Pre-existing Injuries and Illnesses in Trail Runners from a 2022 South African Marathon

A 2022 descriptive cross-sectional study of 10km, 20km, 30km, and 50km trail runners in South Africa. The dataset reports frequency, prevalence, incidence, severity, and risk factors for running-related injuries and illnesses from pre-race medical screening data. It was authored by Anoop Nair and published on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Compare injury incidence and burden between male and female athletes based on the reported prevalence ratios and sex-based findings.
• Analyze the relationship between training frequency, race distance, and injury risk based on the associated risk factors mentioned.
• Study the distribution of chronic versus acute conditions in a trail running population based on the reported prevalence figures.
• Model injury burden in terms of days lost per running hours based on the reported severity metrics.

Strengths

• Reports specific epidemiological metrics including an annual injury incidence of 2.79 per 1000 trail running-hours and an injury burden of 32.7 days lost per 1000 running-hours.
• Includes analysis of risk factors such as odds ratios for injury associated with longer race distances and higher weekly training sessions.
• Provides sex-based comparisons, noting that 47.15% of male and 45.53% of female injuries affected the lower limb.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a single event in 2022, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Anoop Nair.

Collection Method

Pre-race medical screening data completed two weeks before the 2022 Magoebaskloof Forest Marathon.

Time Range

Data collected in the lead-up to a 2022 event.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 07:08:23; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Magoebaskloof Forest Marathon, South Africa.