Marathon Heroes

[modeller]

I think anyone who runs the Marathon is pretty special and it reminds me of a friend of mine whose daughter ran all around the British Isles including Northern Ireland ( during the troubles ) . She ran a Marathon every day for 3/4 months and was proclaimed Athlete of the Year. She was doing it for Cancer Research.
However I met up with him a year later and he told me she had lost 20% of her bone mass
which sounded serious to me. I haven't seen him since but I have often wondered if this is a risk athletes run when they exercise at that sort of level over a period of time. and if they do ,do the bones recover ?

[Canary42]

I once read somewhere that the leg bones compact by 0.4mm in a marathon - can't remember if they recover or not, but I suppose they must otherwise whatshername would be a midget by now.

[johne1892]

That sounds a phenominal achievement but you have to consider that what she did was not 'exercise'. Even marathon runners dont run a marathon every day. This then gives their bodies time to recover ready for their next run.

As much as I applaud her for what she did I think she over did it a bit.

[askyourgran]

I thought that ones bone mass became stronger when you exercised, I was told that I had osteopena (the onset of osteoporosis), and that exercise would strengthen my bones. It may well be that marathon running (persistant jarring of the frame) for such a length of time has that effect on the body. Paula Radcliffe has been in a lot of Marathons, so there may be a recovery period.

[modeller]

Before she set out she was told to rest one day each week but she told me she was too wound up to rest and she had stiffness and cramp so it was much easier just to keep going. Her father said it was severe loss of calcium , which is what happens with oesteoporosis .

[Gromit]

I do not know if losing 20% of your bone mass is a bad thing. It may actually be a good thing, like losing 20% of youR body weight, or 20% of your BMI.

It really depends what you start off with, and whether losing 20% of that is good or bad.

[pa___ul3]

I've mentioned it before (do you blame me!?) that my granddad is 88 and still runs between 13 and 17 miles every Saturday, he run the Liverpool half marathon a few weeks ago and beat a fair few people and he's running the Liverpool Marathon in October. He's run the London Marathon 16 times (I think) and the Chester Marathon a fair few times too!
It's fair to say I'm rather proud to call him my granddad!

[modeller]

pa ul3 Your grandad is special . Are you following him in his footsteps or should I say running shoes. ?