Why Are We Like This?: The Social Side of Suffering
About this episode
This episode explores the social dynamics and friendships formed through shared suffering in endurance sports.
This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast: Second Wind, our July series Why Are We Like This? continues with a look at the social side of endurance sports. Runners and endurance athletes bond over some very strange things: hills, heat, porta-potties, chafing, finish lines, race medals, bad decisions, and the phrase “never again” even though we are absolutely going to do it again. This episode dives into how shared suffering can create fast friendships, whether it happens during a rough race, on a brutal hill, at mile 10 of a half marathon, or through the shared heartbreak and celebration of something like London Marathon lottery day. We talk about the race friend pipeline, where strangers become familiar faces, familiar faces become running buddies, and running buddies become road trip partners, run club regulars, post-race beer companions, and family. There is also plenty of love for the post-race story economy, because runners trade tales of heat, hills, blisters, bathroom emergencies, forgotten registrations, and miserable races like sacred currency. We also dig into endurance peer pressure, group bad ideas, FOMO, and why “come on, it’ll be fun” has probably caused more…
More episodes of Back of the Pack Podcast
- "I'm Probably Fine"
- A Very Back-of-the-Pack Duathlon
- Why Are We Like This?: That Sounds Awful, I’m In
- A Very Back-of-the-Pack Fourth
- Why Are We Like This?: Holiday Race Edition
- June Running: Hot, Humid, and Headed to London
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