George Sheehan as a researcher of the humanistic potential of amateur stayer running

Kannykin Stanislav Vladimirovich ORCID: 0000-0002-3250-4276 PhD in Philosophy Associate Professor; Department of Humanities; Starooskolsky Technological Institute named after A.A. Ugarov (branch) of NUST MISIS 309503, Russia, Belgorod region, Stary Oskol, Nikitsky, 6 stvk2007@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Many philosophers, including N. A. Berdyaev ^[2], H. Ortega y Gasset ^[10], K. Jaspers ^[16], consider dehumanization to be an essential feature of modern culture - the refusal to recognize a harmoniously developed personality as the highest value, which leads to the alienation of a person from his essence and the objectification of a society opposed to personal freedom and creativity. The process of dehumanization has been clearly manifested since the second half of the XIX century, and its worldview is based on the ideological positions of S. Kierkegaard, A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, social Darwinism, positivism and psychoanalysis. One of the forms of opposition to dehumanization was the resumption of the Olympic Games by Pierre de Coubertin (1896), the purpose of which was the revival of the ancient ideals of kalokagathy, the education of a personality that, even in a situation of extreme tension and intense competition, does not abandon moral guidelines, does not slide into animal aggression and deception, because no victory is worth dehumanizing ^[8]. Unfortunately, Olympic sports in the twentieth century migrated from an educational and pedagogical project to a commercial show, for which, as is now often believed, all means are good, and the development of physical conditions of many modern athletes far exceeds the level of their moral consciousness, which allows modern philosophers of sports to talk about the crisis of the Olympic movement ^[12]. The tendency to dehumanization is also characteristic of modern mass sports and physical culture, which manifests itself in ignoring or underestimating the complex impact of physical activity on all spheres of a person's being, and not only on bodily well-being. This, coupled with the excessive enthusiasm of many amateur athletes for training and competitive practices, makes them "one-dimensional", depriving life of completeness, important for comprehensive development, and then leads to a crisis of motivation and often to the abandonment of sports activities (for example, O. Akhmedova convincingly writes about the "burnout" of amateur runners [Akhmedova O. Running towards myself. About marathons, life and hope. M. : Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2023]) .

In this regard, it becomes relevant to refer to the works of researchers for whom it was fundamental to defend the ideal of a harmoniously developed personality as the main motive for activity in the fields of physical culture and sports, recognizing that "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" ^{[3, p. 180]}. One of the most prominent representatives of the humanistically oriented tradition of integrated human development by means of physical education is George A. Sheehan. Sheehan, 1918-1993, his surname is often transliterated as Sheehan) ‒ American doctor, amateur runner, journalist and thinker. His main works are not presented in Russian (we have found only a translated preface by J. Sheehan's book by K. Bailey [Is Bailey K. Slim or Fat? [Trans. M.: JSC "KRON-press", 1995], and on the Russian-language Internet you can only find short quotes from his works motivating runners, for example ["67 best quotes and sayings by George A. Sheehan". URL: https://list-quotes.com/ru/авторы/джордж-шихан (date of access: 08.08.2023)]. Meanwhile, J. Sheehan played a major role in popularizing amateur stayer running in the United States, which led to the "running boom" of the 1970s, which swept many countries, including the USSR ^[7]. Unlike other "gurus" of wellness running, such as Garth Gilmore, Arthur Lydiard, Bill Bowerman, Jim Fix, Kenneth Cooper and others, he focused not on running techniques, training techniques, healing effects and life extension, but on the humanistic dimension of running activity, considering amateur stayer running as a personally developing activity, harmonizing the relations of the body, mind and spirit, returning a person to the whole (as J. R. R. Tolkien believed. Sheehan, lost in the course of growing up) state and glorifying his being. That is why J. Sheehan was considered the first "philosopher of running", whose credo can be represented by his judgment: "Do not worry about adding a few years to your life with running or exercise, take care to add life to your years" [URL: https://www.georgesheehan.com/bio (date of access: 08.08.2023)].

This article introduces the scientific circulation of Russian researchers of the philosophy of sports, the untranslated works of J. A. Sheehan into Russian: "Running and being: a complete experience" (1978), as well as a collection of selected excerpts from all his works "The main thing for Sheehan: 30 years of running wisdom of the legendary Dr. George Sheehan" (2013It is important to note that George Sheehan was not a philosopher par excellence and did not create philosophical texts in their classical sense. He is primarily a journalist and essayist focused on making sense of his own experience of running activity and related personality changes. No less than philosophers, he was inspired by poets, writers and theologians, the texts of J. Sheehan is replete with metaphors and allusions that require deep immersion in American culture, he is cardiocentric, deeply religious and prone to mystical experiences. In this regard, extracting a logically ordered, holistic worldview of Dr. Sheehan from essentially journalistic, and sometimes artistic-visionary texts is a difficult task, therefore, this study should be considered the first approximation to understanding the humanistic aspects of amateur stayer running explicated by J. Sheehan.

