The Orthopaedic Institute for Children in Los Angeles partnered with Students Run Los Angeles for the second year in a row to help middle and high school students train safely for the Los Angeles Marathon.
Here are five things to know.
1. OIC's Center for Sports Medicine is SRLA's exclusive healthcare partner, providing injury prevention training sessions for coaches, educational materials for runners and conducting a pilot study on the most common training injuries students face during the marathon training program.
2. SRLA is a nonprofit that helps approximately 3,000 at-risk students to experience the benefits of participating in the Los Angeles Marathon.
3. "Each week we receive data from SRLA describing the injuries that occurred during that week's training at 85 local schools," said Jennifer Beck, MD, associate director of OIC's Center for Sports Medicine. In January, Dr. Beck presented the preliminary findings at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine conference in Florida.
4. During the current training season, 396 runners — nearly 19 percent of SRLA participants — reported injuries. Of these, 31 percent were knee injuries, 22 percent lower leg, 15 percent foot and 13 percent ankle.
5. "We are unaware of any other healthcare organization currently performing this type of prospective research in youth marathoners, so there is incredible interest both in the sports medicine and running world with regard to our research," said Joshua Goldman, MD. "We will continue to gather information until the March 18 marathon; and then this July, as we did last year, we will report back to the group with our final findings and recommendations for improved training techniques for the 2019 marathon."
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