Looking After Your Tendons and Ligaments When You’re Preparing For A Marathon

11 April 2025

Ready to run a marathon or are you a recreational runner? Running can be great for our health, but it can also put pressure on the body, especially if we are doing more running than usual, such as training for a marathon. 

If you are training for an event, good luck! 

This article looks at the impact of running on soft tissues and explores the benefits of collagen for runners, and using collagen supplements to support tendons and ligaments. 

How Running Affects Your Bones and Soft Tissues

Your bones and soft tissues (muscles, tendons, and ligaments) work as a unit when you walk or run. Together, they help distribute force from muscles to joints and prevent bones from rubbing against each other.  

Running or other high-impact activities, such as jumping, can cause injuries in two ways:

  1. Direct trauma to the bones or soft tissues.
  2. Minor repeated injuries that disrupt the normal structure and functioning of the muscle-tendon units. These are known as overuse injuries.

Over time, the repeated injuries accumulate, leading to an inflammatory response from your body. Inflammation is associated with:

  • Pain
  • Instability
  • Improper functioning of the affected structure

Soft tissue injuries are common among professional and recreational runners. Overtraining (overuse) or improper training techniques account for most of these injuries.

Highlights

  • Collagen is a critical component of your tendons, ligaments, and bones.
  • Collagen supplementation is crucial for tendon, ligament, and bone health. It can benefit runners by strengthening joints, aiding recovery, and supporting muscle and tendon strength.
  • Collagen can also help reduce the risk of sports (including running) injuries.
  • It takes about three months before you start noticing the benefits of collagen supplementation. Thus, it’s best to start supplementation at least three months before the day of marathon or distance running.
  • Higher doses (up to 60g/day) appear safe, with minor side effects.
  • When looking for a collagen supplement, opt for the one with vitamin C, as vitamin C is essential for collagen synthesis.

The UK is known for hosting some of the most popular and biggest running events in the world. For example, about 60,000 runners participate in the Great North Run each year. Another major event and perhaps most well recognised is the TCS London Marathon, where 56,000 people are expected to take part, serious runners and less serious, but still tough!

Running Benefits and Risks

Distance running and marathons have numerous benefits, including:

  • Better fitness and sleep
  • Increased lower body strength
  • Lower stress
  • Stronger relationships
  • Improved sense of well-being

However, running a marathon (42.195 km) or even 5K may not be for everyone. Moreover, running may cause injuries to your tendons, ligaments, and bones. Several factors determine the risk of injury among runners, such as: (1)

  • Age: Tendon injuries are more common in runners older than 40.
  • Training errors: It involves running beyond one’s capacity in terms of running distance, frequency, and intensity.
  • Initial fitness and previous injury: Both these factors can make you more likely to get an injury.

5 Common Injuries Among Distance and Marathon Runners

According to a 2021 review in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, the FIVE most common sites of injury among ultramarathoners are: (2)

  • Ankle (34.5%)
  • Knee (28.1%)
  • Lower leg (12.9%)

Up to 90% of individuals training for marathons have an injury, regardless of the level of experience. (3)

The most frequently reported injuries in marathon runners include:

  1. Runner’s knee

Also called patellofemoral syndrome, it causes pain at the front region of the knee, around the kneecap (patella).

  1. Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS)

Iliotibial band syndrome is a tendon injury. It occurs when the iliotibial band (a tendon) becomes inflamed due to rubbing against the knee or hip bone. It may affect one or both legs.

When you have ITBS, you may notice pain with a burning feeling on the outside of the knee or hip. The pain typically worsens over time.

  1. Shin splints

This condition is also known as medial tibial stress syndrome. It occurs due to the overuse of muscles, tendons and bone tissue.

Symptoms can include tenderness, soreness, or pain in the front part of the shins. Some may complain of mild swelling in the lower leg. Stress fracture (cracks in a bone) is a rare complication of shin splints.

  1. Heel pain

Plantar fasciitis is the major cause of heel pain. The plantar fascia is a strong band of tissue connecting your heel bone to the toe. When you have plantar fasciitis, this band gets inflamed, usually due to overuse or overstretching.

  1. Achilles tendinopathy

Achilles tendinopathy is a tendon injury that causes pain in the back of the heel. It occurs when the fibrous band of tissues connecting your calf muscles to the heel bone gets inflamed. Achilles injuries affect about 1 in 3 runners. (4)

Collagen Is the Main Building Block of Tendons, Ligaments, and Bones

Tendons are a band of fibrous tissue that connects your muscles to bones. They transfer the force generated during muscle contraction to the bones. That way, they help your joints move freely.

