ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that what it means to endure in the ultrarunning. Consideration of ultrarunning's social space reveals that ultrarunning endurance is shaped by practices that emphasize flexibility rather than tightly monitored ways of moving forward. Ultrarunners rely on training and planning in order to be flexible on race day. Lefebvre suggested that the spatial productions are always imbued with cultural and ideological values, and that there are always those who benefit and those who are excluded. As van Ingen noted, 'a Lefebvrean production-oriented approach to examining space would more clearly link the relation between identity and the spaces through which identity is produced and expressed'. The reliance on flexibility as the foremost value and strategy for success in ultrarunning is not only a practical strategy as suggested by the runners' practices and mental abstractions of what it takes to succeed, but also provides a site in which flexibility helps them accumulate social capital.
