GO! St. Louis Marathons

31 Days (as of March 8th) until GO! St Louis Marathon/Half-Marathon weekend and you are well into your training plans, hopefully injury free. You have logged many training days, some of which have been very cold, filled with snow, rain, sleet and ice. You’ve eaten more GU, drank more Gatorade and sat in more ice baths than you ever wish to do. If all goes well on race day, you will experience the feeling that has brought so many runners and walkers out to Go! every year.


Each year our office and staff provide the post-race recovery services to the mass of runners and walkers for Go! You have probably seen us just as you finished the race. You only have to look for the long lines that are NOT in front of the port-o-potties. Over the years it has become popular to receive post race recovery services so that the next morning it isn’t as obvious to others that you just did the marathon (except for the medal around your neck).


In 2010 we provided services to over 500 people during that weekend, many of whom admitted to be struggling through their training and race day with “nagging injuries that never seemed to go away”. The question I always have is …”Why?” Athletes will spend a lot time away from family, spend countless hours training and invest financially into registration fees and travel expenses. Yet, when it comes to their own bodies, the very tools in which they need to get to the finish line, they don’t make the same investments when dealing with injuries. Why had this runner/walker put themselves through unnecessary discomfort or pain? Perhaps they had been dealing with these types of injuries and have gotten used to it being at a certain threshold that they could tolerate.


As a treating physician of endurance athletes, I am often challenged with what I like to describe as the “procrastinating runner”. You remember these type of people when you were in college. They skipped a lot of classes, didn’t take notes, partied a lot on the weekends (lucky people weren’t they?) and then asked you if they could see your notes, study with you and hoped they would get a good enough grade to pass the class. Some of you are laughing and some of you just got a tingle up the back of your neck because that was YOU! I see a parallel with runners in my office. They didn’t keep to their training, skipped long runs, had a poor diet, asked you to keep them company on a long run and ignored their bodies aches and pains. They are now sitting in my office, sometime during the last week of March and want or “NEED” to be fixed. They were hoping to PR in the race or qualify for Boston but now fear they may have to shut it down.


Just as your teachers and parents told you don’t wait ‘til the last minute, I am telling YOU …. DON’T wait! Make the investment in your body. Take care of it. Get that injury checked out. Don’t ignore the soreness in your knee from the run in the snow or last 20 miler. “Oh but I have my taper coming up, it’ll heal during that rest time.” No, it won’t, unless you do the proper things beyond just rest you will not have race experience you were hoping for. There are options and alternatives to this approach. Take the time to rest. Pamper yourself too. Get a massage. Take some extra time to stretch more often. Eat better and hydrate more. Come in for treatment. Many of you are training, not because you are planning on winning but because you love the experience. Make your experience enjoyable and pain free.


"We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

- Emil Zatopek, 1952 Olympic Marathon gold medallist


For more information about the GO! St Louis Marathon/Half-Marathon weekend, and Expo, please visit: http://gostlouis.org