"Homo currens": the experience of philosophical research of ego texts of modern Russian fans of stayer running

Kannykin Stanislav Vladimirovich PhD in Philosophy Associate professor of the Department of Humanities at Stary Oskol Technological Institute named after A. Ugarov, branch of National University of Science and Technology "MISIS" 309516, Russia, Belgorod Region, Stary Oskol, micro district Makarenko, 42 stvk2007@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Running practices that accompany humanity throughout its history are characterized by a variety of fields of use and the multidimensionality of socio-cultural determination. Cross-country hunting by pursuit, driving the victim to exhaustion, was an essential factor in anthropogenesis; cross-country competitions founded the Olympic Games; running was an important component of folk festivals and carnival culture, had ritual and ceremonial, as well as applied significance as a way of delivering messages and an element of martial art. Today, running is actively used in pedagogical, health-saving and personality-building spheres, is the main type of locomotion in many types of professional sports and the most widespread type of amateur competitions, giving rise to a specialized industry, large-scale cultural events and affirming the values of kalokagathy, humanism, peacefulness and the possibility of unlimited improvement.

Exploring the socio-cultural conditionality of systematic amateur running in Russia in the second half of the XIX – early XXI century, we propose to identify the following areas of their existence:

- physical education (the pioneers of the development, justification and popularization of running exercises as a means of complex personality development were outstanding Russian teachers of the pre-Soviet period P. V. Tikhanovich, A. G. Berglind, P. F. Lesgaft, E. A. Pokrovsky, A. D. Butovsky, V. E. Ignatiev, V. G. Ukhov, etc.);

- leisure and non-professional sports (Russia's first athletics club, founded in 1888 in the summer cottage village of Tyarlevo near St. Petersburg);

- propaganda of the Soviet period (mass sports celebrations, propaganda relay races, city runs and cross-country races);

- health-saving running within the framework of numerous Soviet running clubs (KLB), which were actively formed in the 70s and 80s of the last century.  

The post-Soviet transition to a market economy led to a sharp reduction in the number of health clubs, which functioned largely thanks to the support of enterprises and organizations that, in a crisis economic situation, dropped the "ballast" in the form of sports and recreation and other non-core institutions. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the significant "acceleration" and "consolidation" of social time: in the mode of ensuring physical survival, joint regular training at a certain time and within a narrowly defined urban location, where it was still necessary to get to, was gradually becoming the lot of singles, and the running amateur movement itself in Russia has gone into decline. The situation began to change in the first decade of the 21st century due to the global increase in energy prices and the corresponding improvement in the economic situation in the country, the development of international cooperation, as well as due to the increasing influence of Western culture, which is characterized by the cult of bodily health. The most accessible and effective way to maintain it is jogging, it is not for nothing that it has become "... a way of life, a national hobby of Americans, from college to old age, the gospel that they carried into the world" [Medvedev S. Running Man. Moscow: New Literary Review, 2021. P. 38. URL: https://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/7740 / (date of appeal: 04/23/2023)], while the joggers promoted not only physical culture, but amateur sports running, organizing mass competitions: "It is amazing that America, the country of eternal competition, the struggle for victory, was suddenly seized by the idea of simple participation. In essence, it was a return to the true Olympic ideal. The general opinion was expressed as follows: "What difference does it make who wins? Anyone who manages to finish is already a winner" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running at any age. Tested on myself. Moscow: Peter, 2016. p. 137. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/roman-stankevich/ozdorovitelnyy-beg-v-lubom-vozraste-provereno-na-sebe-17145952 / (date of access: 04/20/2023)]. In accordance with the global trend and taking into account Western experience, running infrastructure has begun to develop in many large cities of Russia, including running schools, equipment centers, running tracks, organizers of running tourism, as well as regular competitions aimed primarily at fans of stayer running of different ages. Therefore, it is no coincidence that "... from 2009 to 2014, the increase in the number of Russian marathoners amounted to 300%" ^{[4, p. 95]}, while ".. if only 4,887 people took part in the first Moscow Marathon [2013 – S.K.], then in 2022 there were already 23,086 runners, 11 of them 050 finished in a full marathon" [Akhmedova O. Running towards herself.  About marathons, life and hope. M. : Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2023. p. 9]. It is important to note that in the late Soviet heyday of the KLB, the main goal of mass running classes was to strengthen health, and in the last 15-20 years, such motives for physical education and amateur sports as emotional pleasure, physical self-improvement and achieving athletic success have begun to compete with health care ^{[10, pp. 109-111]}. The comfortable life of the urban population, engaged mainly in intellectual activities, turned out to be fraught with both "diseases of civilization" associated with physical inactivity and emotional discomfort (increased anxiety, depression, etc.) due to the inability of the full functioning of the stress relief mechanism inherent in us by nature and the "reset" of the psyche based on physical activity. The recent COVID-19 pandemic, which locked millions of people in apartments and turned them into a collective organism, dramatically exacerbated both the sense of responsibility for their health (and not only to themselves, but also to society) and the imperative of the movement, which became cramped within the narrow framework of traditional (often "indoor") physical culture, hence the explosive interest in extreme sports, primarily in its most accessible form – marathon and super marathon running. At the same time, it is obvious that runners train for a long time and overcome such distances on the verge of what is possible for themselves not for the sake of bodily well-being and the prevention of diseases. Their goals are related to the sphere of personal improvement, the development of will, character, testing oneself in an extreme situation, testing previously inaccessible emotions – both from defeating oneself and rivals, and from participating in bright, carnival-like running events, some of which are world famous and deeply affect modern culture. Therefore, there is every reason to characterize the modern (from the beginning of the XXI century to the present day) stage of development of amateur stayer running practices in Russia as "personality-building" and turn to the study of its specifics based on the analysis of autobiographical texts (books) written by Russian runners during the period under review.

Some of these texts exist only in electronic form and are actually self-published in the author's edition, created with the help of publishing services presented on the Network and posted on the sites of online bookstores with a small download price, and sometimes for free. The other part is printed books of the non–fiction genre, which have literary processing (which refers them to fine literature with a mandatory (albeit small) fraction of fiction and omissions, at least minimally distancing the author and the narrator) and published in large publishing houses. All the authors of the ego texts under study are running enthusiasts who combine physical education and sports activities with work. This introduces them into the semantic field of the original Olympic doctrine of P. Coubertin, in which sport was considered not as a type of earnings, but as entertainment useful for man and society (art.-French desporter: "to distract (from work)"), forming a harmonious personality by means of physical activity: "In many ways, sports are amateurs: we are closer than professionals to the original English concept of "sport" as a hobby, hobby, in our occupation there is a noble purity of the genre and the selflessness of genuine passion" [Medvedev S. Running Man ..., p. 6]. Some of the authors of the texts in question are engaged in running schools with a coach, some independently, while someone trains once or twice a week, and someone almost daily, showing results at the level of a candidate for master of sports or higher, which allows them to be classified as an intermediate category of "semi–professionals", whose my passion for running goes far beyond an easy hobby: "The training schedule that my coach writes to me determines everything in my life: my plans for the evening and morning, my weekend schedule, the place and time of my vacation, and even who I will or will not communicate with" [Akhmedova O. Running towards myself ..., p. 21].

