One in Four Women Runners are Running in Pain

When you are standing in line to start a race and wondering if you are the only one feeling musculoskeletal pain – even before the race  - rest assured that you are not!  Researchers from the São Paulo Running Injury Group in Brazil asked more than 10,000 runners who were about to run a 5k or a 10k race about the if they had any bone, joint, or muscle pain.  Runners in pain then reported the location, duration, and intensity of the pain together with some demographic information.

Although women generally ran fewer miles per week, they reported more pain than men. 20% of the 796 male respondents and 27% of the 253 female respondents had pain before running.  

So more than one in four women runners are in pain before they run.  This study suggests that we need to take a hard look at what motivates runners to compete despite existing pain and if such behaviors contribute to long recovery times and chronic injury patterns.

Read an abstract of the study here.