In France, the Running Observatory estimates that a quarter of the French and French are running running, including eight million which lacent their racing shoes at least once a week to tread the roads and paths. How does this number of followers continue to grow, how to explain this evolution? More simply, why run?
Born to run
We could start by wondering otherwise: why no longer run? The little one sapiens Learn to walk but he naturally discovers the race. All children run in play areas, parks or at school in the playground. Their pleasure in running is obvious. Afterwards, shortly before adolescence, we learn … not to run! Who has not heard parents, exasperated, tell their young child “But stop running everywhere! “And, on the contrary, the Avachi teenager on the sofa,” But move a little! »»
We are “born to run”, as Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman demonstrated in an article published in 2004 in the journal Nature. Under pressure from natural selection, we have developed extraordinary qualities for endurance race. If we are rather bad sprinters compared to four -legged mammals, it is on the background race that we set out. We are the only primates to be able to produce energy in aerobic and therefore run long distances in endurance.
In addition, with a unique system of sweat glands – our body has two to four million – we can sweat abundantly and thus regulate our temperature. Finally, our hair system, very reduced compared to other primates, allows us, again, to maintain our body temperature more easily at an acceptable level, despite the effort.
In companies where technology takes up more space, running is an act of resistance. What could be simpler? A pair of shoes, shorts or a winter tights, a bra or a t-shirt, that's all! And wherever you live, at any time of the day or night, you can run. In addition, due to the physical intensity linked to running, half an hour is enough to take advantage of this activity.
Run for your health
The World Health Organization (WHO) is very clear, it “recommends that adults practice at least 150 to 300 minutes of aerobic activity of moderate intensity per week (or the equivalent duration of sustained intensity activity). »Further on, the duration in activity of sustained intensity is specified: 75 to 150 minutes, for example 2:30 of running.
Running regularly strengthens muscles and bones, this helps the solidification of the skeleton and also helps prevent the risk of diabetes, bad blood assessments (cholesterol), hypertension or even cardiovascular accidents. More specifically, Zeljko Pedisic and his colleagues showed in a meta-study (study incorporating numerous studies with large cohorts) relating to 232,149 participants published in the British Journal of Sports Medicinethat a simple weekly running practice already made it possible to reduce the main risks by 27 % and more specifically the deaths of cardiovascular disease by 30 % and by cancer by 23 %.
Even for joints, contrary to what we often hear, the effect is beneficial. In 2017, Grace H. Lo and his team demonstrated through another meta-study that the runners had less osteoarthritis in the knee than the others.
What is most harmful is, by far, sedentary lifestyle. In the same year, Eduard surroundesin-general became interested in osteoarthritis in the knees and hips, again in the form of a meta-study. The conclusion is interesting:
“Running has proven to have a beneficial association with the risk of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee in runners exposed to running for less than 15 years. »»
For people who have been running for longer, studies have not made it possible to conclude in one direction or the other.
This time concerning bone mineral density, the drop of which is linked to osteoporosis, a study led by R. Scott Rector in 2008 compared cyclists and runners in an interesting way. The latter suffered seven times less osteopenia from the spine (too low bone mineral density). By running, the runners carry their weight (unlike cyclists) and this stimulates the bones.
Finally, on the psychic level, running allows you to gain concentration and fight against attention disorders (major public health issue). The production of endorphins – etymologically “endogenous morphine” – is proven in people who run in endurance, after 30 to 45 minutes. This hormone, naturally produced by the brain, has an anxiolytic, analgesic and relaxing role. Added to this is the secretion of dopamine, which stimulates the area of the reward, as well as serotonin which triggers a feeling of well-being.
New forms of sociability
This feeling of well-being also comes from moments shared between runners and runners. Strong friendships can develop during these long moments spent walking, often surrounded by nature, side by side. The physical posture, one next to the other, without really being able to look in the eyes, has the same advantages as the classic situation of Freudian analysis (or other chapels), with the couch and the psychoanalyst behind the patient's head. In this race configuration, it is possible to pour out, without being interrupted by the vagaries of everyday life.
The effort provided for the race takes away the breastplate that we often carry in society. Thus vulnerable, runners can share a certain intimacy which is attached in memory to places and exchanges. In addition, with the rise of social networks, there are informal clubs with all the imaginable specificities, which allows you to meet runners.
Running is punk and politics
Running is a fundamental act of freedom that is practiced in a relative destitution and in general, outside of any organization. In this, running can be considered as a gesture which would be in essence libertarian. It is an appropriation of the space and it also happens that trailers make little case of the concept of “private property” by crossing forests or other natural areas.
This activity accommodates attitude ” Do it yourself “(” Do it yourself “) specific to punk or anarchist movements, close to self-management, who break with consumerism and characteristic commodification of our Western societies. Emblematic figure, the singer of the clash, Joe Strummer, was at the start of the London marathon in 1983, with his Iroquoise Cup and a t-shirt which he had personalized in the stencil.
Running also has an important feminist dimension. Until the 1970s, races were prohibited for women. Kathrine Switzer caused a scandal in 1967, because she dared to run the Boston marathon from which the female gender was excluded. Since then, she has continued to fight for the presence of women in running, setting up a series of marathons reserved for women and held in different cities from 1978 to 1984. The last of these marathons took place in Paris, and it was on this occasion that Barbara Humbert ran this distance for the first time … before traveling again the same distance, forty years later, at the age of 84!
To run is, moreover, to live its aging better and to gain in wisdom: to be fulfilled by ceasing to surpass oneself. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic gathered around Matthew Robinson even showed, in 2017, that high intensity aerobic training made it possible to reverse certain manifestations of aging in the protein function of the body.
Finally, if so many people run, it is also because they appreciate the ability to endure and effort. Extending the sentence of Camus, you must probably imagine happy Sisyphe, in its effort!
