Dr. Lewis G. Maharam is the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon Series Medical Director and the author of the new book, Running Doc’s Guide to Healthy Running: How to Fix Injuries, Stay Active, and Run Pain-Free. The foreword is by marathoner Frank Shorter.
Dr. Maharam breaks the book into five parts: Running for Health, Marathons and Half-Marathons, Running Doc’s Repair Shop, Injury Manual 101, and Sudden Death and Running.
Part I, Running for Health, covers topics like why run or walk, preparation for you race and a race day plan, equipment, and cold and warm weather tips.
Part II, Marathons and Half-Marathons, is a short chapter that talks about marathon history, physiology, and tips on running a marathon.
Part III, Running Doc’s Repair Shop, cover things like aches and pains, colds, flu and sniffles, common maladies, chronic problems and cures, and women’s health.
Part IV, Injury Manual 101, is the most comprehensive. Sections are devoted to feet and ankles, legs and knees, groin and hip, back, and head. The section on feet and ankles is quite good and covers most common ailments. With each topic, Maraham gives a Quick Guide with symptoms, how it occurred, what the doctor may do, and likely treatment. After the Quick Guide, he expands on the subject. Some are covered in depth while others are given a short description. I appreciate how it addresses injuries from the feet up through the knees, legs and hips, the back, and even the head (concussion). These are all important to runners and the relationship to each other is good to understand.
Surprisingly, Dr. Maraham takes only 2 ½ pages to cover blisters, under Aches and Pains. It would have been better to put it in the Injury Manual 101 chapter with a more in-depth description. His blister care advice is very basic and while it will work for some people, it leaves a lot to be desired. He recommends Vaseline for blisters, which I never recommend. Of course, this is my perspective based on my experience. It will help the beginning marathon runner get through her race and treat blisters afterward, but will not educate them on blister prevention and different methods of treatment.
Here is an example of part of a page from the book to show how it is laid out.
In his discussion on plantar fasciitis, Maraham only gives 2/3 of a page to this common injury. He promotes stretching and labels as a magic cure rolling a golf ball under the foot’s arch for ½ hour a day. Do this he says, and by week two your pain will be gone! I am sure many of my readers and the thousands of runners fighting PF would argue otherwise. This injury would have benefited from a more thorough treatment plan.
Even though I do not always go along with his treatment advice for foot injuries, I recommend this book as a supplement to your library because it is always good to be prepared – and the book’s wide range of topics is valuable. It will educate you to the common maladies runners’ experience, and give you basic solutions. Dr. Maraham has the credentials to back up his writing. Check it out at your local running or book store or Amazon.
Disclaimer: I have an Associates Account at Amazon.
