Current project: Running Tribes Project

Like most pieces of social research, the ‘Big Running Project’ (described below) threw up at least as many questions as it answered. The Running Tribes Project represents my attempt to address some of these through a follow-up study.

The survey tool is currently in the design phase, with a planned launch date in 2019. I also plan to conduct a series of online focus groups to delve deeper into specific issues.

The survey will take no more than five minutes to complete, so if you are interested in taking part please sign up here and I will drop you a line as soon as it’s ready for use.

Last project: Big Running Project (2016-2019)

This project was conducted at the University of Warwick, with the support of Professor Nickie Charles and Doctor Richard Lampard.

The goals of the study were:

• To describe and map the diversity of ways of doing running in the UK;
• To identify the individual and social factors that influence whether and how people engage in forms of running;
• To explore the roles running can play in people’s lives as a source of identity.

The centrepiece of the study was an online survey, which included 140 questions about running practices and motivations, demographics and other personal information. Thanks to the generosity of the running community, I managed to achieve a sample size of 2,700 respondents.

In order to try to understand how the patterns observed in the data played out or had meaning in people’s lives I also conducted twenty in-depth interviews with a wide variety of runners from across the country.

You can find out more and access key findings here.