Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

In this paper, I examine how endurance experiences in ultra-trail running and walking, rather than contesting narratives of escapism from neoliberal and capitalist ideologies, are deeply intertwined with them.

Paper long abstract

Often framed as an escape from ‘modern’ life, ultra-trail running and walking are commonly imagined as authentic activities, free from the logics of commodification. These imaginaries perform important ideological work. Cast as an escape, ultra-endurance practices enable participants to endure rather than contest the demands of capitalist life. This paper challenges the narrative of escapism by examining how ultra-trail running and walking are deeply entangled with neoliberal and capitalist ideologies, particularly through its celebration of individual freedom, self-optimization, and moralized endurance. I suggest that the perceived escape from capitalism in ultra-trail running and walking, and other nature-based sports for that matter, is merely due to a spatial distancing rather than an ideological escape. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with ultra-trail running and walking communities in Belgium, this paper will show how imaginaries of authenticity, freedom and nature allow ultra-trail practices to appear oppositional to market logics while reproducing capitalist values of resilience, self-optimization, and personal responsibility. By focusing on the lived, embodied and sometimes contradictory experiences of endurance, I examine how ultra-trail runners and walkers become desiring subjects for whom presumed freedom turns into compulsive freedom to pursue pleasure and keep performing.