The simplicity of electronic publication and the wide availability of the studied ego texts on the Web allows novice writers to enter the Russian running media community without barriers, quickly receiving feedback and recognition, which provokes other running enthusiasts to literary creativity. The personal experiences of individual authors become drivers of social production of meanings in the online media environment, and some texts (especially those presented not only in electronic, but also in print and audio formats) generate fandom groups around their authors. 

All the works under consideration are united by a common theme – a description of one's own experience (autofiction storytelling) of the formation of personal qualities based on stayer (primarily marathon and super marathon) running practices. The absence of a comprehensive study of these texts in the scientific literature, with the undoubted importance of taking them into account for understanding the socio-cultural specifics of the current stage of development of amateur running in Russia, determines the relevance of this work. 

Research methodology in the context of modern humanities

The aim of the work is to explicate the personality–creating resources of amateur stayer running, its humanistic potential, and the main tasks are to clarify the components of the existential, personal and socio-cultural dimensions of leisure running in their dialectical relationship. In order to achieve this goal and solve these tasks, we have chosen a biographical method (in the mode of social constructivism based on a phenomenological approach, when the main thing for the researcher is not the factual side of the narrative, but a way of experiencing and representing events important to the narrator) applied to the ego texts of Russian stayer running enthusiasts written within the period under consideration. Modern Russian researchers of personal experience speak about the formation in the XX century of this kind of interdisciplinary knowledge based on the ideas of F. Schleiermacher and V. Dilthey on the importance of biography for the sciences of the spirit, as biography, which is understood as "... a branch of humanitarian knowledge that explores the ontology of biography, its genesis, tools and process of biography, features of communication, behavior, reconstruction of the inner world" ^{[9, p. 15]}, referring primarily to phenomenology to its arsenal hermeneutics, semiotics, theory of intercultural communications, theory and history of culture, cultural anthropology. E. E. Sapogova notes that "... the study of personal stories is experiencing a kind of renaissance today, becoming an increasingly popular method of studying personality. Autobiographical narratives provide an opportunity to consider the features of an individual's life path, reconstruct subjective ontology, and understand the basic concepts and values of the human life world" ^{[13, pp. 86-87]}. S. V. Voloshina provides information about interdisciplinary scientific communities of autobiography researchers (for example, "The Autobiography Society" and "The International Auto/Biography Association (IABA)") and specialized scientific journals, which present the results of research on various kinds of biographies, coming to the following conclusion:  "Researchers strive to develop and systematize theoretical and practical knowledge about the phenomenon of autobiography, which ultimately expands the understanding of the person himself – the main object of the humanities" ^{[3, p. 269]}. The rhetoric of autobiographical discourse is analyzed by E. A. Kovanova, emphasizing its hybrid nature due to the authors' attraction to the means of self-expression adopted in various spheres of culture (literature, philosophy, science, law, etc.), and describing the functions of this discourse, including expressive, didactic, reflective, propagandizing, etc. [Kovanova E. A. Rhetoric of autobiographical discourse: based on the autobiographies of American politicians and artists: abstract of the dissertation of the Candidate of Philology: 02/10/04. St. Petersburg, 2005. 19 p.]. Scientists also note that in the philosophical register of particular interest to us, the study of biographies "allows us to form a theory of personality, <...> and also helps to find the meaning of life and creativity. Of particular interest to the study are reflections on the existential state of the personality, namely, its confidence and doubts, loneliness and communication, freedom and rebellion, joy and longing" ^{[9, pp. 15-16]}; "in the analysis of the represented events, it becomes possible to reconstruct the value-attitude structure of the personality's life world, since the thematic repertoire of the autobiographical narrative expresses the values of an individual, and the description of situations, their assessment and interpretation represent a system of attitudes" ^{[6, p. 185]}.

The study of the autobiographical stories of fans of stayer running (and more broadly, endurance sport, i.e. endurance sports, which includes a running component either directly (triathlon) or as an element of the training process) It also has its own tradition. In recent years, the works of A. S. Adelfinsky, who describes in the monograph "In spite of records, attract attention in Russian science. The experience of researching mass sports" own practices of participating in amateur endurance competitions and posing questions, including of a philosophical nature: "What really motivates people participating in grueling competitions without the slightest chance of winning? What motivates them to even pay for their participation? Is this typical only for runners or are there similar sports?  <...> How does the phenomenon work in general and what does it represent as a social institution?" ^{[1, p. 15]} and S. S. Rykov, who investigated with elements of biographical analysis the modern mythology of marathon competitions associated with the glorification of a personal act, "when the personal potential of a runner, his individual history act as an inspiring incentive for contemporaries and subsequent generations" ^{[12, p. 69]}, and also studied the descriptions of an amateur marathon in the Russian and mainly foreign fiction and who came to the conclusion that "... the basis of the appeal and mass popularity of amateur marathons should be associated with the "culture of challenge", which is clearly manifested precisely in the practices of understanding and developing amateur running. The culture of challenge can be interpreted from the standpoint of L. N. Kogan's value-motivational analysis of culture and understood as the realization of essential human forces" ^{[13, pp. 21-22]}.

