Health profile and training habits of 42k marathoners, temuco chile

ABSTRACT Context: participation of runners in marathons increases each year, making them an attractive population to investigate. In Chile, the characteristics of marathoners in decentralized and emerging races, such as the Temuco Araucanía International Marathon (MITA), are not yet known. Objective: to describe health profile, sociodemographic characteristics, and training habits of the 42K runners enrolled in MITA during the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. Methods: Non-probabilistic convenience sample composed of people over 18 years of age, who signed informed consent. The data were obtained through a survey prepared by the authors, and were analyzed with the statistical program Stata 16.0 to describe the group based on the variables of health profile, sociodemographic characteristics and training habits. Results: 135 adult marathoners were included (n=42-2017, n=45-2018, n=48-2019). The mean age was 39.5±9.1 years and 86.6% were men. Fifteen percent self-reported comorbidities, 96.7% were non-smokers, 80% were normal weight, 65% had a high educational level and 87% were workers. Regarding training habits, it is noteworthy that the frequency was 4.9±1 days per week, with a mean duration of 89±1 minutes per session. Finally, 71.9% of the sample reported doing high intensity training. Conclusions: the MITA 42K runners are generally healthy subjects, nonsmokers and without comorbidities; mostly men, normal weight, middle age, with a high educational level and workers. They present a high frequency of weekly training, with an average duration of 90 minutes per session, this being carried out at high intensity by almost 2/3 of the sample. Knowledge of the health profile and training habits of runners is a first step to responsibly generate guidelines that contribute to strengthening the safe practice of this sport. Level of Evidence IV; Descriptive and Cross-Sectional Study.