeneous group. In this paper a sociocultural classification model for runners is presented, obtained from the results of qualitative research conducted with a sample of 76 recreational runners. The research is based on an adaptation of Douglas’s cultural model (1996) and Elias and Dunning’s leisure activities classification model (1988), under which the two dimensions that structure the social field are group and structural pressures. The former are manifested in a direct way in the relational nature of this sport (individual versus group), while the latter concern its degree of technical formalisation, which would take shape in aspects such as setting targets for improvement, the degree of adherence to training plans and performance monitoring (discipline versus spontaneity). The intersection of these two dimensions reveals the existence of four profiles or ideal types of runners – lone hedonists, competitive individualists, sociable runners and disciplined group members – whose characteristics are discussed in this paper.