Running became popular as a mainstream fitness activity in the 1970s, though the groundwork was laid throughout the 1960s. Before that era, the sight of an adult jogging down the street was unusual enough to draw stares or even police attention. The transformation from niche pursuit to cultural phenomenon happened in distinct waves, each driven by specific people, books, and cultural moments.
Before the 1960s: Running Was for Athletes Only
For most of the 20th century, running belonged to competitive athletes on tracks and in organized races. The idea of an ordinary person lacing up shoes and jogging around the neighborhood for health was, at best, eccentric. Recreational runners in the 1950s and early 1960s were sometimes stopped by confused police officers or heckled by passersby who assumed something was wrong. Running had no consumer infrastructure: no purpose-built shoes for pavement, no training guides for beginners, no races designed for casual participants. The first New York City Marathon in 1970 had just 127 registered runners, and only 55 of them finished.
The 1968 Book That Started Everything
The shift began with Dr. Kenneth Cooper, an Air Force physician who published Aerobics in 1968. The book introduced a simple idea that was radical at the time: sustained cardiovascular exercise could prevent disease, not just treat it. Cooper assigned point values to different exercises and recommended earning at least 30 aerobic points per week, giving everyday people a concrete, accessible framework for fitness.
The medical establishment pushed back hard. One prominent cardiac rehabilitation expert quipped that the only good thing about Cooper’s book was that keeping it in a runner’s back pocket might cushion the blow when the jogger collapsed. Leaders at UT Southwestern Medical School worried his treadmill stress testing was too risky. But the public responded. Cooper’s books eventually sold over 30 million copies and were translated into 41 languages. In Brazil, where he advised the 1970 World Cup championship team, jogging became so associated with him that people called it “coopering.”
Frank Shorter and the 1970s Running Boom
If Cooper planted the seed, Frank Shorter made it bloom. On September 10, 1972, Shorter, a Yale graduate and law student, won the marathon at the Munich Olympics. It was the first Olympic marathon gold for an American since 1908. The popular legend is that America collectively stubbed out its cigarettes, swapped beer for Nikes, and started jogging. That’s an exaggeration, but Shorter’s victory on national television gave recreational running something it had never had: a glamorous, relatable American hero.
The timing aligned perfectly with a growing shoe industry. Bill Bowerman, the University of Oregon track coach who co-founded Nike with Phil Knight in 1964, had been designing lighter, more comfortable running shoes for years. In 1972, the same year as Shorter’s gold medal, Bowerman invented the waffle sole by pressing rubber in his kitchen waffle iron. Combined with innovations like cushioned midsoles and wedged heels, these shoes made running on pavement far more practical and comfortable than the clunky sneakers that had been the only option. Rubber-soled shoes had existed since Keds hit the market in 1917, but purpose-built running shoes for everyday people were a product of the early 1970s.
Jim Fixx and the Cultural Tipping Point
The movement reached full cultural saturation in 1977 when Jim Fixx published The Complete Book of Running. With its iconic red cover featuring a pair of muscular legs (Fixx’s own), the book became a bestseller and turned its author into a celebrity. He appeared on talk shows, filmed commercials for Quaker Cereal and American Express, and made “going for a run” a phrase that entered everyday vocabulary. The book’s impact was especially strong among middle-aged Americans who had never considered themselves athletes. Fixx is widely credited with creating the American fitness revolution and establishing running as a lifestyle, not just a sport.
Women Break Through
Women’s running followed its own timeline. In 1967, Kathrine Switzer entered the Boston Marathon using her initials, since women were barred from the race. A race official famously tried to physically remove her from the course. She finished anyway. Boston didn’t officially accept female runners until 1972.
Switzer kept pushing. In 1975, she ran a personal-best 2:51 at Boston, making her the sixth-fastest female marathoner in the world. In 1977, she created the Avon International Running Circuit, a global series of women’s races that built the case for adding a women’s marathon to the Olympics. That finally happened in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games, more than 80 years after men first ran the Olympic marathon.
The Pandemic Sparked a Second Boom
Running’s popularity surged again during COVID-19 lockdowns. With gyms closed and outdoor exercise one of the few permitted activities, outdoor running increased by 55 to 117 percent in the early months of the pandemic. Organized races took the opposite hit: marathon participation dropped 11-fold. But the runners who did race were faster. At the Peachtree 10K Road Race, a major annual event, pandemic-era finishers averaged 1.4 minutes per mile faster than their pre-pandemic counterparts. Among the roughly 10,500 people who raced in both 2019 and 2021, the improvement was still measurable at about 20 seconds per mile faster. The pandemic didn’t just add runners; it created more serious ones.
Run Clubs and the Community Era
The latest evolution in running culture is social, not competitive. After years of solo, app-based training, runners are gravitating toward community experiences. U.S. searches for “run clubs near me” have increased by 200 percent. In Germany, searches related to conversation-paced running and Sunday running clubs jumped by 250 percent on average. In Spain, searches for brand-led running clubs surged by thousands of percent.
The shift represents a fundamental change in what running means to people. Runners are moving away from chasing personal bests and toward connection and enjoyment. Events function less as competitions and more as social anchors. The New York City Marathon now regularly tops 59,000 finishers, up from those 55 in 1970, and many of them aren’t racing for time. They’re running because, after half a century of cultural evolution, running has become something it never was before the 1960s: a normal, social, accessible part of everyday life.