[Epidemiology of recreational runners]

Running has become a very popular sport in Europe. We clinically examined the feet of 92 recreational runners and assessed their knowledge of their own foot anatomy with a questionnaire. Additionally a podogram was performed by an experienced podiatrist. 41 runners trained for more than 5 years, 12 between 3-5, 28 between 1-3 and 11 less than one year. The mean age was 35.4 years. The majority had weekly distances of less than 20 km (n = 43) and 20-40 km (n = 28), 14 40-60 km and only 6 runners were running more than 60 km per week. We could define two groups: one group as the sedentary runner with distances less than 20 km over a minimum period of 3 - 5 years and the competitive runner with distances above 40 per week over at least 3 years. Most of the runners run on tarred or gravel surfaces or a combination of those. The knowledge of the own foot anatomy and biomechanics was poor. Only 50% were correct in identifying their anatomy. 30% of all runners have been given orthotics of which only 50% demonstrated an improvement in symptoms.