I Knew This All Along and I'm No Brainiac

A recent fairly large and well constructed study seems to show that runners that stretch before running are no more likely to prevent injury as those who forgo stretching. I have always felt this way and probably let many of you know how I felt even thirty years ago.  The study is fairly interesting as it shows a few more somewhat unexpected things and other obvious ones.

1. Runners that had never stretched that began stretching for the study were injured significantly more often during the next 3 months.
2. Runners who stopped their normal stretching for the study were much more likely to be injured within 3 months. (Keep doing what you have been doing, seems to be the mantra.)
3. Injury rates were highest among heavier runners (ahem, pot calling kettle black here!) and those with increased mileage (just as everyone would expect).

I never stretched while in high school and had only one injury I could attribute to that.  After entering PSU, I was injured much more often and  the stretching sessions always bothered me. Mileage was higher, but I had done quite a few 100 mile weeks while in high school, so my increase in mileage was probably less than most people.  I have always felt that the best warm-up for running is to run slowly for a few minutes before beginning the real run.  I feel this method is the best way to "warm up" the muscles prior to the intensive efforts to come.  I'd love to hear differing opinions in the comment section.

The only other question I have about the issue is whether it actually helps performance levels to stretch before running.  Maybe stretchers actually perform better, even though they don't actually decrease their injury rate.  That would be a difficult study to do.