Curriculum vitae

George Sheehan was born into a large and religious family of a cardiologist in Brooklyn in 1918. Having received a Jesuit school education, at the College of J. Sheehan became interested in athletics, becoming one of the best runners in the U.S. collegiate sports. Having, like his father, a degree in cardiology, J. Sheehan served in the Navy in the South Pacific as a doctor on the battleship USS Daly during World War II. He had to survive the kamikaze attacks and ended up in Nagasaki just a few days after the nuclear bombing of that city. Like many believers, J. Sheehan had a large family (12 children), and he took care of getting them a high-quality school education, for which he took an active part in the creation of a private Catholic school for boys, called the Christian Brothers Academy (CBA), in the Lyncroft area of Middletown Township, New Jersey. Attending school events as a trustee, he was so inspired by the running competitions of students that at the age of 45 he resumed training, starting to run on his small house plot, 26 laps of which were a mile. The choice of such a strange location for running was dictated by the fact that at that time jogging through the local streets would have been an excuse for a visit from the police or the parish priest. After about a year of training in the backyard, he finally ventured to start running around the city. As expected, in 1963, the innovation in the form of a middle‒aged man running through the streets of the patriarchal and small (population - about 7 thousand people) town of Ramson in summer in "underwear", and in winter in white long johns and a ski mask, was met with distrust of Dr. Sheehan's mental well-being and ridicule, delivering a lot trouble for his wife and children. However, it was already impossible to stop George Sheehan, who felt a huge surge of vitality and found like-minded people in New York, located an hour's drive from Ramson. His lunch time turned into an hour-long jog along the waterfront, and every Sunday morning was marked by participation in any running competitions that he could find within a two-hour drive.

J.'s favorite competition. Sheehan had a one-mile race in college, and he sets himself the goal of becoming the best runner at this distance in the world in his age group. The choice of this distance already reflects the main purpose of his running: Dr. Sheehan believed that sprinting actualizes the energy of the body; the marathon is the element of the mind, and in running a mile a person reveals himself in the unity of mind, body and spirit. After five years of hard training, J. Sheehan sets a world record in running this distance (4.47) for men aged 50. During his running career, he overcame more than 60 marathons, showing his best result (3.01) at the sixty-first year of his life.

Thanks to the running of J. Sheehan was able to activate his creative abilities, starting as a world champion to cover the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City in a local newspaper, and then to lead a weekly column dedicated to sports. In 1970, he became the medical editor of the world-famous running magazine Runner's World, and two years later he published his first book on sports medicine ^[19]. Over time, George Sheehan's articles become less and less devoted to running injuries, but more and more related to the study of the influence of amateur running practices on the lives of athletes, primarily concerning their worldview, values, lifestyle, existential experiences, body-spirit relationships, etc. Thus, Dr. Sheehan turns into the first researcher of philosophical aspects amateur stayer running, as was convincingly evidenced by his fourth book "Running and Being: a Complete Experience" (1978) ^[20], which brought him worldwide fame and has long been at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. "With the publication of the book "Running and Being" in 1978, George Sheehan's voice became the voice of the world running movement, sounding a loud call to hundreds of thousands of people to abandon a sedentary lifestyle, go out on the streets and run" ^{[20, p. 6]}. In addition to the activities of a journalist and writer, the author of eight books, J. Sheehan became famous as a great speaker, popularizing running as a means of multifaceted personality development at numerous meetings with sports fans.

In 1986, Dr. Sheehan was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, which he lived with for another seven years, running until the day he could stand on his feet. His last book, published after his death, was called "Overcoming the Distance: One Man's Journey to the End of his Life" ^[21]. In this book, J. Sheehan likens his life to a stayer's race, and death to the finishing ribbon, which he will soon touch, having given his all and coming to the end of the distance unbroken by hardships and spiritually transformed. Dr. Sheehan believed that the main goal of every person is to become the best version of themselves. And running was the way for him to achieve this goal.

The philosophical authorities of J. Shihana

George Sheehan did not have a philosophical education and noted with annoyance that future doctors are not sufficiently introduced to social and humanitarian knowledge: "I also admit that I am a self-taught philosopher. We doctors have no other choice. <...> We are never taught the humanities or their importance. You see, scientists don't need to know anything about yesterday. This is already embedded in modern technology. But to be a human being, to be an individual, you have to start with the Book of Genesis and move forward. You should always be on the lookout to find giants, writers, thinkers, saints, athletes who are talking to you. Those who reflect your instincts, your temperament, your body, your mind, your tastes" ^{[20, pp.129-130]}.

Following his own advice, J. Sheehan managed to find in the history of culture thinkers who were as similar to him as possible in their physique, psychotype, hobbies and attitude to life. Firstly, N. A. Berdyaev, the author of the confessional "Self-knowledge" ^[1], was close to him, attracting him with the justification of the importance of understanding his individuality, as well as the depth and honesty of introspection. Socrates, as you know, was largely motivated to philosophical pursuits by the inscription in the Delphic temple "Know yourself" ‒ and this also does not pass by the attention of the American researcher. The founder of cybernetics, N. Winner, argued that "living effectively means living with adequate information," and above all this concerns information about oneself, clarifies Dr. Sheehan ^{[20, p. 22]}.

So, first of all, we need to figure ourselves out. Where to begin? What is fundamental about a person? J. Sheehan answers this question with complete certainty – this is our body. "Who are you? Look at it" ^{[20, p. 42]}, ‒ this is how lapidarly he expresses the telocentricity of his anthropology. It follows that the best way to begin self–knowledge is to analyze the structure of your body and how it moves. In this regard, it becomes clear that J. Sheehan's constitutional theory of temperament by William Herbert Sheldon, dating back to the anthropological traditions of Antiquity, who argued that function follows structure and justified the correlation of personal characteristics with the specifics of physique ^[23]. J. Sheehan repeatedly notes that to accept the teachings of W. G. Sheldon (despite his criticism by Marxists and Freudians) means to accept oneself and one's own to learn to live in accordance with it, as well as to recognize and take into account the bodily expressed existential characteristics of other people. For W. G. Sheldon, there is no "body-mind" problem, there is no confrontation between the conscious and the unconscious, there is no gap between the physical and the mental. He considers the bodily structure and human behavior as a functional continuum. This holistic approach is very attractive to J. Sheehan, since he considered the achievement of the bodily and spiritual integrity of a person to be the most important task in life, inspired by the judgment of St. Irenaeus of Lyon "The glory of God is a living human being", understood as the unity of body, mind and spirit ^[4].

