The Marathon Journey of My Body-self and Performing Identity

In this autoethnography, I provide voice to the wounded storyteller (Frank, 1995) in my journey to address issues of embodiment, ‘the body’, and illness in relation to my performing identity, with a particular focus on how I was able to overcame a spinal injury, partial paralysis, and lower back surgeries to cross the finish line as a ‘runner’. I explore how my embodied identity was initially centered on my athletic identity early on in my life to how my sense of body-self has been translated due to an unexpected ‘illness’ and deteriorated physical conditions I have encountered over the past decade, causing me to question, challenge, and critique my perceptions of my performing identity in my altered and new ‘body.’