Homepage

Endurance Running Takes a Toll on Marathoners’ Bodies Endurance Running Takes a Toll on Marathoners Bodies

Over 600 runners partook in the half or full marathon race Sunday in Syracuse.

By Shannon Imbornoni

Shannon Imbornoni: It’s not out of the ordinary runners may feel sick after enduring 26.2 straight miles of racing. Lindsey Reider, a professor at Onondaga Community College and four-time marathoner himself says there may a reason behind it.

Lindsey Reider: We think that possibly that might be because you have, release a lot of cortisol in response to the run and that kind of disrepairs your immune system.

Imbornoni: Reider says another reason could be the decrease of blood flow and energy to the “resting and digesting” parts of our bodies, weakening the immune system.

Reider: So you might be a little more susceptible to whatever cold, germs there are out there, but generally, there is not ‘this is what’s going to happen to you.

Imbornoni: Proper training can take over six months, but your body will thank you later for the practice. Reider says the more reptation the body goes through, the less of a shock the body will feel on race day.

Three time marathoner, Jordyn Naylon, shares a similar sentiment.

Jordyn Naylon: Unless you actually run 26 miles, there’s nothing that really prepares you for that. I don’t think I was mentally prepared at Chicago for how bad it was gonna be, where I was like, ‘I may need a wheelchair.

Imbornoni: Naylon attributes her success in her three marathons, twice in Boston and once in Chicago, to a training plan, including a 20-mile-long run.

Naylon: You don’t have to be rigorous with it, but making sure you’re hitting the milage so that you’re able to, you know, finish it at least, in a respectable way I guess.

Imbornoni: Reider and Naylon both mention that proper fueling during and after the race is key to recovery. But so is icing, stretching and most importantly, taking some time off.

Well, now if you don’t excuse me, I’m about to go sign myself up for a half marathon. In Syracuse, I’m Shannon Imbornoni, N-C-C News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Running a marathon isn’t for the faint of heart.

It’s 26.2 miles of grit, determination and a test of the human spirit. To put it into perspective, it’s like running from Syracuse, down I-81, all the way to the town of Preble.

For Syracuse marathon enthusiasts, the Great New York State Marathon, previously known as the Empire State Marathon, was held on Sunday, looping around scenic Onondaga Lake, through the New York State Fairgrounds, up towards Baldwinsville and back.

Many runners know that you can’t just show up on race day and expect great results; the race actually begins months in advance through a long training process and in some cases, a nutrition plan.

Marathon training starts at least four to six months prior to the big race, said Lindsey Reider, a professor and chairperson in the physical education department at Onondaga Community College. Usually that training is starting at a benchmark of health, not fitness; that will come over time.

“You need to take it very slow,” said Reider.

After weeks of countless miles, learning how to eat and drink properly during the race and planning out the perfect outfit to match the conditions of the course, it’s time to put all that hard work into fruition.

“Most people who finish a marathon [finish] around four hours,” said Reider. “[Afterwards], you’re going to be a little tired and a little sore.”

Some marathoners even experience what they describe as a cold coming on; a runny nose, cough, sore throat and an overall feeling of feeling bleh.

“We think that possibly that might be because you release a lot of cortisol in response to the run and that kind of disrepairs your immune system,” Reider said. “Another theory might be that we’re taking so much blood and energy away from the rest of the ‘resting and digesting’, we might say, and going [towards] the exercise, so the immune system is compromised there.”

According to Dr. Jordan Metzl, a nationally recognized sports medicine physician practicing at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, the likelihood of getting sick after running a marathon is heightened due to a drop in interleukin levels in the body. Interleukins direct white blood cells, which fight off illness and those levels drop for around 36 to 72 hours post-race.

Metzl suggests to limit exposure to sick people at this time, as one may be a bit more susceptible to catching whatever germs are floating around in the area.

But there are ways to limit the feeling of tiredness, sickness and soreness one may feel after completing a marathon. And that all starts with basic training.

“I think that if you train, you’re probably less likely [to get sick], because your body is used to it, so it learns how to compensate,” said Reider. “That’s essentially what training affect is. Your body compensates for the exercise that you do. If you’re new to it, you’ll go into shock.”

Jordyn Naylon, an assistant cross country and track coach at the State University of New York at Cortland, shares the same sentiment: training is key to staying healthy post-marathon.

“My first one [at Chicago] was, you finish and it’s like a deterioration as you keep walking off the line,” said Naylon. “It’s like, ‘yay, I finished’, and then, ‘oh, this kind of hurts’, and then it’s like, ‘oh, I can barely walk’. It was pretty bad after the first one.”

Through trial and error, running three marathons herself, Naylon learned that the recovery afterwards is just as important as the training beforehand too.

“I took a couple of weeks off,” said Naylon. “For both Boston Marathons, I took off three weeks afterwards.”

Reider, a four-time marathoner, said ice is one of the best recovery tools one can use.

“There is no doubt in my mind that whole body icing- so you sit in a tub with 50 pounds of ice and water for 20 minutes, that you bounce back much more quickly,” he said.

The overall takeaway from running a marathon; it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

If you take the time to put in the work beforehand and a little bit afterwards, you’re going to be in better shape to bounce back faster and start working towards your next race.

Related Articles