Turning to foreign researchers, we note some important works of scientists specializing in the study of the socio-cultural conditionality of mass sports and using various methods of working with biographical material (primarily questionnaires and interviews), where, for example, mass races are considered by respondents as one of the most significant for understanding the motivation of stayers and ways of recruiting into the running amateur community the events of their lives. Thus, in the work of Yajun Qiu et al. ^[21] based on a survey of 300 stayer running enthusiasts who took part in the Hangzhou marathon, it is noted that running for them is a form of active, developing leisure, and they consider the most important effects of running practices to be the formation of qualities conducive to career growth, the dependence of the result solely on their own efforts and the importance of belonging to the running community as a progressive part of society. A study by Sarah B. Hales et al. ^[15] proves the effectiveness of using social networks as a challenge environment for running classes, which is associated with the emergence of a sense of responsibility for their promises to a circle of relatives and close friends; Yangchao Li and co-authors ^[17], using data from a survey of 384 marathon runners who are parents, substantiates the importance of joint runs of parents and children to achieve greater family understanding and cohesion in a situation of significant divergence of value orientations of different generations in rapidly changing societies, like modern China. Finn Nilsson and colleagues ^[18] attempted to compile a socio-demographic portrait of a typical amateur participant of the world's largest half marathon G?teborgsvarvet (Gothenburg, Sweden), randomly sending out an online questionnaire to the Swedes who finished at the 2017 Gothenburg Half Marathon and receiving a sample of n = 2378. The results of the study are as follows: this is an urban man with higher education and an above-average income, engaged in intellectual activity (employee), for whom, speaking of the body, the main thing is not strength, but health and beauty. Running also attracts this social group by its individualism and the almost complete absence of bodily contact with rivals as the basis of nonviolent competitive practices.  Patricia S. Jackman et al. they devoted their article to "affective experiences" related to the feeling of pleasure while running, emphasizing that previously researchers were attracted to the joyful emotions experienced after its completion, as well as ways to overcome emotional depression due to fatigue in the process of overcoming stayer distances: "Applying conceptual ideas extracted from sociological phenomenology, we analyze data from in-depth, an event-oriented study of interviews with long-distance runners who reported positive, useful experiences of recent recreational runs" ^[16]. S. Valentin, L. A. Pham and E. McRae ^[20] clarified the reasons for the small number of women participating in ultramarathon running using online questionnaires and semi-standardized telephone interviews of participants in the Scottish Jedburgh races 3 Peaks ultra and Highland Fling.  As scientists have determined, women are encouraged to ultramarathon mountain running by the desire to test themselves ("culture of challenge"), the beauty of nature and the friendliness of the ultra-community. The main obstacles were identified as the duration and specificity of training, as well as the lack of time for this in connection with family responsibilities, which, according to traditional gender concepts, are assigned mainly to women who are also forced to work outside the home. G. Pfister ^[19] studies the specifics of motivation in running competitions for older women, analyzing according to their memories and assessments the social and psychological barriers that the respondents had to overcome and have to overcome. The researcher believes that with increasing life expectancy, the number of age-old sports fans will increase, which requires some transformations of mass amateur races. Oscar Fernandez and Roberto Cachan-Cruz ^[14] carried out a study of motivation in sports for super-endurance on a sample of 36 amateur athletes using included observation, questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Scientists came to the conclusion that for the majority of respondents, running competitions go far beyond the limits of "pure sport" with its records and prizes: the main motives for runners turned out to be existential motives related to overcoming personal problems and psychological complexes accumulated during their lives. It is obvious that these goals, which are in the sphere of intimate experiences, are invisible to an external observer and are revealed only with the help of biographical research.

Thus, it is possible to note the relevance, fruitfulness and multidimensional use of the biographical method in the study of socio-cultural determination, as well as the metaphysical components of the personality consciousness of a modern amateur stayer, who uses various running practices primarily for self-development.

Existential and personal content of amateur stayer running practices

Modern Russian authors of books about their own running experience pay great attention to the motives that prompted them to take up running. Summarizing, we can say that the main reason was "escape from oneself", a feeling of dissatisfaction with oneself and one's way of life. Thus, R. Z. Almukhametov characterizes himself before running as an "alcoholic drug addict, smoker with 23 years of experience" [Almukhametov R. Z. About running as a substitute. Yekaterinburg: Publishing Solutions, 2021. p. 6. URL: https://www.litres.ru/rifat-zaynullovich-almuhametov/pro-beg-kak-pro-zamenu / (date of reference: 03/11/2023)]; E. Gord "went from a 100-kilogram guy, from a guy who absorbs the contents of beer cans, to a guy who ran a 100 km trail race" [Gord E. RUN hacker. Running life hacks for every day. Moscow: AST, Vremya, 2021. URL: https://www.litres.ru/egor-gord/run-haker-begovye-layfhaki-na-kazhdyy-den / (date of address: 04/10/2023)]; A. Ivanov writes about himself: "in the period 2000-2014, I was mired in animal habits: alcohol, nicotine, promiscuous sex and other stupefying tops" [Ivanov A. Running as a way develop willpower, character, self-discipline: get your body and thoughts in order in 30 days. Ekaterinburg:  Publishing Solutions, 2018. URL: https://www.litres.ru/artem-ivanov/beg-kak-sposob-razvitiya-sily-voli-haraktera-samodiscipliny-p/chitat-onlayn / (date of access: 03/10/2023)]. The desire to displace bad habits by running was motivated by N. Kotenkov [Kotenkov N. Sports entrepreneur. St. Petersburg: ETC. "Scythia", 2022. URL: https://www.litres.ru/nikolay-aleksandrovich-kotenkov/sportivnyy-predprinimatel / (date of appeal: 04/21/2023)], A. L. Chirkov wrote about many similar cases among his familiar runners [Chirkov A. L. Running to help. M.: Book and Business, 2006]. V. Clement fled from the aimlessness of life [Clement V. Love and the marathon. The road will be mastered by a runner. M.: Pero, 2021. URL: https://www.litres.ru/velimir-klement/lubov-i-marafon-dorogu-osilit-beguschiy / (date of application: 04/17/2023).], from health problems – M. Zhulidov [Zhulidov M. Running and walking instead of medicines: the easiest way to health. M.: Astrel, 2012. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/maksim-zhulidov/beg-i-hodba-vmesto-lekarstv-samyy-prostoy-put-k-zdorovu-8485696 / (date of request: 04/15/2023).]. D. Gorbunov writes about his feelings about being overweight [Gorbunov D. Running from the office! Yekaterinburg: Publishing Solutions, 2016. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/dmitriy-gorbunov-8681941/begom-iz-ofisa-18400441 / (date of address: 03/10/2023)], I. Kharchenko [I. Kharchenko How to lose 25 kg and run a marathon. Or the story of the fat man who could. Yekaterinburg: Ridero, 2019. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/ivan-nikolaevich-har/kak-skinut-25-kg-i-probezhat-marafon-ili-istoriya-o-t-42832128 / (date of address: 03/11/2023)], O. Akhmedova [Akhmedova O. Running towards herself...].

