Browse any running message board and the most passionate posts are cries for help from frustrated runners with their latest overuse injury. Ask a veteran of the sport about their injury history and they'll likely rattle off a laundry list of every conceivable malady possible:

IT band syndrome

Plantar fasciitis

Achilles tendinopathy

Patellofemoral pain syndrome

Compartment syndrome

This begs the question: why are runners so good at getting hurt? If we have evolved to run (as many have suggested), then why is the injury rate so alarmingly high? Can you imagine a deer straining its hamstring galloping through the woods? Or a shark getting tendinitis in its fin from hunting a seal?

Of course not! It's outrageous to even think about. Yet it happens to humans when we run relatively pedestrian distances at comfortable paces.