Amateur marathon running in modern literature: types of description and reflection of reading

The discourse of sport studies in recent years has been characterized by the expansion of disciplinary boundaries, a kind of "scientific expansion" into a wide variety of spheres and directions of social life. This integration of research approaches in relation to marathon running is particularly noticeable. As S. V. Kannykin rightly emphasized, this interest and public attention are due to the fact that it is running that can be considered an "exponent" of the values of the urban lifestyle, at the same time – a phenomenon of urban culture (running and the city as universals) and subcultural urban education ^[1]. The accessibility of running as a cultural practice is thus interpreted as an installation of "culture in action" – allowing both monitoring of effectiveness and active transformation of reality ^{[2, p.46]}. Running, perhaps more often than other sports practices, falls into the field of metaphorical reading, contributing to the search for over-sports interpretations, allusions and A.S. Adelfinsky, exploring the "running boom" of the 2010s, fixes correlations between the popularity of running and the spread of media resources involving the audience ^[3]. In our opinion, an approach linking running practices and reading activity can be no less productive: "In the current situation – reducing the role and place of reading in society, changing the communication, informational and cultural behavior of people in general – the professional book community is looking for ways to stimulate reading activity, persistently strives to make reading more widespread, a ubiquitous and prestigious type of activity, a cultural habit of a significant part of the population" ^{[4, p.107]}

The end of the XX century in our country is considered to be a kind of boundary separating the time when the vast majority of residents regularly read books ("the great reading country") from the time when the practice of reading books in percentage terms showed the dynamics of a decrease in the number of active participants. Confirmation of such trends is found in regular sociological measurements ^[5,6] and studies. Many authors call it generally recognized that "since the 1990s, society has ceased to be literary-centric" ^{[7, p.18]}. And some even point out that "at present there is an awareness that the ability to read and write, as well as love for them, are not recorded in the gene code of a Russian, they need to be seriously taught, supported and made efforts to spread them" (8, p.16).

Without disputing the above statements, it should be noted that sports literature has always had a development that does not fit into the universal logic of the functioning of the literary process (in key positions of literature production and consumption). Even during the "heyday" of reading – in the second half of the XX century, the release of books on physical culture and sports had a number of features.

Firstly, there was a clear predominance of methodological literature over fiction. Secondly, the peculiarities of our country caused the obvious attraction of the authors of books to popular sports at that time, such as football, hockey, boxing, wrestling, skiing, etc. An example is the then popular "Goalkeeper of the Republic" L. Kassil or "Team Captain" B. Porfiriev. Thirdly, sports fiction, most often, was not fictional stories, but works-biographies or autobiographies of famous athletes, or stories based on real events from the life of Soviet champions. A classic example is one of the most famous literary works of that time – the autobiographical book of the great Soviet weightlifter Yuri Vlasov "The Justice of Power". Fourth, sports literature had a clear bias towards children's and adolescent works. The choice of this target group of readers is associated with the pedagogical effect that the authors of books about sports were counting on. Like any other state, the USSR sought to develop among its citizens a craving for a healthy lifestyle and children's books about sports, such as "Return to Life" by A. Golubev, "How I Influenced Sevka" by G. Kulikov and others, were a reliable tool for forming motivation for sports among reading youth.

Very few books were published directly about running in the XX century. Athletics and, in particular, running disciplines have never been as popular in our country as football or hockey. Perhaps the greatest surge of interest in running in the USSR appeared after the outstanding victories at the 1956 Olympic Games by Vladimir Kutz. In the literature, this was reflected by the release of autobiographical works: "The Tale of Running" and "From beginner to master of Sports". In 1960, Pyotr Bolotnikov became the Olympic champion in the 5000 meters. The fact that after that neither Soviet nor Russian athletes have ever won the Olympic stayer distances makes this achievement especially significant. And the autobiography "The Last Circle", published in 1975, became a big event in Soviet athletics. In the same year, A. Akimov's book "To Reach Yourself" was published – a biography of the 1972 Olympic champion Valery Borzov.

