Differentiating the time-geography of recreational running

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a relational time-geography approach to differentiate the geographies of recreational activities, whose place cannot be pinned down to a single specific infrastructure or area and therefore risks being marginalised in planning. Running is used as a case study. Based on diary-interviews, we have identified three different exercises/places used alternately by the respondents: the forest run; ‘the most boring route in the world’; and the tourist run. We argue that the time-geography of runners could be conceptualised as a rhythm of place dependencies, where different places afford complementary qualities. By allowing for a negotiation of the spatio-temporal constraints of everyday life, these different places (and their affordances) are of crucial importance for motivation and exercise.