Preparing for a marathon, what to consider? The Marathon The Marathon It is said that the marathon was originally introduced as a tribute to the distance travelled by the Greek soldier Pheidippides, to notify Athens of victory against the Persians in 490BC. A marathon is a race of 42.195 kilometres (26.219 miles) in distance. It rose to prominence as an olympic sport in 1896 and has continued to grow in popularity. There are currently more than 800 marathons that are held throughout the world each year and usually involve running on hard flat concrete surfaces. Marathon Injuries Many of the injuries caused by marathon-training are related to the distance, the surface we run on and aiming for the fastest time possible. These factors can lead to a build-up of tissue stress. The common injuries experienced by marathon runners that we see in our practice include: Iliotibial band syndrome Patellofemoral knee syndrome Calf and Achilles pain Heel pain Medial tibial stress syndrome (commonly known as shin splints) Plantar plate tears Plantar fasciitis Stress fracture of the metatarsals Preventing Injury: All of the above injuries can be treated or prevented to some extent with sensible measures. Time: Make time for sufficient warming up and stretching exercises. We strongly advise first time marathon runners to prepare and gradually increase the training distance leading up to the event "“ Do not do too much too soon. This allows runners to address small things such as the