Dr. Sheehan finds in the history of thinkers similar to themselves in terms of their bodily constitution and the associated psychotype and is convinced that long-term movement was their urgent need, without satisfying which they did not gain creative impulses. Thus, Bertrand Russell defined himself as a shy and introverted pedant, mentioning his pleasant relaxation after twenty-five miles of walking. Ralph Waldo Emerson, self-described as unfriendly, selfish, cautious and cold, could make a forty-mile hike and believed that before becoming a good person, you should become a good animal by learning how to use your body optimally. Søren Kierkegaard justified the importance of restricting the flesh to witness the truth, and his ascetic practice, as is well known, was also long-term walking. Daily walks along the unchanging route and schedule of the subtle I. Kant became legendary; R. W. Emerson's friend, the transcendentalist philosopher G. D. Thoreau, was also a famous walker, while "for Thoreau, the length of his walk determined the length of his letter; if he was locked at home, he did not write anything at all" ^{[20, p. 69]}. And, of course, J. Sheehan did not forget the young and "thin-boned" Mohandas Gandhi, who traveled 12-15 kilometers on foot through the streets of London every day, who received a law degree in England and promised his mother not to touch wine, women and meat in a foreign country, as well as so faithful to his sense of vocation that he was not stopped from getting an education in England is even an exile from one's caste. F. Nietzsche was also close to Dr. Sheehan, who stated in the Esse homo: "Sit as little as possible; do not trust a single thought that was not born in the air and in free movement ‒ when muscles also celebrate their holiday. <...> Sedentary life ‒ I have already said once that there is a real sin against the Holy Spirit" ^{[9, p. 208]}.

To achieve one's authenticity, it is important to overcome the pressure of an impersonal social environment, to break out of the das Man mode of life ^[14], the common ideas about the "good life". Dr. Shihan, who started running around his small town first, despite the puzzled looks, is again supported by our great compatriot, because "living a good life," Nikolai Berdyaev wrote, is often boring, flat and banal." The greatest challenge, he argued, is to make yourself fiery, creative, and capable of spiritual struggle. I agree" ^{[20, p. 22]}. F. Nietzsche saw the formula of human greatness in amor fati ‒ love for your destiny, no matter how hard it is and no matter what others think about it. William James considered the only worthy life to be based on "a combination of some unusual idea with loyalty, courage and endurance. Sweat, effort and human nature, strained to the limit, but remaining alive, he wrote, is what inspires us" ^{[20, p. 275]}. J. Sheehan repeatedly mentions that one of his most valued philosophers, W. James advocated a life of holiness, poverty, or sports. He admired asceticism, which not only allows a person focused on the main thing to realize his potential to the maximum, but also to discover unexpected heights of perseverance and heroism ^[5]. At the same time, U. James believes that ascetic practices should become a habit, to use Aristotle's term, a phronesis – otherwise we will spend both energy and time making decisions. In this regard, J. Sheehan makes it a habit to run an hour a day, noting that while jogging, the road for him is simultaneously a gym, laboratory, classroom and even a temple. "We do fitness in this gym. And along with this, we find our own uniqueness" ^{[20, p.124]}.

Body and spirit in anthropology by J. Shihana

J. Sheehan defined his bodily constitution, according to the teachings of W. G. Sheldon, as somatotype 235 (mesomorphic ectomorphy), from a psychological perspective – this is a daring loner who sets his own rules, but he is too fragile for open combat, his element is cunning and perseverance, regarding sports – this is an excellent constitution for a stayer running. Dr. Sheehan agrees that he has the main features of the ectomorph: detachment, ambivalence, taciturnity, suspicion, caution, awkwardness and thoughtfulness. For this type of personality, ideas are much more interesting than people, the ectomorph is alien to fashion, public opinion is not important to him, he loves solitude, "in a world where caring for others is fundamental, he preserves himself by remaining uninvolved" ^{[20, p. 38]}. By his dominant qualities, J. Sheehan considered the ability to abandon most generally accepted standards, distance himself from others and be content with the smallest, living in a world of ideas and fantasies. It is obvious that a loner, an intellectual, generally indifferent to people, who does not wish them any harm or good, a subtle coward who is afraid of any blow, but even more so of hugs, a person with a pain threshold at the level of a strong handshake absolutely does not correspond to the image of "macho" as the common ideal of an American man. J. Sheehan tried to compensate for this discrepancy with "normality" by belonging to (as he put it) "the herd": "My problem was not individuality, but identity. I had more personality than I could bear. I had to identify myself with the group" ^{[20, p. 32]}. Of course, it was not easy for him to struggle with his own nature in order to become conformal, he lived all the time with a sense of his inferiority. The inner feeling of an outsider had to be hidden, and Dr. Sheehan noticed that he almost never looked people in the eye, afraid to betray, "expose" himself with a look, show his anxiety and unhappiness. A shifty glance, a constant desire not to be noticed, talking "into the void", past the face of the interlocutor, a mask of detachment – all these were means "... to keep uninvited guests away from my real self" <...>, in those days, the worst command I could hear was: "Look me straight in the eye and tell me that." Then the truth would inevitably come out. I would have been caught in a lie" ^{[20, p. 52]}.

Tired of all this, he decided to return to himself through a type of activity corresponding to his bodily constitution and organic worldview – stayer running, in which he was strong in his youth, to revive a successful self. And that's how J. Sheehan describes this path to selfhood: "Running has made me free. It saved me from worrying about the opinions of others, from rules and regulations imposed from the outside. Running allowed me to start from scratch" ^{[20, p. 33]}. Based on the effectiveness of this return to oneself, J. Sheehan formulated the main rule of life in his understanding: "My experience has taught me that you should first and always strive for who you really are" ^{[20, p. 131]}, perceive yourself as special, but full-fledged.

