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This paper focuses on the way novice marathon runners experience and respond to a change – becoming marathoners. It utilises Victor Turner’s concepts of liminality and communitas to illustrate the complexity and challenges experienced by novice runners. The scope of sociological research regarding distance runners over the last two decades has expanded, nevertheless, very little has been written in reference to the process of the liminal phase per se. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is to address this lacuna of research and focus on the link between the process of ‘becoming’ and concepts such as solidarity, hierarchies, and standing norms, which play significant roles and constitute key components in the process of liminality. An ethnographic research design of three years was implemented in two running groups, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The data presented suggest that embarking on a marathoner identity requires a phase of betwixt and between wherein the ‘traditional’ borders of liminality and communitas are not fixed and often negotiable. Moreover, the relatively advanced age, similar socioeconomic status and military background among the running members serve as loopholes in liminality for novice runners towards ‘interested solidarity’ with veteran runners in achieving their new status as marathoners.

Running through the in-between: Distance runners in a state of liminality