Social Running and Bodywork

About the research:

Since 2003, an annual marathon has taken place at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania,
traversing a 42km route around the city of Moshi, ascending the mountain’s slopes, and
concluding in a local stadium, where a cheering audience gathers for the post-race festivities.
While only a few hundred runners participated in the first races, the 2025 event registered
13,000 participants across the full marathon, half marathon, and the 5km “fun run.” The run has
grown especially popular among local amateur participants, keen to join in what could be part of
the global fitness revolution (Andreasson & Johansson, 2014). A large proportion of these
runners are not primarily performance-oriented, but are instead motivated by enjoyment, social
interaction, and the festive atmosphere surrounding the event. As one marathon organizer
describes it, social runners “come to drink and run”, also “it’s good for their heart, it’s good
exercise, and they contribute very much to a fun experience.” This framing positions
participation not merely as leisure, but as a meaningful form of embodied engagement—casting
the festive trend as a socially valued and health-oriented practice.

This ethnographic project provides stories from Tanzania that reveal health and beauty
aspirations in a particular epidemiological and socio-economic context. The research starts by
examining the rapidly spreading enthusiasm for fitness and running in Moshi, Tanzania, and
shares emerging narratives around the marathon, body ideals, social class, health, and
wellbeing. The appeal towards neoliberal trends, such as fitness or marathon participation,
reflects a broader context in which health-conscious subjectivities and moral imaginaries are
both historically situated and continually evolving (Archambault, 2021; Martschukat, 2021).