After running systematically for many years, Dr. Sheehan became convinced that it is the body that determines our mental and spiritual energy. Moreover, "the dominant component of the physique that makes a person a long-distance runner also determines his approach to people and society, to food and travel, to education and discipline, to goals, values and behavior that characterize his "good life"" ^{[20, pp. 35-36]}. He came to the conclusion that with renewed flesh, we can put on a new person and build a new life, for which we were always created, but once lost it along with the body, which was the object of pleasure in our youth. The body is stronger than the spirit, Dr. Sheehan believes: "Our bodies are capable of the most amazing feats. But the horizons of our spirit do not extend beyond the TV, the stereo system and the car in the garage" ^{[22, p. 33]}. We need spiritual energy to activate the resources of our body and transform ourselves, achieving wholeness and realizing the potential of our originality. It is in the awakening of this enthusiasm that J. Sheehan sees the main goal of his educational activities as a journalist, writer and lecturer. He repeatedly emphasizes that success in life is a firm belief that we, having made significant efforts, have become ourselves. And the renewed, improved body with the help of running testifies to the correctness of this belief, because "... my gaze is no longer furtive. It is no longer out of focus and does not move on the surface. <...> I am able to show myself to another human being, willing to give my love and receive his love. I don't need to look away from anyone anymore" ^{[20, p. 53]}.

J. Sheehan writes that it is the body that shows us the way to the best self-realization, but each of us is free to go or not to go in this direction. Therefore, "the runner does not run because he is too thin for football, or does not know how to hit the ball in the ring, or cannot hit a bat ball flying along a curve. He's running because he has to. Because, being a runner, overcoming pain, fatigue and suffering, putting stress on stress, eliminating everything except the most necessary in life, he self-actualizes and becomes who he is" ^{[20, p. 41]}. By giving up a lot, the runner does not sacrifice anything, which looks strange from the outside. However, the fact is, says J. Sheehan said that the runner was not created for the ordinary world, for life "like everyone else." It is not easy for the runner himself to understand this, but as soon as he accepts it, he will be able to obey only his "I", live according to the providence of the Absolute, and in the words of M. Heidegger ‒ "the call of conscience", which "... does not happen, and never, neither planned, nor prepared, nor intentionally executed by ourselves. "It" calls against expectation and even more against will. On the other hand, the call is certainly not coming from someone else who is with me in the world. The call comes from me and yet beyond me" ^{[14, p. 275]}. Jose Ortega y Gasset also wrote that only those who follow their inner voice truly live, but the difficulty lies in hearing it. This requires pacification, peace, meditation, in which this voice can be heard. Therefore, J. Sheehan advised to keep one hour a day and one day a week untouchable for all others, devoting them to self-development through running and competitions. For Dr. Sheehan, a long, leisurely run is the creation of exactly such a situation in which he can hope to meet the call of his true being, thereby avoiding the main disappointment ‒ "... to end his life without actually living it. <...> we can come to the end without ever experiencing it, without ever hearing the call of being. Our tragedy may be an unused soul, an unfulfilled plan" ^{[20, p. 75]}. The English romantic poet John Keats, beloved by J. Sheehan, wrote that "... reason and sparks of divinity may be in millions of people, but they do not become Souls until they acquire an identity, until each of them becomes himself," while such a familiar world of Pain – suffering is necessary for stayers work, diseases – in order to teach us the Mind and make it a Soul" ^[6].

Personality structure

As already mentioned, J. Sheehan believed that for him the main motive for running was self-realization: he wanted to maximize his bodily deterministic potential, really become who he is according to the divine plan, to gain integrity, harmony of his components, which he designated as "animal", "child", "artist"and "holy."

1. "Animal" is a metaphor for bodily well‒being, which means putting the body in the best condition for the type of activity that suits it and gaining physical health. J. Sheehan was proud that at the age of 60, according to medical experts, he corresponded to the biological parameters of a 30-year–old man, having managed, as R. W. Emerson advised, to become a good animal: "In running, I am an animal, the best animal I can be. I'm doing what I was created for. Moving with grace and rhythm, as well as a confidence that I seem to have possessed since time immemorial. And there I find joy" ^{[20, p. 49]}.

2. "The child". Dr. Sheehan has repeatedly stressed that running brings him back to his youth, makes him a child playing: "Playing is something that we would do just like that, something that makes sense, but has no purpose. When I run, I feel it. During this hour a day, like a child, I finally do what I want and enjoy it. When I do this, I realize that what happens to the body is just a bonus. First, I have to play for an hour a day, and then everything else will be added" ^{[22, p. 239]}. The image of a child playing refers us to Heraclitus, who believed that eternity is a child playing, and the kingdom over the world belongs to the child, as well as the Gospel: "Be like children" (Matthew 18:3), "for such is the Kingdom of God" (Mk. 10:14) and F. Nietzsche, who argued, that the coming superman will have the spirit of a child. Both for these thinkers and for J. Shihana, a child is an expression of a person free from the oppression of conventions and popular opinions, who freely expresses his individuality and feels the infinity of his possibilities.

3. "The Artist". This component indicates the creative potential of a person, the ability to see things "as they are", to understand their true meaning. Running, immersing a person in meditative states, "opens up areas in my mind that I would not otherwise use" ^{[22, p. 240]}. J. Sheehan was close to actively using bodily practices for self-knowledge and personality development are Eastern philosophy, the active popularizer of which in the West was the Japanese Buddhist Daisetsu Suzuki, who claimed that every person is an artist whose work is a picture of his own life ^[13].

