3 Why people engage in extreme endurance sports
In 2023, Russ Cook took on a challenge to run the length of Africa starting in South Africa and ending in Tunisia. He completed the 10,000 mile run in 352 days having endured robbery at gunpoint, serious food poisoning, back and foot injuries and challenging terrain, such as the Sahara Desert (Poole, 2024). This feat earned him the nickname ‘The Hardest Geezer’. But why did he start on this epic challenge? In a podcast, he explained how he was motivated to raise money for charity, and he did raise more than £1 million. However, his original motivation was to deal with issues of poor mental health, gambling and alcohol addictions (BBC Sport, 2024).
In Activity 2 you will hear from three people, Lowri Morgan, Nick Nicholson and Tim Gardner, who choose to take on extreme endurance challenges. They will explain their own motivations and Greg Roebuck from Monash University will provide an academic’s viewpoint on this key topic within sport and exercise psychology.
Activity 2 Start with the why
Next, answer the following questions.
- What motivating factors do Roebuck and the participants offer for participating in extreme endurance activities?
- What benefits may participants in extreme endurance events gain?
Comment
Along with a sense of achievement and revelling in large challenges, participants can make self-discoveries about their own physical and psychological limits. Roebuck describes how ultra-endurance athletes may have higher levels of the trait of sensation seeking and seek out novel experiences. The participants describe how exploring individual limits can be fun, such as when you get to the point where you think you have nothing left to give but find something inside yourself to keep going. Two participants suggest that they started to run long distances as a response to difficult times in their lives, either so they can work things out while running or to do something for yourself.
Dr Roebuck expands on the idea of running as therapy where participants start by running away from problems but can run towards answers as well. He explains that research shows that extreme endurance exercise, such as ultra-marathons, can lower levels of anxiety. The long-term psychological benefits of extreme endurance events can be that a participant’s mood profile may change as they experience higher levels of energy and vigour and lower levels of negative mood states.
While Dr Roebuck stresses the positive benefits of extreme endurance sports it is important to say that they can also have a downside. For example, the characteristics that make these sports attractive can facilitate behaviours associated with exercise addiction (Nogueira et al., 2018). To be successful at extreme endurance sports requires traits of obsessive passion and dedication that can be predictors of exercise addiction. It is difficult to establish actual figures of exercise addiction as findings from studies vary widely, showing between 3 per cent and 42 per cent of participants in extreme endurance sports exhibiting traits of exercise addiction (Nogueira et al., 2018).
Having looked at the motivation behind extreme endurance sport participation you will continue to explore extreme endurance from a psychological perspective in the next section.