The deeper reason is the existential reason for running. "Why stay healthy and live this long life? What is all this for? The questions are philosophical, but everything starts with the answers to them" [Sakhapov D. K. My first marathon, or the road will be mastered by a runner. Yoshkar-Ola: Volga State University of Technology, 2018. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/dmitriy-kanifovich-sahapov/moy-pervyy-marafon-ili-dorogu-osilit-beguschiy-38575544 / (date of access: 03/10/2023)]. The fact that the most massive and most successful progressive group on amateur runs are people 40-50 years old, who, having never become a runner, overcome the existential crisis ("loss of oneself" in an impersonal, automatic, weak-willed existence in the mode of Heidegger's "Man"), associated with the search for new meanings and goals of life, is evidenced by the fact that the most massive and most successful progressive group on amateur runs are people 40-50 years old, who, having never become astronauts, polar explorers and scouts use the chances to become heroes at least by leaving their comfort zone and successfully enduring the undeniable hardships of long distances. A. Beg writes about existential need as the highest and most stable motivator for running activity, believing that it is preceded by two more levels: emotions (for example, from one's own reflection in a mirror) and feelings (a new level of awareness of oneself and the world as a result of dynamic meditations) [A.Beg Running for lyricists and physicists, or Thirty lessons for a beginner runner. Moscow: Litres, 2023.  URL: https://www.litres.ru/arslan-beg/beg-dlya-lirikov-i-fizikov-ili-tridcat-urokov-nachinauschego-be /(date of address: 03/11/2023)], O. Akhmedova echoes him: "The ingenious simplicity and honesty of running shocked me, and nothing else allowed me to feel so full and real. To feel alive" [Akhmedova O. Running towards yourself ..., p. 24].

The "heroic" component of running activity is clearly manifested in the challenge situation, which prompted many fans to overcome, for example, the marathon distance. Indeed, the hero cannot refuse a challenge, he must overcome rivals, himself and even fate. A challenge in the form of an argument with friends as a reason for participating in long-distance races is noted by G. Krivosheina [Krivosheina G. How to run the first marathon in 4 hours when you are over 50. Yekaterinburg: Publishing Solutions, 2017. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/galina-krivosheina/kak-probezhat-pervyy-marafon-za-4-chasa-kogda-tebe-za-24916388 / (date of appeal: 03/13/2023)], D. Gorbunov [Gorbunov D. Running from the office...], A. L. Chirkov [Chirkov A. L. Running to help...], I. Kharchenko. The latter writes that "... holding all kinds of challenges both with yourself and with other runners will bring variety and give you an additional emotional charge, as well as cool memories that can remain for a lifetime" [Kharchenko I. How to throw off...]. At some marathons, runners take off their outerwear before the start, put it in special bags and give it to charities, which is often interpreted symbolically: A hero who has overcome forty-two kilometers at the limit of his strength should not put on the "old clothes" of an ordinary person again.

Having begun to run systematically, the authors of the studied texts reflect on the changes taking place with them, invariably emphasizing the paramount importance of stabilizing the psycho-emotional state, achieving "mental satisfaction": "When running in an optimal mode, when the depressive state is removed, optimism and mental comfort appear, the need for regular multi-kilometer runs is stimulated. It is this need, a need, and not thoughts about health promotion that forces us to overcome a false sense of awkwardness (for example, running in underpants in crowded places) and true difficulties from considerable physical exertion" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running ..., p. 15]. Almost all authors write about the effect of running euphoria, and a common place is to compare it with drug addiction: "Slow running causes rapid addiction. It gives rise to the same range of phenomena as drugs and medicines, but it acts very gently, leaving no chance to get rid of a useful habit" [Strofilov Yu. Not about running. M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2019. p. 151]; "I haven't trained for exactly a month <...>. During this time, I had the opportunity to experience the entire palette of physical and psychological suffering that inveterate drug addicts and alcoholics probably experience" [Akhmedova O. Running towards myself..., p. 13]. D. Safiollin, comparing the effect of drugs and running, notes: "An ordinary drug addict gets his high right away, and then suffers from withdrawal symptoms. The runner, on the contrary, suffers first, and then gets his portion of endorphins into the circulating blood. The former kill themselves, becoming weaker each time, the latter increase their own strength" [Safiollin D. Act! Run! St. Petersburg: All, 2017. p. 21. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/dmitriy-safiollin/deystvuy-begi-kniga-motivaciya-na-pravilnyy-beg-s-chego-23982074 / (date of access: 03/12/2023)]. Since a person is dependent on the pleasures that "hormones of happiness" provide, he often looks for the easiest ways to get them, including alcohol, drugs, excessive absorption of food, a "kaleidoscope" of emotions from hours of numbing surfing the Internet and similar options leading to spiritual and bodily degradation. The humanistic significance of amateur running in the psycho-emotional sphere lies in the fact that it naturally, gently and safely, and even with health benefits, provides a person with endogenous morphines necessary for a joyful mood, which neutralize the "extra" adrenaline generated by stress, leading to nervousness and depression. From here, it becomes clear the effectiveness of comprehensively developing running as a substitute in the fight against a variety of addictions that kill a person, as, for example, M. Zhulidov writes [Zhulidov M. Running and walking ...]. Thus, if the main reward for professional runners is money and fame, then amateur stayers run primarily for the pleasant emotions generated by endorphins: "You run because you feel good, you want to sing..." [Popov P. A. Running instead of drugs at any age. Moscow: AST, 2017. p. 13. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/p-a-popov/beg-vmesto-lekarstv-v-lubom-vozraste-22392224 / (date of access: 04/23/2023)]. This is the reason for the development of cross-country tourism, when marathon routes are laid along the central streets of the capitals of many countries; for the sake of sublimating emotions, some fans run in carnival costumes; the desire for emotional unity with nature gave rise to trail running; the need to achieve the maximum possible emotional states led to the appearance of ultramarathon distances. Running euphoria is perceived by amateur stayers as a feeling of fullness of life, as its happiest moments: "Having experienced genuine euphoria once <...>, then you will endlessly run after this feeling" [Akhmedova O. Running towards yourself..., p. 189]; "... remember that lying on the couch in front of the TV, you You will never experience such strong emotions as at a marathon! And even if you live to be 100 years old, but if there is nothing to remember, then you have wasted your time, and it can't be worse" [Kharchenko I. How to throw off...].

It is important to note that this emotional uplift has nothing to do with human aggression, with low-grade joy at the sight of a defeated and humiliated opponent. A. A. Erokhin draws attention to this, who centers the concepts of "life", "peace" and "love" in his arguments about running [Erokhin A. A. About running with love. Sterlitamak, 2016. URL: https://www.litres.ru/a-a-erohin/o-bege-s-lubovu / (date of appeal: 04/15/2023)], A. L. Chirkov recalls that the running club with the talking name "Mir" once joined the Russian Party of Life entirely [Chirkov A. L. Running to help..., p. 14]. Yu. Strofilov [Strofilov Yu. Not about running...] and N. Kotenkov write that running releases aggression steam ("when you run, you don't want to swear at anyone" [Kotenkov N. Sports entrepreneur...]), and P. Maksimova notes that her main values are freedom, development and nonviolence, "... and with by running and traveling, I embody these values in every small choice of training and practice" [Maximova P. You've got everything, come on, run! St. Petersburg: All, 2020. p. 59. URL: https://www.litres.ru/polina-maksimova/vse-u-tebya-est-begi-davay-kniga-o-tom-kuda-privodyat-beg / (date of access: 04/20/2023)].