4. "Hero". J. Sheehan believed that the highest human need is to be a hero, and he considered regular running competitions, especially marathons, to be the medium of manifestation of his personal heroism: "running gave me a chance to become a saint, to become a hero. Like everyone else, I want to be challenged. I want to find out if I'm a coward or not. <...> And I can compete with myself in the marathon, a race that Roger Bannister called "the pinnacle of athletic heroism" ^{[22, p. 240]}. At the same time, J. Sheehan shares X's point of view. Ortega y Gasset, who believed that heroism is not only the ability to perform a feat, but also the courage to be oneself, which necessarily implies resistance to the pressure of the collective, impersonal will of society. Every person who is seized by the desire to be who he is, no matter how unusual it may be for other people, can say: "I have found my hero, and he is me." For Dr. Sheehan, courage is a bridge between the mind and the body, a certain "moment of truth" is needed to show courage, but everyday life is poor for such moments. "The trouble with this country," John Berryman once said to his colleague the poet James Dickey, "is that a person can live his whole life without knowing whether he is a coward or not" ^{[20, p. 25]}. W. James and W. Frankl believed that the greatest trials for a person are pain, evil and death. These realities cannot be ignored or evaded, but you need to look them straight in the face and win, so as not to fall into the dehumanizing horror of their sting. But where can I find a meeting with them? For Dr. Sheehan, such a place is running sports, "where the whole life can be compressed into a few hours. Where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on one or two acres of land. Where a person can suffer, die and resurrect on six miles of trails through a New York City park. Sport is a theater where a sinner can turn into a saint, and an ordinary person can turn into an extraordinary hero. Where the past and the future can merge with the present. Sport is exceptionally capable of giving us peak experiences when we feel completely at one with the world, when all conflicts are overcome, when we finally reveal our own potential" ^{[20, p. 261]}. Dr. Sheehan understands sports requiring maximum effort as a great dedication achieved by overcoming exhaustion and suffering and leading to a deeper his way of dealing with the gift of existence, therefore, a playful, joyful daily run was not enough for him to realize himself. He wanted to find his limits and learn to be above them, to discover hidden sources of energy in himself, which requires, in his words, a "dynamogenic agent", "the moral equivalent of war", an arena where one could demonstrate courage and perseverance, a place where one could become the best as possible. Dr. Sheehan's more than 60 marathons are the realization of the chances to become a hero by applying ascetic practices. For him, the marathon is a stage where everyone has a chance to show all that is good in him: "Courage and determination, discipline and willpower, cleansing from all negative impulses – we see that we are truly whole and holy. We have been told over and over again that we were born to succeed, but it is the marathon that convinces us of this truth" ^{[22, p. 203]}.

The phenomenology of the running experience

J. Sheehan believes that the worldview that a systematically running person achieves is special and valuable: "we should not ignore the psychological, creative and spiritual dividends that people receive from physical exercise. Some runners, for example, need to run 5 to 10 miles a day to maintain their sanity, serenity and good mood. <...> Some people run for philosophical reasons, not to the finish line. Running is an entrance to another world, a path to experiences that cannot always be expressed in words. Whether you call it peak experiences or mystical events, runners continue to strive for them" ^{[22, pp. 243-244]}. For J. Shihana running is a way to achieve a new understanding of oneself and the world by going beyond the ordinary human experience, which begins with exploring the limits of the body, and then the limits of the mind. The phenomenology of stayer running, explicated by J. Sheehan, can be represented as a set of the following structures of experience:

1. Actualization of positive personality traits. J. Sheehan associates this feature of the running experience mainly with reaching the finish line at the limit of strength in a competitive race. The researcher writes that despite extreme fatigue, he is absolutely happy at the end of the race. "I forgot all the bad things about myself for a moment. <…> This is getting rid of all the vile and shameful things that I have accumulated in my life. My basic understanding of myself and the world is undergoing changes. I replace all the depressing memories, all the dirt and garbage with something bright, clean and positive. I hear (in my subconscious – S.K.) good news about myself. This is extremely necessary, because the subconscious mind is the source of all our creativity. <…>. Our subconscious mind is constantly overflowing with evidence of our shortcomings and failures. The race reverses that. This tells me that I have succeeded. It makes me feel good about myself" ^{[22, p. 166]}. Reaching the finish line is perceived as a victory over oneself, over circumstances, and over rivals, and this winning spirit has been a driver of various kinds of personal activity for a long time, restores self-respect and self-confidence, encourages creativity.

2. Blocking aggression and other negative emotions. Dr. Sheehan writes that throughout his daily runs, he has never been angry with anyone: "physical exercise helps to get rid of anger and rage, fear and anxiety. Like music, they calm the savage in us who lies so close to the surface. It is the strongest tranquilizer" ^{[22, p. 276]}. He sees an explanation for this in the theory of emotions by W. James and K. Lange, which appeared at the end of the XIX century, according to which emotions are derived from physiological reactions, bodily effects caused by stimuli: for example, a person first trembles, and only then feels anger. Blocking anger can occur in two ways: by significantly loading the body, distracting it from reacting to something else, as well as by replacing negative emotions with the opposite ones. It is this double blocking by J. Sheehan observes in his running activity: when he fully focuses on running, he is overwhelmed with feelings of joy, friendliness, he imagines himself a hero, imagines himself a winner, noting that "only higher and more subtle feelings are now able to penetrate my consciousness" ^{[22, p. 277]}, "when I run, I I get rid of those feelings that destroy rather than create, which lead to darkness rather than light. I am cleansed of all these passions..." ^{[22, p. 278]}. J. Sheehan believes that a calm long run ‒ This is a practice that opens the way to peace and serenity, because "muscle strength turns into virtue" ^{[20, p. 317]}, and the ability to cope with pain and fatigue allows the runner to get rid of feelings of guilt and anxiety: "kindness, truth and beauty suddenly take over me. I am surprised with joy, filled with delight, and I have no choice but to rejoice with tears in my eyes" ^{[20, pp. 334-335]}.

