America Running

A Brief History of Recreational Running and Aerobic Exercise in the United States

As the United States celebrates its 249th birthday this month, it's easy to feel like recreational running, jogging, walking, and everything in between is a timeless American tradition. After all, it requires no specialized equipment or designated facilities. All one has to do to get into running is go outside and run, and in the modern world the first step is more of a preference than a requirement. Yet, despite its ubiquity today, non-competitive running has only risen to popularity in the last 50 to 60 years, practically the blink of an eye in the country’s near quarter millennia of history. Today, we turn our gaze to the past as we take a brief, comprehensive look at the evolution of running as a hobby in the United States.

Running Before America

Humanity has been running for thousands of years. From the moment our ancestors began moving from treetops to the savanna floor, walking upright and shedding most of our body hair, we began to fill our evolutionary niche as nature’s greatest joggers. This means running naturally became one of humanity’s first organized sports, with competitions dating as far back as Ancient Egypt, well before the time of the first Olympic Games. Yet, historically, running was primarily functional. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the story of Pheidippides, a professional messenger in Greece around 490BC, who famously dropped dead after running 40km from Marathon to Athens to deliver a critical wartime message, giving inspiration to the modern marathon. Still, as centuries passed and technology advanced beyond the need for foot couriers in many parts of the world, organized running was largely reserved for athletes and soldiers.

The 60s: Olympic Sized Friends

The modern popularization of running and jogging is largely credited to New Zealand Olympic track and field coach Arthur Lydiard, who started the world’s first jogging club in Auckland in 1961. Lydiard was a strong proponent of running and jogging for cardiovascular health in a time before exercise science was widely adopted or studied. He was also a good friend of Bill Bowerman, American Olympic track and field coach and eventual co-founder of Nike, who helped bring Lydiard’s ideas to the United States. Bowerman, along with co-author and cardiologist W.E. Harris, introduced the American public to Lydiard's ideas through the seminal title Jogging (1966), which quickly became a best seller and helped kickstart a revolution in exercise and science.

The Father of Aerobics

While Lydiard and Bowerman certainly started the running revolution, no history on the popularization of running, or the birth of modern exercise science, could be complete without acknowledging Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D. In the 60s, Cooper was–and at the spry age of 94 still is–one of the leading pioneers in the field of exercise science and its effects on one’s health. In 1968, he coined the term aerobics with his groundbreaking book of the same name, the first of 20 publications that have sold over 30 million copies collectively in the last 50 years. It is quite reasonable to say, with no fear of exaggeration, that any health-centric, exercise-focused culture seen in the United States today–running, walking, jogging, pilates, cycling, and everything in between–would likely not exist in the same capacity, if at all, without Dr. Cooper’s work. Fittingly it is for this reason that he is often referred to as the “Father of Aerobics,” a title he quite literally defined.

Running In America Today

Once exercise culture began to take off in the United States, there was no turning back the clock. Clubs, groups, companies, brands, governing boards, leagues, and everything in between began to pop up across the country, further aided by continuous research on health benefits and proper exercise by Dr. Cooper and his contemporaries. Iconic brands like Nike flourished, further inspiring innovation and solidifying running not merely as a way to exercise, but as a vibrant cultural phenomenon. 

Today, recreational running is deeply woven into American culture. Every single day, in every part of the country, millions of people run, jog, walk, and hike regularly. Whether it's on city sidewalks or forest trails, on a treadmill in the gym or across mountain ranges in national parks, people are on the move not only for their health, but for the community that it can provide them.  The story of recreational running in America is ultimately the story of a group of diverse, passionate people, spanning cultures and continents, united by their pursuit of a healthier world.