A study of people's motivation to participate in mini marathons in Thailand.

Abstract

This research examines the factors for the people’s motivation to participate in mini marathons in Thailand. This research has identified nine major factors of Motivations of Marathoners Scale (MOMS) model (Masters et al., 1993) from literature reviews on the several factors, including Psychological, Self Esteem, Life Meaning, General Health Orientation, Weight Concern, Affiliation, Recognition, Competition and Personal Goal Achievement that motivate people’s behavior to participate in mini marathons. The MOMS questionnaire was distributed to 453 persons, comprising male and female mini marathon runners (in the age range of 15–60+ years) who have already participated in mini marathons in Thailand. The findings of this research show that the most important factor that motivates people to participate in mini marathons in Thailand is general health orientation, i.e. improvement of their health. Personal goal achievement is the second factor that motivates people to compete with themselves and accomplishing the marathon. The goal is to find a mutual benefit for organizers of public and private sectors in order to organize or develop such a supporting mini marathon event for people who would like to participate in mini marathons in Thailand.