The country better known for producing great sprinters has embraced distance-running in a big way, with events such as the Reggae Marathon attracting massive turnouts

If you had to name countries where distance-running is popular, where would spring to mind? Given their extraordinary successes on both the track and roads in recent decades, you might suggest an East African nation. Adharanand Finn's Running with the Kenyans describes the enthusiasm on show in the Rift Valley and at the Lewa marathon in Kenya, while that other distance-running powerhouse, Ethiopia, boasts the Great Ethiopian Run, where 38,000 runners pound the streets of the capital, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the great Haile Gebrselassie.

Not many would suggest Jamaica, home of Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser–Pryce and the rest, where it is sprinting, not endurance running, that is a national obsession bordering on a religion. Yet Alfred "Frano" Francis, Race Director of Running Events JA, Jamaica's biggest running event company, makes a compelling argument.

"Jamaicans love to run," he says. "The fact is that the recreational running population is growing significantly and hence we have a lot of road races. We attract over 20,000 persons [to the annual Reggae Marathon] and that's for a population of 2.9 million. That's a significant figure."

It's a bold claim, yet while over the past decade it has been the sprinters making global headlines, following their record-breaking exploits at the Olympic Games and World Championships, a quiet revolution has been taking place on roads across Jamaica's 14 parishes.

Last October, more than 15,000 people descended on the streets of Kingston for the Digicel Night 5k. It's hard to decide which is more impressive: the fact that more than 7,000 people ran the 5k race, or that another 7,000-plus turned up to watch. And this is despite Jamaica not having had a champion distance-runner of note for more than 70 years.

"Thirteen years ago, the first Reggae Marathon was held and got almost 1,000 competitors," explains Diane Ellis, sponsorship director for the event started by one of Jamaica's first running clubs, the Jamdammers of Kingston. "They wanted to organise something that would not only make an impact on the local distance running community, but also attract visitors to help with the sports tourism economy."

While the first event was certainly a huge success, Ellis concedes that it was largely groups of runners from the US that ensured a healthy turnout. Seeking to create a better balance between running tourists and Jamaican runners, the Jamdammers and, subsequently, Running Events JA, set about establishing a road race series that allowed both competitive and recreational runners the opportunity to compete throughout the year in the build up to the Reggae Marathon races.

"We noticed that for schoolchildren, there wasn't much opportunity to do background training during the year, because the athletics season here only really comes to the fore in January," Ellis explains. "So, in order to get locals to come to the Reggae Marathon, we established three or four events leading up to it, to provide an opportunity for background training for the high-school teams and also any other independent long-distance runners who wanted to get themselves involved."

That three-race autumn series developed into a year-round road running scene that counts multinational corporations and the Jamaican business community as its main supporters.

While it might be tempting to think that Jamaica's love of running has coincided with the recent global running revival, its origins actually lie in the original running boom of the late 1970s. Brian Jobson is a musician and record producer, for whom running has been a passion and way of life for decades. "People forget that our athletics history started with distance, going back to the flying farmer, GB Grant [a Caribbean champion over 5000m in 1938] and Arthur Wint [1948 Olympic 800m champion]," he explains. "More recently, Guinness were the first company I remember [sponsoring races]. They had the Guinness marathon and the Guinness 10k in Kingston and then other companies came on board. Then charity events started coming in. It probably all started in the late 70s."

Indeed, as in Britain and elsewhere, charity and the desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle are the principal drivers behind increasing participation in running events. "Originally, people thought you had to be real runners to get involved," says Jobson, "but then the whole fitness thing started and people said: 'Just come and run for the fun of it and to raise funds.' It's huge now. Some of the events they have in Kingston they have thousands of people turning up."

Ellis agrees: "From the very beginning the Jamdammers had a mandate to create awareness of long-distance running in Jamaica, but also to promote a healthy lifestyle." And in recent years, awareness-raising has progressed to direct action. "Our main charity partner now is the Heart Foundation of Jamaica. They come to each event and offer free services such as blood pressure screening. People turn up, see that their blood pressure is up and are then given advice on how to proceed. They're losing weight, looking better, not going to the doctors as often and they are realising the personal impact it is having on their health and their pocket. It's good news all round."

It is good news indeed for runners in Jamaica, who have a thriving road-running scene to enjoy, even if mass participation hasn't led to improved competitive results in the middle and long distances at international level. Still, as most runners will testify, it's not the times that you run that make you a runner, but the very fact that you run. And per head of population, Jamaica might just be the country with the most runners in the entire world …