TITLE:
Personality and Mental Toughness of the Marathon Maniac
AUTHORS:
Bailey Thompson, Kristin Mauldin, Keisha Hart
KEYWORDS:
Personality, Running, Endurance Athlete
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.12,
December
26,
2023
ABSTRACT: Extreme and fringe-type sports have been known to attract distinct
personality types compared to traditional sports (references needed). In the
present study, we examine one such specialized group of runners called the
Marathon Maniacs, who focus on frequency of marathons rather than speed or “winning”. The
personality traits and mental toughness of Marathon Maniacs were assessed in an effort to understand the factors that contribute to their
interest and participation in such an extreme lifestyle. A total of forty-two
participants (Age M = 47.95, SD = 9.68; 20 males (47.6%), 22 females
(52.4%)) filled out two measures of personality, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory
3 (NEO-FFI-3) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI Form M), and one
measure of mental toughness, the Inventory of Mental Toughness Factors in Sport
(IMTF-S). Finally, participants were asked two qualitative questions (“How did you first get into running?” and “Why do you run now?”) to
provide a deeper understanding of participants’ motivational
source. Results showed that Marathon Maniac members were low in neuroticism,
high in openness and conscientiousness, displayed significantly different
proportions of MBTI type including a highly overrepresented type INTJ, and
lower in mental toughness than the norm sample. The interpretation of these
results is discussed along with participants’ responses to their motivational
source for continued participation in this extreme lifestyle.