In the same semantic field with the concept of "running euphoria" are the concepts of "dynamic meditation" and "flow", widely used in modern sports psychology. In short, they are understood as altered states of consciousness that allow for minimal expenditure of physical and mental resources, thereby achieving an unencumbered rhythm of running (it seems that you can run forever like this) and an uncluttered feeling of yourself and the world, uncluttered by experiences, doubts, fears. O. Akhmedova [Akhmedova O. Running towards herself ...], P. Maksimova [Maximova P.] write about the personal experience of such states. You have everything...], Yu. Strofilov [Strofilov Yu. Not about running...], S. Medvedev [Medvedev S. A man running...] and A. Lavrenov [Lavrenov A. Running in goodness. M.: "LitRes: Samizdat", 2021. URL: https://www.litres.ru/anton-lavrenov/beg-v-blagosti / (date of access: 04/20/2023)]. The latter calls this method of locomotion, following  Bhagavad-gita, "running in goodness", contrasting it with "running in passion" (running not for happiness and harmony, but for any other reasons) and "running in ignorance" (harming the body). Here's how O. Akhmedova writes about the feeling of running "in the stream": "... the stream is about love for your work, about self–belief, about conscious existence, and about the search for the meaning of life too. And running is the simplest tool with which we can learn to catch this state, so that we can then transfer it to all other spheres of life. Perhaps that is why we run marathon after marathon" [Akhmedova O. Running towards ourselves..., p. 155].

Turning to the ideological attitudes of runners, we note first of all their subjectivity, activity in organizing their lives: for them, the most important is the internal locus of control, which is based on the belief that the determining influence on the existence of a personality is exerted by its own decisions, and not the natural, objective course of events. In this regard, they consider running not as an end in itself, but as an effective way to optimize many areas of their lives, running "for mood, vigor of body and spirit, creative activity and productivity in all spheres of activity!" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running..., p. 24]; "I will run every day in a disciplined and persistently. Persevering and disciplined. I'm not pumping my legs, not my body, but these qualities" [Gord E. RUN hacker...].  R. Stankevich [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running...], G. Krivosheina [Krivosheina G. How to run...], I. Kharchenko [Kharchenko I.] are talking about the upbringing of character through stayer running, the formation of the ability to overcome circumstances that seem superior to human strength. How to throw off ...], N. Kotenkov. The latter notes that on the eve of the daily race, he felt great fear of the upcoming suffering ("it will be difficult, uncomfortable and painful" [Kotenkov N. Sports entrepreneur...], and he considers the skill provided by systematic stayer running to overcome the excessive fear of a big test that paralyzes many to be one of the most important conditions for life success in general. Runners are close to the idea of the internal determination of personal action, it is no coincidence that they repeatedly emphasize that no external circumstances, such as bad weather or disapproving glances from passers-by, should stop a person running towards perfection: "... you are moving forward to dispel doubts once and for all that there is a limit in life. He's gone. Your limit is your choice. You're running because you decided to run. You've decided, and no one else has. No one has power over your running" [Kirillov V. A. Run, Mr. Brooks, run. M.: "LitRes: Samizdat", 2021. URL: https://www.litres.ru/vitaliy-aleksandrovich-kirillov/begi-mister-bruks-begi / (date of access: 04/17/2023)]. Kant's rigorism in following duty fills the lines of A. Ivanova: "Running is first of all uncompromising willpower, iron character, ruthless self?discipline. And only then running is running. Running is for strong people. Look at your surroundings ? who runs every day and in any weather? That's right, if running would be easy, then everyone would do it" [Ivanov A. Running as a way ...]. Runners really like the metaphor of H. Murakami, who argued that our whole life is nothing more than a long-distance race, the success of which crucially depends not on the body, but on the spirit, not on the strength of the limbs, but on willpower. When considering the possibility of solving the most difficult problems of life, the ultramarathoner understands that it will definitely not be as difficult for him as during the race, "and difficult tasks that you would never have undertaken before – you will simply do them and be disappointed by how easy it is" [Gord E. RUN hacker...]. In this regard, it is clear why many authors explicitly or implicitly adhere to the procedural definition of happiness as the highest good: this is the constant progress of the ability to overcome increasingly difficult barriers (D. Safiollin), this is the path, not the end point (O. Akhmedova), while running gives a clear measurability of this progress, which depends entirely on personal efforts: "After all, daily running (regardless of age, condition, location, position in the country, from the dollar exchange rate, from oil prices) is always, albeit a small step forward, towards health, harmony, and maintaining one's leadership" [Popov P. A. Running instead of medicines..., p. 8]. Let's add that long-term preparation for running competitions as a kind of determination of the future makes an amateur stayer organized and proactive, ensuring the need to build a value hierarchy, the top of which is a person's personal resources: "Unfortunately, there were two wars in the twentieth century, and many people's plans did not come to fruition. All they have left is what they invested in themselves – health, education and skills. And this is much more important than material values" [Kotenkov N. Sports entrepreneur ...]. Understanding the fundamental nature of health for the quality of life and taking personal responsibility for its success are ideological attitudes that unite all the authors of the books under consideration about running. 

Many authors focus on the possibilities of self-knowledge provided by running practices:  P. A. Popov believes that "running is not just foot movements, but the awakening of consciousness, understanding" [Popov P. A. Running instead of drugs ..., p. 21], first of all, understanding oneself. "Running allows you to get to know yourself better – in fact, these are tests in different natural and weather conditions, and in competitions also the strain of physical strength and willpower especially. It is always an exam and control of your readiness to overcome life difficulties" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running..., p. 158]; "Staying in the zone of great fatigue, you will definitely encounter your alter ego, the real "I".  You may even be surprised to find out what you are really afraid of, check how long you can endure pain, and understand if you love loneliness" [Akhmedova O. Running towards yourself..., p. 109]. S. Medvedev writes that long running allows you to hear the "truth of the body" and compose an adequate idea of their capabilities, thereby achieving the unity of body and consciousness [Medvedev S. A man running...]; the improvement of cognitive abilities due to the neurogenesis provided by running and the insights arising during training are discussed by E. Yaremchuk [Yaremchuk E. Running for everyone: an accessible training program. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2015] and P. Maksimova [P. Maksimova You have everything...].