Soviet athletes very rarely became winners of the Olympics, so books about their lives have always enjoyed the reader's interest, but despite the examples given, it can be argued that the running sports literature of the Soviet era very rarely reached the level of mass reading, and methodological manuals and books on the history of athletics were intended mainly for students of sports universities.

Given the fact that Soviet artistic running literature had a pronounced vector towards the glorification of champions, one of the works should be highlighted in particular. In 1968, one of the most popular and authoritative writers of that time, Yuri Trifonov, published a short story "The Winner" in the Znamya magazine. It was a very uncharacteristic sports story about how the main character, a journalist, meets a participant in the Paris Olympics of 1900. A former runner who is already 94 years old, vegetating in the slums and suffering from dementia, when asked about participating in the games, unexpectedly answers that he took last place in the 400 meters, but he is the winner. Everyone is dead, but he is alive. Next, the journalist tries to figure out what is more important: a bright, memorable victory for a long time or a long, but devoid of triumph path. "To win the great marathon of life: everyone who started this run with him, who mocked him, hurt him, joked about his failures, sympathized with him, and loved him, –

they all got off the track. And he is still running" ^{[9, p.130]}. In this story, Yuri Trifonov shows the ambiguity and inconsistency of life's victories, and the story he tells, of course, is not about sports and not about running. But in the arguments, uncharacteristic for a sports work of fiction, that the winner and the triumphant should not always be identical concepts, one can see an idea that, half a century later, will become the basis for motivating literary works about amateur running.

At the very end of the XX century, a book written in 1983 by A. Lydiard and M. Gilmore "Running with Lydiard" appeared in our country and immediately became popular. It was about jogging, as the most affordable and effective way to improve the cardiovascular system.

By that time, this work was already a real event and a reference book for running enthusiasts all over the world. The book "Running with Lydiard" was so literate in methodological terms that there were practically no people willing to compete with it, which allowed it to remain in the status of the main book about running in the world until the end of the XX century.

The XXI century is marked by the rapid development of amateur running in Russia, the appearance and popularity of mass races. At the same time, the development of related industries has also increased: the production of running equipment, the emergence of numerous "running schools", etc. In particular, the book business reacted to the demand, which caused the release of new books teaching running and encouraging the layman to take active classes.

Books about long-distance running have become, perhaps, the only ones in the sports field, the demand for which has grown so significantly in the XXI century. This is not only due to the fact that their release coincided with the appearance of amateur marathons. By itself, marathon running, having passed into the category of amateur, has not ceased to demand high professionalism from each participant. Unlike most other types of physical activity, preparing for a marathon requires several months of hard, painstaking work, a responsible attitude to the training process. The only one who finishes is the one who is ready, who has spent hundreds of hours training, has removed bad habits from his life and acquired useful ones, the one who has become hardy not only physically, but also psychologically. And this specificity of preparation, which consists in long-term planning, makes it an additional attractive "long-term project" in comparison with most modern tasks, which are increasingly, being short-term, perceived as a duty-passing fluidity of life.

In this article we will turn to the analysis of the most popular books about running among modern readers. The online magazine Marathon Runner, popular in the running community, has identified 35 books about running for amateurs. This list (with the introduction of additional books published after the publication of the list of "Marathon Runner") was taken by us as the basis of the study ^[10]. 

After analyzing this list, we can note a certain paradox: simultaneously with the decline in the interest of residents of our country in reading, the output of books about amateur running is sharply increasing. So, out of 40 books in this list, only 2 were written in the XX century, and the remaining 38 (95%) – in the XXI century, of which 33 were published after 2010 (82%). Thus, we claim that the "amateur breakthrough" as a massive growth of amateur runners, which began in our country in 2010, coincides with the release of more than 80% of books about running. This is also consistent with the fact that of the 12 books by domestic authors (Verkhoshansky, Krivoshein, Romanov, Strofilov, Medvedev, etc.), the earliest edition is dated 2014.

A meaningful analysis of modern books about running allowed us to divide them into two enlarged groups: methodical and autobiographical.

