Marathon Post Event Recovery

Many cities in the world hold marathons-this means at any one time there is a marathon going on orpeople training for one

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2005 there were 382,000 marathon finishers in the USA

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2007 there were 407,000 marathon finishers

source:

www.marathonguide.com

Broken down into smaller event figures

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2007 New York Marathon 38,557

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2006 New York Marathon 37,557

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2005 New York Marathon 36,856At this marathon there were 6300 in under 3 hours and 14,633 in the cut off point of 7 hours thisleaves many more who are trying to reach the finish line unofficially or pulled out through fatigueor injuryThe mental and physical state of the 7 hour cut off time and over people can only be guessed at-being on the road for so long these people would be heading into ultra marathon problems

Let’s look at the recovery area

The groups of people manning it may consist of physical therapists, first aid, physicians, massagetherapists and others involved in marathon-the numbers of them may vary because most of them arein unpaid positions and as they are voluntary it depends on whoever turns up on the dayWhen the in trouble runner turns up at the first aid post, and depending how many people are ondepends on how quickly they are seen and how bad they areIf there was a recovery team to cover the 7 hour cut off point to cater for those 14,633 on top of the6300 in the under 3 hour mark, it still leaves many thousands outside of these times not looked afterbecause there is a limit as to how long the volunteers are prepared to stay beyond this time to helpthose in most trouble-the up to and over 7 hour cut off people

These will be in the most trouble because they are going intoultra marathon timesMany athletes are missing out on even basic recovery care

Marathon Post Event Recovery using the World Run Recovery System2Copyright 2008 Michael Gillan ultra marathon recovery specialisthttp://aching-legs-relief.com/marathon_runner.htmlThe numbers of runners at these marathon events vary-but we can discuss in the 1000s running atany one time-most of them do not have any recovery plans for after the event other than to go homeand suffer with soreness and stiffness until they get over itMany of them they will have run their first and last marathon because of the suffering they willhave gone through both during and after the event and it shouldn’t be this way

Recovery

There is much information on the internet and organisers have top athletes and trainers discussingequipment, training, and tactics-but there is one tactic that is not discussed very much and that isrecovery after it is all overRecovery is a subject that is difficult to deal with for many people because there is so muchmystique about it and much of it is scientific that most ordinary runners cannot understand or do forthemselvesI trained as a massage therapist and did hours of work at fun runs, triathlons and marathons usingconventional hands on working on the muscles and thought we did a good job of things while there-but it was not until I got into ultra events that I found out that what we did was not working too wellIt took 2 Colac 6 Day ultra events for this to sink in-(when you are trackside for 6 days straight andget to see the long term effects of what you did 24 hours before showing up in the athlete goingslower-you see the 24 hour result sheet-you have to realize that it is not working)The reason was we were trying to fix something with our hands by working into the muscle tissues-it was not until I accidentally changed my approach on my 3

Colac 6 Day (there were only 3 of usstudents to cover the whole 6 days so something had to change) did the results of this change of approach show up (see 1995 Colac result sheet)

What had I done differently?

I did not have the time to spend with each runner and walker trying to ‘fix’ things so rather had to just give them the least time I could and do as little as possible with them-so I went for theminimalist approachMassage table time went down from about an hour and half to 15 minutes because I used themuscles to do their own work rather than me doing it-this meant that I did not use any oil so nodisrobing-the muscles did not get cold or stiff I also changed the approach to stretching from a hard sports stretch used to make the muscleslengthen to a light one aiming for relaxation-this also reduced the cramping problem-more on thatin a different articleI also reached the conclusion during this time that if someone is complaining about problems theyare experiencing with muscles, most of the time if they have trained properly, the damage was notdone during the run-the problems are showing up because the muscles are under stress

The most important change in my approach though was to accept that in therecovery phase, most of the time there is no injury to fix-but with a little help thebody can be assisted to recover itself

Marathon Post Event Recovery using the World Run Recovery System3Copyright 2008 Michael Gillan ultra marathon recovery specialisthttp://aching-legs-relief.com/marathon_runner.htmlRecovery is important for any sports person-and the quicker it is started on the faster the recoveryThe most effective time to get onto this is while they are in the 'window of opportunity'-while theyare still warm and pliableAt this stage, they will be sore and fatigued-working

them using conventional recovery systemsmay do more harm than good because it interferes with the bodies own recovery processes whichstart as soon as the muscles stop being stressedGently assisting the muscles to get rid of by-products and wastes that have formed-as the by-products are removed, allows fresh blood to enter the tissues and enhance healing-allowing theathlete to get back to their normal lifestyle without the inconvenience they would normallyassociate with after-effects of intensive competition.the muscles being enlisted to assist in their own recoveryIn the normal course of events there is very little injury other than small micro-tears in the over usedmuscle tissues-unless there has been a problem from an exterior sources such as impact or bio-mechanical causes (the running shoes, surface, blisters) to increase muscle stress, trained musclesare not injured in the conventional senseUsing conventional methods of recovery is not appropriate at this time and it may be ineffective asthese are being repaired by the body itself, any intrusive outside interference will slow this process.*Some research has shown that conventional systems do not help with recovery if it is done within2 hours of the end of the event-but all agree the athlete is still benefiting from the psychologicaleffect more than the physical as it gives after competition winds down.