Social Forces That Disrupted Running
Society follows trends that can have major impacts on our lives
Humans have been running ever since we were chased by saber tooth tigers, and we chased bison for food. Running as a sport only developed relatively recently with earlier running competitions being part of the ancient Olympics. Running competitively received a boost at the end of the 19th century when road races such as the Hamilton Around the Bay and the Boston Marathon were established in 1894 and 1897, respectively. Running then became something beyond a survival mechanism but a popular sporting event. Since then, there have been a few major social forces that have reshaped what running is today.
Mass participation
At the beginning of the 20th century, running was still an elite sport where a few males participated in road races and track events. The first Boston Marathon in 1897 only had 18 entrants with most years having less than 200 runners until 1960. In the 1960s, you could see the start of the first running boom when the number of entrants to the Boston Marathon steadily increased to reach over 1,300 by 1969. The numbers continued to grow in the ‘70s to 8,000 by the end of the decade. The numbers stabilized in the ‘80s but reached a tremendous number for the 100th running of the Boston Marathon in 1996…