In fact, the books from the first group (methodical) – took on the role of modern textbooks. As already mentioned, the literature on athletics has always been published, but the circle of its readers consisted mainly of specialized target segments – students of sports universities and practicing coaches. With the advent of mass amateur marathons, there was a need to convey specific information to a wide range of readers and in the most accessible, motivating language: "A marathon cannot be overcome simply due to natural genetic giftedness. No one is born with the ability to run 42 km 195 m. This means that any marathon race is preceded by painstaking specific work, which, in addition to training itself, requires studying and understanding some basic concepts about running in general, about endurance as a physical quality, about the methodology of building training sessions, about hygiene, about nutrition, etc." ^{[11, p.189]}.

In athletics textbooks, there are necessarily such specific terms as "threshold of anaerobic metabolism", "running volume", "maximum oxygen consumption", "pulse zones", "cycling of the training process" and others, but in specialized literature there is no task to explain them in the most accessible, understandable language for the layman. Nevertheless, an inexperienced runner needs to take all these concepts into account when planning preparation for his first marathon in order to reduce the risk of injury and prevent overtraining.

It should be noted that professional trainers coped with this task – books about running with an explanation of basic concepts and methodological recommendations on the construction of the training process became not only sales leaders, but also helped a large number of fans to run their first marathons without harming the body.

In order to confidently talk about the benefits of such books for novice runners, we analyzed the "feedback": on one of the most popular "book" sites in the country litres.ru there is an opportunity to get acquainted with user reviews of books read.

So, at the time of writing, the leader in reviews (51 people who left comments) among the books of the methodical group is "Running according to the 80/20 rule" by M. Fitzgerald. The author, being a running coach, became one of the main popularizers of the theory about the benefits of training at a low pulse. This has had an effect and the training of marathon runners in recent years has received a noticeable bias towards working on running volumes at a low pace. This technique perfectly suited amateurs, therefore, such an atypical large number of reader reviews is recorded for a methodical publication.

Also note the book "From 800 meters to the marathon" by D. Daniels with 13 reviews. This is also the work of a practicing coach with specific, very precise recommendations for planning the training process. All 13 reviews are positive and recommend the book to those who are aiming for serious results in running.

Books from the second group (autobiographical) – it makes sense to divide into autobiographies of professional runners and amateur runners. Based on feedback in the form of reviews, you can see that the popularity of books from the second group is noticeably higher. The most popular work – "What am I talking about when I talk about running" by the famous Japanese writer H. Murakami has 168 reviews. The story of a non-professional marathon runner, written by a professional writer who has been running for many years and is looking for an answer to the question "Why?", turned out to be much closer to the modern reader than other books. It should be noted that a characteristic feature of this kind of books about running is precisely a kind of "going into an over-running marathon", focusing on existential issues: "Victory awaits me or defeat – it does not matter at all. It is much more important to meet my own standards, which I have set. And in this sense, long–distance running is an ideal sport" ^{[12, pp. 20-21]}.

The idea that you can win without being the first at the finish line, which Yuri Trifonov intuitively groped in the middle of the last century, runs like a red thread through the entire book of Murakami. Also, the parallels that the Japanese writer draws between running and professional activity are extremely curious: "If you spend years, then at least it is interesting and full-fledged, having some kind of goal, and not wandering in the fog. You need to reach your individual limit – this is the essence of running. But it is also a metaphor of life (and for me, of writing)" ^{[12, p.124]}.

A significant number of reader responses (94 reviews) are related to the book "Eat right, Run Fast" by Scott Jurek. This always happens when new trends and technologies come into conflict with established, traditional methods, people's reactions become especially acute. Therefore, the author's combination of preparation for marathon running with a vegetarian diet was expected to cause controversy in the reviews. But, in general, we note the predominance of grateful words and a large number of reviews about the motivating nature of this book.

From the domestic amateur authors, we will highlight the book by Yuri Strofilov "Not about running". At the time of writing this book (2019), dozens of similar publications have already been published in the world and, given the specifics of the issue, each author needs to find his own unique writing style. Yuri Strofilov did it with humor, deliberately challenging running stereotypes: "I'll tell you a secret: marathon runners are very lazy, but they have learned not to wait for their happiness. They get pleasure right while jogging" ^{[13, p. 10]}. The book not only teaches running, in it the author shares his feelings during training and competitions, and all 36 reviews on litres.ru they contain thanks for the delivered emotions and self-confidence. "Try to repeat it, everything described here is done by an amateur!" ^{[13, p.12]}.

