Why woman run? Motivations for running in a half-marathon among female local runners and sport tourists

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the motivations to participate in a half-marathon among womenlocal runners and sport-touristsand also to evaluate the differences between these two groups of respondents. Most of the research concerns motivation to run among men. With the increase in the popularity of mass running events, the question what encourages women to engage in physical activity, especially outside their everyday place of residence, becomes very important now. The sample comprised 214 women that participated in the 6th Poznan Half Mara-thon in Poland. To evaluate the motivation to participate in the half-marathon event, a self-constructed questionnaire was used. Results indicated that local runners and sport-tourists have similar forms of motivation and similar meanings to the event participation with some significance differences. A sociodemographic profile of a half-marathon female participant was also examined. In general, the findings of the present study provide an understanding of motivation to participate in a half-marathon event in different women groups. Current research on the motivation of the running event participants was aimed at determining how meaningful some aspects are. These aspects were not only a willingness to stay fit, healthy, and slim, but also to build social relationships and look for the experiences and emotions that come with recreational sport. These results might be useful for sport managers and city government to analyze consumer behavior and utilize the results in the strategic planning, marketing and implementation of physical culture in connection with massive sport events organizations. Keywords: Motives of participation in a running event; runners; half marathon; women in sport; mass running events.Palabras-clave: Razones para participar en un evento de carrera; corredoras; media maratón; mujeres en el deporte; eventos de carreras masivas.Malchrowicz-Mośko E, Kwiatkowski G, Rozmiarek M. Why woman run? Motivations for running in a half-marathon among female local runners and sport tourists.

Study of the Motivation of Spanish Amateur Runners Based on Training Patterns and Gender

“…Such factors accord with previous research, but not necessarily in that order of importance [14,15]. In another study [17], long-distance runners stated that they were driven by the desire to experience strong emotions, have fun, and to enjoy the atmosphere of the sporting event.…”

Do Sex, Age, and Marital Status Influence the Motivations of Amateur Marathon Runners? The Poznan Marathon Case Study

“…The latter gather thousands of people with different levels of skill who are keen to run such a distance ( Buning and Walker, 2016 ). Due to this popularity, a wide-ranging approach has analyzed these mass sports events, in an attempt to describe, among other aspects: the physical health benefits of running ( Hulteen et al, 2017 ; Oja et al, 2017 ; Mujika-Alberdi et al, 2018 ; Kozlovskaia et al, 2019 ); psychological benefits and mental change ( Mazyarkin et al, 2019 ), finding, for instance, that marathon runners’ mental health was better than that of non-athletes ( Raglin, 2007 ; Boudreau and Giorgi, 2010 ); endurance running performance-related research ( Ferrer et al, 2015 ); social, tourism, and leisure-related research ( Shipway and Jones, 2007 ; Waśkowski, 2011 ; Nowak and Chalimoniuk-Nowak, 2015 ; Summers et al, 2016 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko and Rozmiarek, 2018 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko et al, 2019 ), coaching-related research ( Malchrowicz-Mośko and Rozmiarek, 2018 ), and research involving analyzing psychosocial factors related to marathon running ( Summers et al, 2016 ); and psychological motivational characteristics of amateur or recreational runners ( Larumbe et al, 2009 ; Hammer and Podlog, 2016 ).…”

“…In this regard, a great body of literature has tried to describe the reasons that have led athletes to take part in different sports endurance events, e.g., triathlons ( Croft et al, 1999 ; Wicker and Weimar, 2012 ; López-Fernández et al, 2014 ; Myburgh et al, 2014 ) and cycling events ( Lachausse, 2006 ; Heesch et al, 2012 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko et al, 2019 ). Apart from the previously cited sporting contexts, the Motivations of Marathoners Scale (MOMS), developed by Masters et al (1993) , has been used in different running contexts, such as adventure races ( Doppelmayr and Molkenthin, 2004 ), a 5 km running event ( Bell and Stephenson, 2014 ), half marathons ( Bell and Stephenson, 2014 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko et al, 2018 ), and ultramarathons ( Doppelmayr and Molkenthin, 2004 ; Frick, 2011 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko and Rozmiarek, 2018 ; Waśkiewicz et al, 2019a ), and for trying to distinguish athletes’ reasons for participation depending on the distance, comparing half marathon, full marathon, and ultramarathon runners’ reasons for participation ( Hanson et al, 2015 ). Other variables such as the type of event, traditional sports events vs. non-traditional sports events ( Buning and Walker, 2016 ), cause-related vs. non-cause-related endurance events ( Rundio et al, 2014 ), first-time marathoners’ motivations, and pre-race dropout reasons ( Havenar and Lochbaum, 2007 ) have been analyzed using the MOMS scale, in order to distinguish and understand what drives athletes to participate in those events.…”

“…MOMS, as its name “Motivations of Marathoners Scale” suggests, was created specifically in order to measure marathon athletes’ reasons for participation, and therefore, athletes’ motivations have been analyzed in many marathons from within different social contexts, e.g., in Greece ( Nikolaidis et al, 2019 ), Poland ( Malchrowicz-Mośko et al, 2019 ; Waśkiewicz et al, 2019a ), Spain ( Ruiz-Juan and Zarauz Sancho, 2014 ; Parra-Camacho et al, 2019 ), and especially in the United States ( Ogles and Masters, 2003 ; Rundio et al, 2014 ; Hanson et al, 2015 ; Buning and Walker, 2016 ), the context in which the scale was initially created. The variables associated with different reasons for participating have also been diverse, with the following being the most analyzed variables: runners’ sex ( Waśkowski, 2011 ; Summers et al, 2016 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko and Rozmiarek, 2018 ; Malchrowicz-Mośko and Poczta, 2019 ) and runners’ age ( Ogles and Masters, 2003 ; Reed and Gibbs, 2016 ; Poczta et al, 2018 ; Nikolaidis et al, 2019 ). This constitutes an attempt to describe whether the reasons for a person taking part in an endurance event depend on athletes’ sex and age.…”

Do Years of Running Experience Influence the Motivations of Amateur Marathon Athletes?

“…There are also studies on the motivational differences between local runners and sports tourists [32,33], and some papers have been published on university students and female local runners and female sports tourists. Test results indicated that local runners and sports tourists had similar motivations to run in mass events, albeit with some statistically significant differences [34,35].…”