Running Assessments with Queanbeyan Deadly Runners
Sport & Spinal Physiotherapy is pleased to announce that we are now assisting the Queanbeyan Deadly Runners in their quest to run the New York and Boston Marathons as part of the Indigenous Marathon Project.
Sport & Spinal Physio has been working up in North-East Arnhem Land and Palm Island with SOS Foundation Sport for many years now with our outreach health missions and Work4Significance Day.
Read more about some of our Charitable Works Programs in Palm Island, North East Arnham Land and Nepal.
So, now we are happy to be involved at a more local level, promoting healthy lifestyles to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the Queanbeyan Deadly Runners.
Running Assessments with the Queanbeyan Deadly Runners
Over the weekend Craig and I had the pleasure of meeting participants in the Queanbeyan Deadly Runners group. The group has been founded by Georgia Gleeson who herself ran the New York marathon as part of Rob De Castella’s Indigenous Marathon Program in 2013.
On arrival to Queanbeyan park we were impressed with the brilliant turn out of participants that had woken early on a dreary Saturday Morning. We greeted by about 30 eager and keen runners from the group. We had runners of all shapes and sizes. Some participants had run for a long time and some were new to running.
Participants had various running goals ranging from finishing a 5 km fun run to completing a marathon for the first time. However, each one of them were keen to improve in some way.
The emphasis of the day’s talk was placed on stretching and strengthening as a way to avoid injury, as well as a brief look at each individual’s running technique.
There were plenty of laughs as some stiff bodies attempted some new stretches which will no doubt improve their overall flexibility. Plenty of advice was given regarding training tips and even correct running shoes.
We had lots of questions from the group and they all agreed that they learned a lot from our input. They were a great bunch to work with.
We started out with some stretching exercises of the gluteals, quadriceps, hip flexors, calf and lower back. We placed great emphasis on anterior hip flexibility to enable maximum drive and we explained this relationship to performance and injury prevention.
Craig and I then moved onto some simple strength exercises for the gluteals, core abdomen muscles and the calf.
The workshop then progressed to reviewing the runners’ technique. The main problem that I noticed was that many of the runners lacked optimum core control and this led to them running quite tight in their upper body rather than trying to run relaxed and allowing their running to flow. Whilst correcting this flaw would take some time, we gave the group some tips and how to improve their running style immediately.
At the end of the running assessment session, it was apparent that the runners were asking many questions about shoes. We gave a brief explanation on the different shoe types out in the market and what to look for in a shoe in relation to different foot types.
The Deadly Runners Group were one of the most welcoming and engaging groups that I have had the pleasure of talking to. Lots of great questions were asked and I am sure that the participants gained some useful information.
Sport and Spinal Physiotherapy look forward to continuing a relationship with the runners over the course of the year should they require injury treatment. Many thanks to Georgia for helping organise the morning and to the participants for being so enthusiastic, so early on a wet Saturday morning.