3. Activation of speculation. In a meditative, relaxed state, a person is able, in the words of Heraclitus, to "listen to the essence of things," so running time is "thanks <...> moments of sudden enlightenment that come easily and without problems" ^{[20, p. 124]} may be the most valuable hour of our day. The visionary ability works in us, Dr. Sheehan believes, only after a "cleansing effort", one of the types of which is a long run. In its course, the maximum integration of the body and consciousness is ensured, achieved through overcoming discomfort and pain. "Only after this test comes a short-term and transient clarity in which things are seen as they are forever" ^{[20, p. 334]}; "I am on top of my hill, looking down at my river and see my city in the distance, where people are working right now and supporting their lives, mine and mine. And now this hill becomes every hill, the river becomes every river, the city becomes every village, and the people become the whole of humanity. And in these moments there is light, joy and understanding. <...> I think I see how things really are" ^{[20, p. 340]}. J. Sheehan is close to the position of the American poet John Hall Wheelock, who believed that long lonely efforts and self‒discipline are the poet's prayer that he can become an instrument of the voice of being in each of us and thanks to this, he will gain a vision of the world, wisdom and the gift of words that far surpass his own capabilities. For J. Shihana running is the movement of an existentially lonely person towards his true self: "... I go out alone on the roads to find my true self, to hear my own message, to make a decision about my life myself ^{[20, p. 315]}," he often writes that through bodily exercises we have a chance to achieve a vision of our own, as well as any other essence.

4. Peace, solitude and complete stay in the present. A relaxed and long single run, coupled with full concentration on locomotion, gives rise to the feeling that you can run like this forever. J. Sheehan believes that in this situation he moves from the measured time to where it stops, calling it the "eternal present". In this state, he feels peace, detachment, independence and freedom, describing it as a transition from time to eternity, avoiding "feelings of guilt for the past, boredom in the present and anxiety for the future. As the poet Blake claimed, I held infinity in the palm of my hand and felt eternity in one hour" ^{[20, p. 338]}. J. Sheehan believes that when he runs, time has no power over him, therefore, while running, the struggle is not with time, but with boredom, with routine, with do not live in danger at all. "When I run, I avoid all this. I am entering a world where time stops, where the present is a wonderful example of eternity" ^{[20, p. 163]}.

5. Communication with the Absolute. J. Sheehan defined himself as a "theological animal", explaining that the answer to the question of the meaning of his existence is beyond the mind and must somehow be connected with God. J. Sheehan, by his life example, shows the path following which "... a person, no matter how weak, no matter how cowardly, no matter how cautious, no matter how anxious he was, somehow not only survived, but also won. But first you need to believe in it" ^{[22, p. 257]}. He associated his desire to run not so much with the development of his body as with a response to the call of his oppressed soul. He was not guided by the demands of reason, his actions were rather determined by experiences that are classified as mystical and unreasonable: "... my fitness program was successful because it was absurd. For a man my age, it was nonsense to decide to become an athlete. <...> It was a campaign, a revolution, an appeal. I was determined to find myself. And in the process, he found his body and soul, which left with him" ^{[20, p. 80]}. Dr. Sheehan writes that his running was an offering to the Absolute, he became a child in front of a Father who offered what the child did best. In the view of an American researcher, a long‒distance runner is a kind of antenna of humanity, a prophet proclaiming that for each of us there is a Revelation that we must find through our bodies. The runner's path begins with a game, goes through suffering and ends with unearthly delight and a special vision, gaining its authenticity. Overcoming voluntary suffering is, in the eyes of most, a ridiculous way to find meaning in life. And a long-distance runner is certainly a strange person, because he persists in this. But J. Sheehan is sure that the meaning of life lies beyond the mind, namely where our blood and flesh whisper to our unconscious. In running, "I am holy, created for the greater glory of my Creator, born to do His work" ^{[20, p. 317]}, running turns life into a theological game, since reaching the limit the runner makes his move, waiting for the response of the Absolute. Dr. Sheehan believed that running is not only an activity, a process, but also a place for God to communicate with us, a territory of psychological and spiritual renewal.

The game as an existential "running man"

J. Sheehan is confident that running classes will only be regular and enjoyable if they are treated like a game. At the same time, playing as an activity without a pragmatic goal is understood by an American researcher not only as a way to relieve tension or prepare for "real", serious business. According to J. Shihanu, a person should play with full dedication, with passion, as if his life depends on it. Even a marathon for a lover of running, this mixture of pain and pleasure is still a game, since it does not serve any utilitarian purpose. Marathon runners most often do this out of high motives, they are inspired by the idea of the human ideal as an integrity of spiritual, intellectual and physical perfection. Those who finish the marathon are convinced of their spiritual and physical strength, and J. Sheehan sees a semantic connection between the English word "strong" and the Latin "virtus", pointing out that one of the meanings of the Latin word is "virtue", therefore physical activity should become a way of ethical improvement, a way of gaining calocagacy. No wonder the Greeks considered athletic experience to consist of three parts: training ("ascesis"), competition ("agon") and their consequences, which were called "arete", which translates as "perfection" or "virtue".