Often, the authors of the texts under study turn to the topic of activating a person's creative abilities by running. A clear evidence of this is the very fact that they wrote books, which many people never thought about before systematic jogging. According to N. N. Visitey, the most prominent representative of the modern philosophy of sports, "all components of a healthy lifestyle ? intellectual, social, spiritual, physical ? are interconnected. And all of them are components of the whole, the essence of which can be conditionally defined as the existential-semantic (or transcendental, or cultural-bodily) well-being of a person" ^{[2, p. 180]}". The holistic nature of culture determines the influence of its physical component on the spiritual one: for example, A. Beg takes a creative pseudonym in honor of his favorite hobby and literally composes poems on the run, from which he composes the book "Notes of begopoet" [Beg A. Notes of begopoet. M.: "Litres: Samizdat", 2022. URL: https://www.litres.ru/arslan-beg/zapiski-begopoeta / (date appeals: 04/12/2023)]; A. L. Chirkov writes that two hours of daily running "turn out to be the most creative <...> in my work schedule" [Chirkov A. L. Running to help..., p. 78]. It is the running "hormones of joy" that generate creative inspiration, as D. Sakhapov tells, recalling the history of the creation of his book: "Its first draft was definitely written under endorphins, a few days after the Moscow Marathon 2016" [Sakhapov D. K. My first marathon ...]; about the hormonal nature of how marathoners become poets, argues and Yu . Strofilov [Strofilov Yu. Not about running...]. P. Popov explores the aesthetic aspects of running, coming to the conclusion that "human running is the pinnacle of the beauty of movement. I want you to treat running not just as twitching and bending of limbs, but as a spiritual practice" [Popov P. A. Running instead of drugs..., p. 25]; O. Akhmetova feels running not so much as a sport, but "... as creativity – for me it had both rhythm and beauty" [Akhmedova O. Running towards herself ..., p. 24].

The analysis of personal traumatic experience gives the confessional character to the texts under consideration, while the narrator tries to be as objective as possible, not trying to justify his mistakes, and sometimes even ruthless to himself: "to some extent, sincerely writing about running means sincerely writing about himself" [Murakami H. What am I talking about when I talk about running. Moscow: Eksmo, 2007. p. 8]. First of all, this concerns the "pre-race" life, which has already been discussed earlier, which many authors describe as aimless, conformist, or even vicious. However, running activity and the community associated with it can also generate negative experiences. First of all, this is an emerging dependence on running endorphins, to the level reached by which the body quickly gets used, no longer receiving at a certain stage the expected effect from "hormones of joy". To increase the amount of endorphins, the running load has to be increased, which is often the cause of overtraining and related health problems: "A person becomes marathon-dependent, therefore it is advisable not to lose a sense of proportion and correctly determine reasonable limits" [Chirkov A. L. Running to help ..., p. 34]. This dependence is manifested in the exercise of running locomotion by amateurs in case of injuries and illnesses (which sometimes leads to death at marathon distances), as well as when a runner puts his training plan above the interests of relatives and close people who, without alternative, here and now need his care, support and help: "with a fanatical passion for running, a person turns his life into a formula, the components of which are: running, sleeping and eating. They alternate with each other in a certain sequence. Everything else turns into superfluous attributes of life" [Zhulidov M. Running and walking ...]. If running becomes the main supplier of endorphins, then a person loses interest in other areas of his being as distracting from the source of pleasure, hence irritability, conflict, sectarian rejection of modus vivendi and the values of other people experiencing joyful emotions from other manifestations of life. In this situation, it turns out that a person is literally running away from a multidimensional reality, in most areas of which he is not as successful as in his favorite running: "Instead of getting my life in order, it turned out to be much easier to put on sneakers and take part in the race. A photo from the finish line with a medal and confident figures in the protocol give rise to the illusion that a person lives a full, eventful life. Thus, we create the impression that we are doing something out of the ordinary, forming an image of exclusivity - in our own eyes and in the minds of others" [Akhmedova O. Running towards ourselves..., p. 50]. It is obvious that humanistically understood amateur running should perform not a substitute, but a complementary function: not to reduce a person's entire life to itself, displacing other interests (among which existentially significant ones are family, friendship, career, education, etc.), but to complement, color it with vivid emotions and achievements, without turning the runner into their The slave and the victim: "There is nothing wrong with running, but if running becomes the goal of existence and a person cannot think about anything else and live by nothing else, then such dependence is a biopsychosociospiritual disease" [Akhmedova O. Running towards yourself ..., pp. 56-57].

In fairness, it should be noted that the cause of this "disease", of course, is not running itself, but the emphasis of the personality of an amateur stayer on the constant improvement of his results. At the same time, the runner falls into a trap: at the beginning of competitive activity, his results increase almost with every start, developing a psychological attitude of a "winner", and then to ensure progress it is necessary to put more and more effort, devote even more time and other resources to running, and the "return" in the form of pleasant numbers on the scoreboard pleases everyone less often (since the result improves by only a few seconds, which clearly does not "pay off" the sacrifices made) or completely disappears, giving rise to frustration, the victims of which are both the runner himself and his surroundings:  "the circumstances of running in passion are competitions, envious motives, haste, strong attachment to achieving a goal" [Lavrenov A. Running in goodness...], while "passion cannot coexist with a sense of satisfaction ? this is a biological law" [Akhmedova O. Running towards oneself..., p. 289]. As it seems to us, "running in passion" is a form of "alienated" running, in which, in the words of E. V. Ilyenkov, being as "an alienated <...> active force acts as a subject from the outside dictating to each individual the ways and forms of his vital activity" ^{[7, p. 152]}. O. Akhmedova gives vivid examples of the negative impact on the personality of alienated running, which turns it from a multidimensional person into just a "running machine": "everything except training is canceled and postponed"; "running is the only sphere that I equip and maintain order in"; "everyone around (and myself they began to reduce me to running as a common denominator"; "men who liked me left, unable to compete with sneakers", "I didn't care where the competitions were held ("I'm not going to Chicago ? I'm going to the marathon")", "victories inspired and pleased for a very short time time" [Akhmedova O. Running towards herself ...], and this is not to mention the big health problems, including those related to the reproductive sphere, which the author frankly writes about. In our opinion, a sound attitude to amateur sports is expressed by S. Medvedev: "Over the years, I think, the element of rivalry will finally disappear in my motivation and pure joy will remain from the fact that you just go to the start, swim, spin, run and eventually finish" [Medvedev S. A man running ..., p. 150].

