Injuries sustained by runners during a popular marathon.

Open-entry marathon running events are becoming increasingly common. In 1982 more than a hundred such events were planned in Britain (Running Magazine, 1982), and the popularity of these events may still be on the increase. The tens of thousands of runners taking part may be at some risk of sustaining injuries whilst training for and running in these races. Nicholl and Williams (1982a) have given some information about the numbers and types of injuries sustained in training by those entrants to the 1982 Sheffield Marathon who were prevented from racing by a training injury. Maughan and Miller (1982) have given complementary information about the numbers and types of injuries sustained in training by those who ran in the 1982 Aberdeen Marathon. Nicholl and Williams also described the after-effects for runners who completed the Sheffield Marathon, and in another paper (Nicholl and Williams, 1982b) have reported the number of requests for treatment at first-aid posts during the 1982 Sheffield Marathon and have described the injuries that were presented. These numbers can be used to forecast the workload of the first-aid services during a popular marathon. However, they cannot be used to assess the risk of sustaining injuries during the race because many runners presented more than once to the first-aid services, sometimes with the same problem and sometimes with a different one. Accordingly, in this paper we report the number and types of casualties which occurred during the 1982 Sheffield Marathon (which had a half-marathon option) and relate them to characteristics of the runners concerned so that the risk of sustaining particular injuries can be assessed.