Collagen is a major component of your tendons, accounting for 60% to 85% of dry weight of the tendon. The two most abundant collagens in the tendon are type I (60% to 80% of total collagen) and type III (up to 10% of total collagen).

Like the tendon, a ligament is a band of fibrous tissue, but it connects two bones in a joint. The main function of your ligament is to help prevent joint dislocation. Type I collagen accounts for about 70% of the dry weight of a ligament.

A critical component of your bones is collagen. Studies show that collagen helps increase bone mass and growth. Besides, collagen protects your joints from age-related wear and tear.

3 Reasons to Use Collagen Before A Marathon

Whether it’s your first marathon or you’ve been running for years, adding collagen to your training is a great way to injury-proof your tendons, ligaments, and joints.

1.   Collagen supplementation can help improve tissue repair and prevent injuries

When you take a collagen supplement (preferably with exercise), your body produces more collagen. More collagen means stronger tendons, ligaments, and bones. (5)

Consequently, you will be less likely to sustain an injury during or after distance running or a marathon. Most importantly, even if you get injured, you will heal faster.

2.   Collagen helps strengthen your tendons and ligaments

Collagen supplementation can significantly increase the production of collagen types I and III in the body.

In a 2022 study, researchers isolated cells from human tendons and ligaments. Then, they treated the cells with a specific collagen product. After 24 hours, they found that collagen type I and III production increased 1.2 fold to 2.4 fold.  (6)

The researchers concluded that collagen could be effective for:

  • Preventing undesirable changes in ligaments and tendons
  • Reducing the risk of injuries

3.   Collagen helps strengthen your bones

As one of the major building blocks of bone, collagen helps increase bone formation and decrease bone degradation.

Your bones become stronger through a process called “bone mineralisation.” During this process, minerals like calcium, vitamins, and collagen deposit in the bone tissues.

Impaired bone mineralisation can result in weak and brittle bones.

According to a 2018 study, taking collagen daily for 12 months can help: (7)

  • Increase bone mineralisation
  • Decrease age-related loss of bone mass
  • Increase bone formation

Key Takeaways

Runners tend to have a higher risk of bone and soft-tissue injuries. Injuries can result from direct trauma to the bones or soft tissues, or repeated small injuries that accumulate over time.

As the major component of your bones and soft tissues (tendons, ligaments), collagen is crucial for tendon, ligament, and bone health.

Both professional and recreational runners can benefit from collagen, before, during or after an event.

Collagen supplementation has been shown to strengthen joints, aid recovery, and support muscle and tendon strength. In addition, collagen can also help reduce the risk of running injuries.

You need to wait for about three months before you start noticing the incredible health benefits of collagen for your soft tissues. Thus, experts recommend taking a collagen supplement at least three months before the day of the running event.

Collagen is safe, and doses up to 60g/day are unlikely to cause any severe side effects. If you are considering a collagen supplement, choose the one with vitamin C, as your body needs vitamin C to produce collagen.

Useful links: Collagen for tendons and ligaments , Tendon Injury Recovery Article ,

References:

  1. Lee, Saxby, and Wilkinson Mick. “Causes and Prevention of Running-Related Injury: An Engineering Perspective.” International Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine, vol. 7, no. 2, Mar. 2021, doi:10.23937/2469-5718/1510185.
  2. Kakouris, Nicolas et al. “A systematic review of running-related musculoskeletal injuries in runners.” Journal of sport and health science vol. 10,5 (2021): 513-522. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2021.04.001 
  3. Fredericson, Michael, and Anuruddh K Misra. “Epidemiology and aetiology of marathon running injuries.” Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) vol. 37,4-5 (2007): 437-9. doi:10.2165/00007256-200737040-00043 
  4. Ackermann, Paul W, and Per Renström. “Tendinopathy in sport.” Sports health vol. 4,3 (2012): 193-201. doi:10.1177/1941738112440957 
  5. Khatri, Mishti et al. “The effects of collagen peptide supplementation on body composition, collagen synthesis, and recovery from joint injury and exercise: a systematic review.” Amino acids vol. 53,10 (2021): 1493-1506. doi:10.1007/s00726-021-03072-x
  6. Schunck, M., & Oesser, S. (2013). Specific collagen peptides benefit the biosynthesis of matrix molecules of tendons and ligaments. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 10(sup1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-10-S1-P23
  7. König, Daniel et al. “Specific Collagen Peptides Improve Bone Mineral Density and Bone Markers in Postmenopausal Women-A Randomized Controlled Study.” Nutrients vol. 10,1 97. 16 Jan. 2018, doi:10.3390/nu10010097