A questionnaire investigation was undertaken in connection with the Arhus Marathon Race in 1986, with the object of registering experience, previous running injuries, amount of training, running injuries, treatment and causes. A total of 831 replies were obtained (90%). Of these, there were 731 men and 100 women with an average age of 34.6 (11-77) years, duration og training 5.5 months, training distance 47.5 km/week and tempo 10.8 km/hour. Among these, 193 injuries were registered in 161 runners (19%). Eighty-nine had to stop sports for more than one week and 26 still had injuries which limited participation in sport after eight weeks. The injuries consisted of blisters (25%) and stress injuries (66%) particularly in the knee (37%) and leg (23%). Runners who sustained injuries were found to be significantly younger than non-injured runners, their training distance was less and training tempo lower. The causes of the injuries were mainly overexertion. The significance for the types of shoes for stress injuries was investigated and a tendency to increased risk of overexertion injuries was demonstrated on employing competition shoes and cheap jogging shoes.