Sociocultural determination of amateur stayer running practices

An important dimension of the running practices of amateur stayers is their social activity. So, A. Beg Organized the community "Club "B"" in order to make his favorite type of physical activity a Russian national sport, like football in Brazil; N. Kotenkov runs long-term crosses with such motivation: "... I want to be sure that if there is a war, I will benefit, perhaps I will save the whole city, because that I can make a 50 km march through the swamp and in the forest. That's why I run and jump through trees. And everything else – fresh air, beautiful views and the thrill of the forest – this is the second point" [Kotenkov N. Sports entrepreneur...]; M. Zhulidov, V. Klement, R. Stankevich write about the importance of motivating other people to run based on their own example in the previously mentioned publications ("the motto of everyone who is active he is engaged in wellness running, – the tireless propaganda of this wonderful elixir of vivacity, health and longevity!" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running ..., p. 28], A. L. Chirkov, I. Kharchenko, D. Sakhapov, O. Akhmetova, P. Maksimova, G. Krivosheina and others, while almost every author shares the advice received on based on personal experience of training and competitions, warning novice runners from mistakes. It should also be noted that amateur stayer running practices actualize a person's natural predisposition to long-term running and generate diverse bodily and spiritual effects that allow us to remain competitive as a biological species. S. Medvedev draws the attention of runners to this mission [Medvedev S. is a man running...].     

It is important to understand the essence of the "running man" is to understand the reasons for the sportivization of running, the transition from leisure running in the park to participation in amateur competitions. The analysis of the studied sources revealed the following reasons for this: 1) the gradual development of running capabilities ("if you think about it, then a marathon is a logical continuation of running and consistent progress" [Sakhapov D. K. My first marathon ...]) makes it possible to overcome significant distances at a fairly fast pace, allowing you to hope to achieve, for example, the finish of the marathon in the control time and personal competitiveness as the realization of the need to win due to the social essence of a person; 2) given the importance of the emotional component of amateur running, we note in this regard the significant sensory-affective component of sports competitions provided by their gamification; 3) the competitive nature of running and the corresponding emotional uplift allow you to maximize your potential, which often ensures the establishment of personal records that raise a person's self-esteem. This is how I. Kharchenko writes about it: "Marathon time: 3 hours, 13 minutes, 24 seconds. The joy that swept over me at that moment simply defies description. <...>. I proved to myself again that I can achieve what I want if I don't give up and go to the end!" [Kharchenko I. How to throw off ...]; 4) competitions require systematic and sometimes long–term preparation, which stimulates and disciplines their potential participants, while "any sports goal is specific, time-limited, achievable and meaningful. By focusing on it, you will take steps and feel progress. Along with progress, happiness and confidence will return to your life" [Safiollin D. Act..., p. 11]. 5) ""And it's also cool to get a medal, a finisher's jersey and realize that you are part of one percent of the world's population called a "marathon runner"” [Maximova P. You have everything...]. Thus, one cannot disagree with R. Stankevich.: "People go to marathon distances not so much for their health, but out of a thirst for self-affirmation. And they are beautiful in this wonderful rush" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running ..., p. 140].

However, it should be recognized that the transfer of amateur running to the sports plane, where the winner from the loser, even at a marathon distance, can be separated by only a few seconds, sometimes deprives a running fan of such a significant value in the modern world as empathy. According to O. Akhmedova, this is due to the fact that running is an individual sport that does not develop, unlike team sports, the ability to empathize and the skill of mutual support. Sport, even amateur, can sometimes be very cruel: only one becomes the winner, and hundreds and thousands of semi-professional runners sacrifice a lot in life for the sake of victory. Moreover, "even outside the stadium, it is very difficult to stop being an athlete and become just a person who can hear the pain of another. The bitter truth is that compassion and attentiveness to others is not what should be expected from those who experience only seconds and minutes" [Akhmedova O. Running towards herself..., p. 277]. At the same time, if the main goal at the marathon distance is to fight only with oneself, running for self–improvement, and not winning a competition or a personal record, then amateur marathoners appear in a completely different light: "Come to the finish line of any mass run - and you will be amazed by the atmosphere of goodwill, universal consent, readiness of everyone to share everything with everyone, even a complete stranger – from the last precious sip of fruit juice in the heat to advice on the most important issues of life. Perhaps you have never met so many kind people at once. Running gives us the opportunity to put ourselves through a difficult test, and after enduring it, a person feels stronger, better, more confident in relationships with others, and therefore more friendly" [Stankevich R. A. Wellness running..., p. 22]. 

Another line of the narrative is the relationship of amateur runners with other people, and these relationships are far from simple. It must be admitted that running in Russia has never been considered a prestigious type of physical activity, which is due to many factors outlined in ^[8].  In this regard, urban running outside the stadium and special park paths requires overcoming internal and external constraints caused by petty-bourgeois, philistine traditions and stereotypes, especially for women's running. This is how O. Akhmedova, who started running around Moscow in 2007, writes about it: "... in the morning I do a shameful thing, so I try to appear on the street as early as possible <...>. No, I don't steal – I run" [Akhmedova O. Running towards myself..., p. 16]. M. Zhulidov states that "many people are scared away from running <...> by the unwillingness to be a "black sheep" against the background of others. <...>. This is due to psychological clamps, attitudes laid down from childhood, and other reasons. And suddenly passers-by, acquaintances, neighbors will start asking tricky questions, looking askance, grinning" [Zhulidov M. Running and walking ...]. E. Gord also talks about overcoming an inert social environment, noting that when through running practices "... I began to actively develop, achieve everything I want, I was surprised to find that no one supports me. That people are against those who start living the way he wants. <...>. If everyone is sitting in a fetid pit, then those who got out of it are not loved" [Gord E. RUN hacker...].

