I developed and coined the term Running Rhetorics to describe a new way of understanding running as a form of communication. Not just something we do, but something that speaks.
Running Rhetorics is the study of the dynamic, two-way exchange between body, self, and world. It asks: What is running saying to us, and what are we saying through it?
Through this framework, running is not reduced to performance metrics, aesthetics, or competition. It is understood as a rhetorical act. It persuades. It reveals. It constructs meaning. It gives voice to experiences that often have no language.
Running becomes a site of identity formation and transformation.
For many women, especially in midlife, running is not about chasing PRs. It is about reclaiming space in a life structured around everyone else’s needs. It is the act of saying, “this time is mine.” It is a refusal to be consumed by roles such as mother, partner, employee, caregiver. It is both resistance and return.
Running Rhetorics recognizes that running can begin as survival. A way to process trauma, grief, or overwhelming responsibility. But it does not end there. It can evolve into something more powerful. A pathway from survival to becoming.
This framework provides language and structure for a deeply embodied process:
- shedding identities that no longer fit
- confronting the disorientation of “who am I now?”
- rediscovering desire, agency, and voice
Running, in this sense, is not escape. It is emergence.
As a rhetorician and storyteller, I use Running Rhetorics to help women interpret what their bodies are saying, understand what their movement means, and ultimately author a new narrative of themselves. One that is not inherited from obligation, but consciously created.
Running is not just movement.
It is meaning. It is voice. It is becoming.