Serious leisure qualities and participation behaviors of Chinese marathon runners

Abstract

In recent years, unprecedented developments in marathon events have occurred in China. Participating in marathons has become a serious leisure activity, and people show many leisure qualities in the process of continuous participation. This study explored the relationship between the serious leisure qualities of marathon runners and their participation behavior. Data were collected from 603 marathon runners during the 2017 Nanjing Marathon Event and the 2017 Hangzhou Marathon Event. The results showed that marathon runners differed significantly in serious leisure qualities based on different demographic variables. Serious leisure qualities and demographic variables can be positively associated with marathon runners’ number of years of running, running frequency per week, and longest marathon event. However, they did not predict marathon runners’ running distance per week or the number of marathon events participated in each year. These study findings broaden the research on serious leisure sport behavior in China and provide both theoretical and empirical support for leisure sports management. The limitations and implications of this study are also discussed.