One in four trail running race entrants sustained an injury in the 12 months training preceding the 2019 SkyRun race

Frequency of Injury and Illness in the Final 4 Weeks before a Trail Running Competition

“…Forty-two percent of injured athletes declared that their injury started gradually. This is in line with previous studies reporting that gradual onset injuries are the most common mechanism of injury in trail runners [8,11]. Overuse (gradual onset) injuries generally do not generate a loss of training/competition days, but they do generate alterations in the performance during those days [30].…”

“…Records obtained from elite athletes are not comparable to recreational/competitive athletes mainly due to multiple differences presented during their training, heterogeneity in their physical conditions and differences in health insurance [5]. A recently published study on trail runners found that 28.2% of them suffered from an injury or illness in the 12 months leading up to a competition [8]. The current study is the first study that determines the prevalence of injuries and illnesses in the final 4 weeks before the competition in trail runners.…”

“…To our knowledge, only two studies have analyzed the prevalence of injuries prior to a competition. Viljoen et al concluded that 28.2% of the participants of a trail running competition reported an injury in the twelve months before a competition [8]. In a prospective study, an average prevalence of 22.4% (95% CI: 20.9-24.0%) was reported in trail runners over a six month follow-up period [11].…”

“…A recently published systematic review [6] showed an overall incidence range between 1.6-4285.0 injuries per 1000 h of running. Additionally, the prevalence of injuries in trail runners has been reported between 22.2% [7] during competition and 28.2% [8] over one year with the lower limbs the most susceptible to sustain injuries. Illnesses are also prevalent among athletes.…”

“…From the perspective of knowing the extent of the problem, studying the prevalence of injuries around a competition phase may be important to understand the magnitude of the problem [11,15,18,19,21], with the ultimate goal to generate education strategies and provide better medical support during competitions. Only a few studies have determined the frequency or prevalence of injuries or illnesses in trail runners [8,11,13,22,23] and no available studies have focused on the specific stage before the competition. This study aimed to (i) determine the self-reported frequency of injuries and illnesses in athletes participating in a trail running competition over the four weeks preceding the competition; (ii) compare athletes with and without injury/illness by sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and competition distance; (iii) describe the mechanism of injury, the anatomical region (injury) or organ system (illness), consequences of injury on training features (i.e., volume, intensity and performance) and self-perception of the severity of injury for competition; and (iv) compare the anatomical region among injured athletes and the system affected among ill athletes by sex.…”