ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes stunt running through the theoretical lens of play, specifically in relation to power. In the case of road races, power is held by the institutions that organize, sanction, and enforce the rules for these events. Rules are aimed at measuring athletic performance and determining a race winner. The latter end of running road races, wherein playfulness is emphasized instead of competitiveness, is the primary focus of stunt runners, sometimes to the irritation of other runners and racing institutions. The performance of stunt running is twice removed from reality, from the perspective of the spectator, but the play is intimately connected to reality of embodied experience for the performer that is tied to the purpose of the race as defined by the race-sanctioning institutions. Some race organizers will offer stunt runners such benefits as free registration, travel money, and or appearance fees that are also offered to elite runners.
