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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

psychological predictors, injury, marathon runners, health benefits

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Abstract

While training for and participation in marathons provides substantial health benefits, there is also a high incidence of musculoskeletal injury in marathon runners. Previous research has identified correlation between various cognitive running strategies and running related injury. In particular, association, which is exemplified when runners focus on and maintain awareness of their body and physical factors crucial to performance, has been shown to predict injury (Masters and Ogles). Dissociation is employed when a runner diverts attention away from their body and physical feedback to anything external to themselves. While dissociation was originally hypothesized to increase injury risk, previous research suggests that this is not the case. Additionally, runners who attribute their participation to performance-based motivations, such as competitiveness or goal orientation, were also more likely to be injured (Masters and Ogles). However, the runners surveyed in previous studies were predominately male. Increasing numbers of female marathon participants render work limited to men to be insufficient.

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