J. Sheehan repeatedly emphasizes that only in the form of a game does running become a self-renewing urge, a part of life, it is not for nothing that the carnival beginning is so strong in mass marathons. In this regard, it becomes clear why many who started running and did not actualize the game components of this type of locomotion soon quit this activity, finding running monotonous and boring. Clenching their teeth, without joyful emotions, believing this to be a punishment for a sinful lifestyle, insufficiently healthy people who need cardio exercises or weight loss to heal also run. It is unlikely that such a run makes them happy, Dr. Sheehan believes.

The game is one of the peak experiences necessary for life of the fullness of one's being and unity with the world, it is an existential that unites the body and consciousness, it is a process in which "the magical and mystical prevail over the practical and pragmatic" ^{[22, p. 53]}. H. Ortega y Gasset believed that life requires There are two kinds of efforts ‒ one stems from pure delight, originality, creativity, vitality, spontaneity; the other effort is driven by compulsion, commitment, usefulness. The first is games and sports, the most important part of our existence, because only here is life found in all its passion and excitement, everything else is mechanical, forced functioning. Therefore, the success of millions of people who exercise depends on whether they go beyond the external details of physical fitness ‒ beyond tables, graphs and schedules ‒ and move into the vital, creative field of play. "In running, climbing and swimming, hunting and fishing, horseback riding and games, we become ourselves and open up to experience. There we find inner peace and tranquility. There, thinking and feelings gain clarity, there we discover wholeness, completeness and purity that make us want to celebrate our being. Far from everyday life, from politics and religion, from economics and science, we perceive the universe and ourselves as something much more than logic and reason teach us" ^{[22, p. 53]}. To an outside observer, an adult "in his underwear", running alone at dusk along a country road in a fine rain, is a restless, frivolous, lost creature in the world, and sometimes it is difficult to resist stopping the car and offering the unfortunate a ride to where he so desperately strives. However, Plato, who was alien to Philistinism, wrote in the Laws: "... man, as we said earlier, is some kind of fictional toy of God, and in fact this has become his best purpose. This is what should be followed; let every man and every woman spend their lives playing the most beautiful games, although this contradicts what is now accepted <...> So what is finally right? We must live by playing" ^{[11, p. 1149]}. The game for Dr. Sheehan is a place where we find our true self and "expand ourselves", going beyond the dull everyday life ^[15]. He writes that he is ready to found a new religion, the first law of which says "play regularly", because an hour of play a day makes a person whole, healthy and long-lived.

It is important to note that physical exercise outside of a gaming situation has a completely different quality: cardiologist J. Sheehan writes that hard physical work did not change the factors of coronary risk or other heart diseases in more than 30,000 men observed by doctors. However, in the same group, physical activity in free time was accompanied by a significant reduction in risk factors for heart attacks. Not by forced hard work, but by swimming, running, intensive gardening, tennis, squash, handball and other types of games associated with joyful excitement, a sense of fullness of their lives, these people gained health and longevity. The whole world can be the arena of the game, and every person is a great player if he finds a game according to his potential, as indicated by the flesh. Dr. Sheehan is confident that only by turning sport into a game will a person feel the inner peace and confidence that come from every part of the body of a well‒trained person - the foundation where all other values, mental or spiritual, are rooted.

Running energy and creative inspiration

J. Sheehan believes that the best thing most of us can do is to be a poet for an hour a day. What does it mean? First, to perceive the world poetically, as something unusual, to admire it. Only the playing body is capable of this. J. Updike once remarked that a game can gather amazing dimensions of subtlety and transcendent meaning. For Dr. Sheehan, the root of this subtlety and transcendence lies in the body. "We rise to these almost mystical heights through the reality that we all share. Body ‒ This is where all religion, all culture, all literature should begin. Body ‒ this is what all writers should start with, but few do it" ^{[20, p. 153]}. J. Sheehan writes that, running, he learns every day how to breathe properly, tastes the air, feels it pass through the lungs. He testifies to the renewal of sight, smell, hearing and touch, imagining himself a new Adam in a new Eden. Secondly, it is a complete, unashamed, emotional expression of one's states. J. Sheehan is close to P. Picasso's idea that everything we do can become art. It was in running that J. Sheehan achieved catharsis, achieved an ideal correspondence of form and matter for himself, and ordered the chaos of everyday life. Like a creative artist, a runner experiences existence intensely, explores his emotions and even plunges into meditative, mystical states. However, it is not easy for him to express his insights, to convey the content of the feelings that he experienced. The viewer watching the runner sees little of this intense, reaching peak experiences, inner life.

After becoming a writer, Dr. Sheehan realized that the text he created was the final form of truth, which came to him only as a result of running. And this truth is found in the recesses of consciousness, from which it cannot be extracted at any time at will. To get to these hiding places, a situation of solitude and detachment is necessary. In this state, the author's idea, purely rational in its essence, is transformed into something true and alive. This transformation takes place while running, becoming an epiphany reminiscent of Aristotle's kairos: "There, in a flash of lightning, I can see the truth, perceived in its entirety, without reflection or reason. There I experience a sudden understanding that comes without a mask, unbidden. I'm just resting, resting inside myself, resting in the pure rhythm of my running, resting like a hunter in ambush. And I'm waiting" ^{[20, p. 19]}. J. Sheehan believes that if we want to write the truth, we must first become this truth, reach the depths of our true self, which he achieves with the help of running. Here it is appropriate to recall the judgment of another famous marathon writer Haruki Murakami: "to some extent, sincerely writing about running means sincerely writing about oneself" [Murakami H. What am I talking about when I talk about running. Moscow: Eksmo, 2007. p. 8]. And where there is truth, J. believes. Shihan, there will also be sublime and beautiful, laughter and tears, joy and happiness. "All this, of course, defies logic. But so it is with life. We live, and then we explain things after the fact, and imperfectly. Somehow, perhaps not in the way I said, running gives me a word, a phrase, a sentence that fits just right" ^{[20, p. 19]}. The idea of suffering is so natural for both writers ("the torments of creativity") and stayers that it seems to be their common bond. Therefore, it is not surprising, says J. Sheehan said that he turned out to be both, especially since modern literature, in his opinion, has become very close to journalism: many works are reports of personal observations of real events and people, even if the authors themselves become them.

