Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Whether it's the feeling of accomplishment or the addiction of pushing your body to its limits, people love to run marathons. This year more than 425,000 Americans ran a marathon, up 20% from the year 2000.

Subsequently, the number of running injuries has also greatly increased. The New York Times Well blog reports that 90% of people who train for a marathon sustain some type of injury in the process.


Some people are saying that running and injury go hand in hand. But others, like Born to Run author Christopher McDougall, beg to differ. “The sense of distance running being crazy is something new to late-20th-century America,” Mr. McDougall told me. “It’s only recently that running has become associated with pain and injury.”

The problem, McDougall says, lies in running on city streets and over-training (he has an issue with running shoes, too). Science backs up his claim. Scientists say the human body is actually designed to run long distances.

We can outrun any other animal in a long distance race and unlike animals, we are able to cool our bodies by sweating which enables us to keep up the pace. According to scientists, we could even outrun a horse in a marathon on a hot day.

It seems even our legs, feet and toes were designed for long-distance running. We've got springy ligaments, powerful gluteus maximus' and strong big toes. “There are so many features in our bodies from our heads to our toes that make us good at running," says Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Harvard evolutionary biologist.

So if we're built to run long distances, why are we sustaining so many injuries. What do you think?