Orthopedics Today highlights the findings of a study by Brett G. Toresdahl, MD, primary care sports medicine physician at HSS, and colleagues, which showed injuries are common among first-time marathon runners, with an increased risk for injury among athletes with a high number of weekly training runs and those who did not complete an 18-mile training run.

Dr. Toresdahl partnered with the New York Road Runners (NYRR) to recruit first-time marathon runners for the study. In a statement, Dr. Toresdahl said, “We started recruitment about 14 weeks prior to the race and then started the data collection at 12 weeks prior.” Dr. Toresdahl noted, “Every couple of weeks, runners would complete a survey on their training patterns and report any injuries if they had any. [We] then followed them through the race and checked in on them afterward to see how they did.”

Of the 720 runners enrolled, Toresdahl cited that 583 athletes started the marathon. Of these runners, 99 percent completed the marathon. Men and women had a similar incidence of major and minor injuries. “When we broke it down based on how many times the runners would go on training runs during the 12 weeks of training, we found that if you did four or more training runs, you had a higher incidence of both major and minor injuries compared to those who trained less than four times per week,” said Dr. Toresdahl.

Results were presented at the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting.

Read the full article at Healio.com.