The legacy of J. Shihana

The importance of J. Sheehan's humanistic ideas related to the study of running practices only increases over time. Today, amateur stayer running is one of the most popular types of physical activity, gathering tens of thousands of runners of various levels from all over the world at city runs (especially at the most prestigious marathons – "majors" in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York), among which, undoubtedly, there are those who was inspired by the author of the bestseller "Running and Being", journalist, doctor and thinker George Sheehan. Of course, philosophy could not stay away from understanding the humanistic aspects of several waves of the global "running boom". Among the most famous monographs related to the emerging philosophy of running, it should be noted the collective work "Running and Philosophy. Marathon for the mind" ^[18], the creators of which are systematically engaged in running American philosophers, repeatedly quoting J. Sheehan and his developing ideas. The author of the first individual monograph on the philosophy of running "Phenomenology and philosophy of running. The versatility of long-distance running" ^[17] Finnish scientist and marathon runner Tapio Koski develops his concept of empirical "cores" of running experience based on J. Sheehan's arguments about the influence of running activity on consciousness. The legacy of J. Sheehan also has a completely material dimension: the Christian Brothers Academy, of which Dr. Sheehan was one of the founders and trustees, built a first-class athletics complex on its campus, named after George Sheehan and decorated with his bronze figure.

In April 1993, US President Bill Clinton wrote a letter of support to George Sheehan, who was already in the terminal stage of cancer, where, in particular, he said: "Thanks to your books and more than twenty years of columns in Runner's World, you have become a source of inspiration for many of us. <...> We learned that we are all heroes in our own right. You have shown us that we run best when we run with simple childish joy, and that running and competition give us a chance to actually become who we already are by trade. You have expanded the boundaries of our knowledge about sports medicine, the relationship between exercise and health, and how we can all lead optimally efficient and energetic lives. You have shown us how to achieve personal bests not only in races, but also in other areas ‒ at work, in the family and in other communities" [URL: https://www.georgesheehan.com / (date of access: 09.08.2023)]. It seems that this letter defines the main thing in Dr. Sheehan's spiritual legacy – the justification of the humanistic content of running classes, the reference points of which are the concepts of "body wisdom", "game", "heroism", "connection with the Absolute", "fullness of being", "uniqueness of personality", "realization of one's potential".

Conclusion

Analysis of the creative heritage of J. Shihana allows us to come to the conclusion that he considers amateur stayer running as a type of activity, during which there is not just a correction of a person's psycho-physical condition, but, in his words, a rebirth, a qualitative transformation of personality. The direction of this transformation is set by the bodily organization of the individual and consists in finding the kind of activity that involves a person in his integrity, providing existential experiences that have ontognoseological and axiological significance associated with understanding and evaluating the horizons of self-realization. J. Sheehan, by his own example, substantiates the personality-forming potential of stayer running, associated with the achievement of religious and mystical contact with the primordial and deep dimensions of personality during this type of locomotion, providing its creative impulses and insights; the discovery of basic contradictions between the aspirations of the individual and the social environment, as well as discretion in running activity and the effects it generates, the basis of their conjugation. Stayer running is understood by Dr. Sheehan as an environment of moral and volitional formation of a personality aimed at comprehending his originality and personal meaning of existence, he reveals the metaphysical dimension, the true Tao of running as a way to find answers to the most intimate questions of his existence. Running is not only a method of achieving fullness of life, but also a way of glorifying it, not related to aggression and violence, since the main rivals for amateur runners are themselves. For J. The game component of running practices is very important to Shihan, which allows an athlete to remain a child at least an hour a day, living this time sincerely, without regard to the opinions of others and emotionally saturated. He believed that the body desires play in the same way that the mind desires truth and the soul desires goodness. In the view of J. Shihana game is one of the main components of life, which is completely beyond logical interpretation. This is a process that, regardless of whether you win or lose, has value in itself, at least temporarily freeing you from the deadlines and stresses of a "serious" life.

An American researcher convinces us that running is an inexhaustible source of creativity, challenges and changes: single long runs develop the habit of meditative contemplation, collective runs introduce to art subtly, only by breathing and the sound of footsteps, to feel another person (J. Sheehan called it "intimate nonverbal communication" ^{[22, c 352]}), and the maximum tension in running competitions reveals our physical, spiritual and intellectual potential.

J. Sheehan believed that the healing effect is not the main consequence of running activity. He shared the belief that people are born "with a built-in longevity coefficient," which can be reduced by their lifestyle, but not increased. Being a doctor, he understood that medicine, despite all its successes, can save lives or get rid of some diseases, but it cannot provide us with a "Methuselah century", so we need to think not about the number of children we have lived, but about the quality of our lives. And here, systematic running as one of the most accessible types of motor activity turns out to be very useful, because it develops a person physically and spiritually, gives a sense of fullness of life, provides self-confidence, teaches discipline, self-control and responsibility. Dr. Sheehan believes that the usual arguments in favor of running and other physical exercises are "pathetic representations" compared to gaining the ability to live at your true level, achieve your "original splendor", become the best version of yourself. And all the literary work of J. Shihana is a kind of chronicle of his comprehensive development, an appeal to readers to push the boundaries of personal existence and maximize their capabilities.