Community running events as tools for inclusion in serious leisure spaces

This chapter aims to assess the importance of non-competitive community spaces to runners and how they impact inclusion in running. Despite its simplicity, running is not necessarily an inclusive sport. It requires free time for training, disposable income for equipment and race fees, and the space and privilege to safely run alone. Community running events such as parkrun give runners who are underrepresented at formal races, such as women, the less physically active, and those with physical or mental health conditions, the opportunity to participate in the running community and receive an official time to measure their progress. Using a cross-sectional qualitative approach, runners in High Wycombe, United Kingdom, were surveyed and interviewed to ascertain motivations for participation, experiences of inclusion and exclusion in running community spaces, and barriers to participation. This study included the use of running as an interview methodology. This chapter provides a synthesis of the existing literature and offers insights into the experiences of community runners and how inclusive running spaces are designed and delivered. The results highlight that while running communities can create opportunities to increase representation in sport, running community groups are more accessible to those with the free time, disposable income, and privilege to participate unchallenged. Thus, the diversity of event and race participants is dictated in the first instance by those who feel able to participate in the sport.