A certain detachment, and sometimes mockery or even hostility of non-running people, is sometimes used by amateur stayers to their advantage as a driver of running activities. So, D. Safiollin announced his colleagues in the office:   "... if I give up running without covering a distance of 10 kilometers, you can consider me a weak and weak-willed person, I will transfer 5,000 rubles to each of you" [Safiollin D. Act ..., p. 22]; T. Okotrub mentions that the more her friends twisted their finger at her temple, hearing that she, dear and a respectable teacher, at the age of 49, is going to run a half marathon for the first time in her life, the more she "... grew confident that she should go running" [Okotrub T. Running to the Bosphorus. I'm super. I am a sport. I'm a supersport. Yekaterinburg: Publishing Solutions, 2019. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/tatyana-okotrub/begom-k-bosforu-ya-super-ya-sport-ya-supersport-41830658 (date of address: 04/13/2023)]; D. Sakhapov writes about his friends in this way: "And even when they dissuaded me and tried to stop me, giving various and quite reasonable arguments, all this only spurred in me the desire to overcome myself and go beyond the conventional framework of "ordinary" life, into which, alas, almost every one of us eventually falls" [Sakhapov D. K. My first marathon...]. An amateur runner who does not always train a lot, besides withdrawing considerable funds from the family budget for his hobby, meets the understanding of even the closest and dearest people ? members of his family. This situation is ironically played out by Yu. Strofilov: "They say if you're still married, you don't exercise much. I have always trained on the fine line between defeating myself and divorce" [Strofilov Yu. Not about running..., p. 13]. However, all the authors of the texts note the great importance of family and friendly support during the competition, the importance of the example of their life as h omo currens for children.

At the same time, the experience of successful people is very important to amateur runners, who have repeatedly noted the importance of running activities in shaping their personality:  "After listening to the stories of many great personalities who went through the difficulties of life, while becoming stronger and wiser, I traced the connection between sports and success everywhere. It motivated me very much and motivates me" [Samatova D. How to love running and make it a necessity. A motivating guide for beginners. Yekaterinburg: Publishing Solutions, 2019. URL: https://www.litres.ru/book/dinara-samatova-1854/kak-polubit-beg-i-sdelat-ego-potrebnostu-motiviruusch-42596948 / (date of access: 04/15/2023)]. In this context, it is important to note the sober position of O. Akhmedova, who warns against the "race" for more successful and well-known runners, the unadapted use of their sports training plans for the sake of cheating views of their training reports on their personal page on social networks.: "You are the only one worth comparing yourself to.  Seeing in perspective what is really important to you and realizing that your life is different from everyone else's is a very valuable skill" [Akhmedova O. Running towards yourself..., p. 283].

Summing up, we note the very revealing title of the book by one of the most famous Russian marathon runners, Yu. Strofilov: "Not about running." Indeed, most of the works studied are devoted not to running, but to homo currens  ? a person who runs, for whom running is not a goal, but the most accessible and natural means of improving the body and spirit, a way of moving towards a better version of himself. For example, D. Sakhapov immediately warns his reader that his "book is addressed to everyone who feels the need to change their lives and engage in self-development" [Sakhapov D. K. My first marathon ...], and not to those who are looking for practical advice on overcoming the first marathon. Socrates and Aristotle argued that philosophy begins with surprise, but surprise at the systematic changes in one's personality gave rise to the literary creativity of the authors of the analyzed texts. Runners-writers, sometimes unknowingly, get closer to the essence of the Olympic idea  Pierre de Coubertin, whose goal was not an athlete, but an athlete as the embodiment of the ancient spirit of kalokagatia: "the cult of effort, competition on the verge of risk, love of the motherland, nobility, the spirit of chivalry, contacts with painting and literature ? all this is the foundation of Olympism" [Cit. according to: 5, p. 11]. Through joint efforts, the authors managed to create an axiology and an apology for running practices, and their collective conclusion can be expressed by the judgment of P. A. Popov: "... you and I are getting a little closer to understanding what running is. This is one of the greatest riches that a person possesses" [Popov P. A. Running instead of medicines ..., p. 45]. Millions of amateur runners return homo running locomotion to the status of the norm, proving its accessibility to all age and gender groups and promoting, including through ego texts, as an effective and affordable way to achieve physical, mental and social well-being, which expresses the humanistic essence of leisure stayer running.

Conclusions

1. The current stage of development of amateur stayer practices both in Russia and abroad can be described as personality-building, since the main goals of runners (especially marathon runners and super marathon runners) are associated not so much with health promotion, but with the sphere of personal improvement and self-knowledge: the development of will, character, checking oneself in an extreme situation, testing inaccessible before emotions and states of consciousness.

2. The understanding of the personality-building potential of amateur endurance running is based on the ego texts of Russian running enthusiasts created in the period from the beginning of the XXI century to the present day (including the online "samizdat"). The works under study are devoted to the history of the personal formation of the narrator, as close as possible to the author, which allows us to identify these concepts with some reservations.

3. The method of studying these texts is the biographical method, which makes it possible to determine the events that influenced the fundamental changes in personality development and the formation of her life path. According to the authors of the studied texts, the most important of such events is their initiation into stayer running (for example, overcoming the marathon distance), which is considered in the broad context of their lives and social processes.

4. The analyzed biographies inherit both the confessional tradition of Augustine (the contrast of aimless and vicious "pre-race" life, as well as the traumatic experience of running neophyte and significant achievements in many areas of personal development after accepting the values expressed through running Coubertin's "religio athleticae"), and the adventurous and heroic biographical tradition noted by M. M. Bakhtin, inherent in the era Renaissance, as well as Romanticism and Nietzscheanism with their focus on the formation (in our case, through stayer running) of a new (or "super-") person.

5. The authors of the texts under consideration develop a personality-oriented amateur running discourse based on the experience of oneself and the world in the implementation of extreme running activities for an ordinary person, while reflecting on the changes taking place with them. The qualitative result of running activity is the achievement by the subject of a new stage of development – a running person (homo currens), who is characterized by activity, mobility, heroism, asceticism, striving for maximum self-realization, achieving harmony of body and spirit. Homo currens opposes both virtual pastime and the fetishization of comfort culture, suggesting, referring to the concept of Viktor Frankl, filling life with new meanings and values through overcoming the inevitable suffering for stayer running.

6. Amateur stayer running practices are considered in existential, personal and socio-cultural dimensions. In the first dimension, the motivation of running activities, the ideological attitudes of runners are explicated, the nature of stabilization of their psycho-emotional state is determined, the influence of running on self-knowledge and the development of creative abilities is shown, special attention is paid to the analysis of "alienated" running as the cause of the generation of existential and traumatic experience. The definition of sociocultural determination made it possible to identify the causes of the social activity of runners and the sportivization of amateur running, as well as to determine the peculiarities of the relations of homo currens with their membership and reference groups.

7. By the very fact of literary creativity, ideally directed to eternity, the authors of the studied texts sub specie aeternitatis want to remain in history not as professionals, travelers, parents, etc., but in the status of a "running man", which they regard as a fateful achievement of a personality who realizes and translates developing experience through the ego-text running classes. The latter are considered by stayer writers as a generally accessible and effective means of gaining physical, mental and social well-being, which expresses the humanistic essence of leisure running and gives the works under study philosophical and anthropological significance.