The most popular autobiography of a professional athlete is "Running without Sleep" by Dean Karnazes. The value of this book is that an ultramarathoner who devoted his whole life to incredible results (560 km in 80 hours without sleep or 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days), describing his exceptional achievements, was able to inspire the ordinary mass reader: "This is the book after reading which, after 12 hours of shift, I just I took it and ran, ran 22 km in the end ... very motivating" ^[14].

Probably, the secret of Karnazes is that, being an incredible and unique runner, he describes his story as something ordinary and everyday, and in this contrast his book has become one of the main motivating works of modern literature. "I chose running as therapy – the best source of strength that brings me back to life. I can't remember a single time when I felt worse after a run than before!" ^{[15, p. 109]}.

Having analyzed all the significant book novelties in the field of amateur running, we can draw one key conclusion – all these books are not about the podium. At the same time, every amateur marathon runner does a tremendous training work before the race. Every runner who has chosen this big goal for himself – to reach the end of the marathon, understands that this is one of the most difficult choices in life, and that without proper preparation this distance can become dangerous to health. Someone turns to a professional trainer, but there are many among novice marathon runners who are trying to cope with it on their own and are looking for answers in books: both for specialized requests and for inspiring life experiences. Someone hopes to find a secret secret that only experienced runners know and with its help ease the tedious work that is inevitable during preparation. Someone puts running technique in the first place and reads about the setting of the foot and the tilt of the body when running. Someone understands that regular heavy loads set a person the task of balancing their diet, and masters the nutritional literature. And most people need a push and confidence that they are doing everything right.

It remains to answer the question – if not victory, then what else makes runners do this huge amount of preliminary work. Murakami claims that the main thing is to defeat his former self, the popular Catalan ultramarathoner Jornette expresses the paradoxical idea that he claims to compete only for the sake of upcoming training ^[16].

For most people, the word "marathon" is synonymous with something very difficult or even unattainable. And preparing for it, and then participating in a marathon race, is not just an increase in the physiological reserves of the body, not only the formation of the musculoskeletal system, not only work on strengthening moral and volitional qualities. First of all, the marathon is a real, undoubted, unconditional challenge to yourself. And it is this challenge that, in our opinion, is the most effective motivation of the modern amateur runner. A challenge, as a motivational element, can exist in a variety of spheres, but amateur long-distance running (for example, marathon running) is undoubtedly one of the most widespread and most typical examples of this phenomenon at the present time.

Amateur running has taken its confident place in the modern social space: tens of thousands of participants of amateur races across the country and hundreds of thousands of runners who go out for training every day form a single field of challenge culture. Turning to this concept, we rely on the ideas of L. N. Kogan, who considers culture not as something external to a person (determining the forms of his life activity), but precisely in a value-motivational way – as a way to realize his creative capabilities or essential human forces: "Essential human forces are formed, realized and developed only in the process of practical activity. By developing and objectifying them, a person thereby "creates" himself" ^{[17, p.20]}.

Summing up the review of modern literature on running, we can draw the following conclusions:

- Despite the general decline in reader interest in our country since the beginning of the XXI century, at the same time, the output of fiction about long-distance running is sharply increasing, which is explained by the appearance and development of amateur marathon races;

- Modern literature on running is divided into two main groups: books-manuals written by trainers and containing mainly methodological recommendations, and motivational books-autobiographies describing the experience of training and overcoming the distance of both novice runners and professionals;

- There are practically no fictional characters in sports fiction, and it is the personal experience of marathon runners described by amateurs that is in great demand among modern readers;

- The main motivation of amateur marathon runners is far from the typical sports motivation (application for leadership, victory), the vast majority of marathon runners do not set themselves the goal of winning a prize, but compete mainly with the "old self", challenging themselves;

- The finish at the marathon distance is in itself a serious challenge for any participant, which makes it possible to talk about the "culture of challenge" as a modern socio-cultural phenomenon, vividly manifested in amateur marathon races.