Mile 9: The Need to Run

What if your most disciplined habit was also your quietest dependency?

In this episode, we unpack Chapter 9 of The Runner’s Paradox: an exploration of addiction not as drama, but as routine. We ask what happens when running becomes your only method of emotional regulation, your only story of success, your only form of control.

Drawing beyond the book’s research, exploring newer developments from 2023–2025, we examine the neurobiology of compulsive endurance behavior, the psychological scaffolding of identity collapse, and how the digitalization of running (through wearables and Strava) may be accelerating distress.

Addiction here isn’t a substance. It’s a structure.

Through the lens of phenomenology, affect theory, and sport psychology, we reflect on the moment when freedom becomes a form of exile and when high performance hides deep fragility. We look at the gendered dimensions of overtraining, the anxiety of rest, and the existential threat of injury when your only self is the runner-self.

But this isn’t just a critique. It’s an invitation. To recover not only balance, but plurality. To rebuild identity from multiplicity, not metrics.

Based on The Runner’s Paradox by Mok Ying Rong. Learn more and purchase the book at therunnersparadox.com. Subscribe to this podcast series and listen mid-run. Especially when the silence feels loud.

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Evidence beyond the book (2023–2025) ​ Egorov, A. Y., & Szabo, A. (2023). Exercise addiction and its related factors in amateur runners: A critical review. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 21, 1032–1050. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00647-0 ​ Oberle, C. D., & Murray, M. A. (2023). Psychological distress and overtraining in collegiate endurance runners: A gendered analysis. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 35(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2022.2109443 ​ Baek, H. J., & Choi, E. (2023). Technostress and motivation in recreational runners using fitness apps. Digital Health, 9, 20552076231187732. https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231187732