the injuries happen when the running techique is worng.
the running technique is wrong, when the runner have no developed proper running muscles, so the running biomechanics is no good, and is modified to use nonrunning body.

Typicaly weak running muscles means that muscles are not able to soften the impact of the stride and not able to accumulate the energy and than return it on the next stride.

As the nonrunnig body hits the ground it is the bonnes and joint which gets the absorbtion job, instead of muscles.

The shoe industry realized that decades ago, and offered to nonrunners various hi tech shoes with extra cushioning and motion control etc, whic allows nonrunner to run more with the wrong technique and damage the joints at higher training dose.
The companie are comming with new and new models so the runners can changing them , and for the big money to find another shoe which lets them  run another few weeks or months.

Another industry jumping on this is physiotherapy, podiatrist, sport medicine etc, which is not going tio explain how to strenghten the body first and than use the simplest shoes, but instead for big $$$ is fitting orthotics and advising for the best high tech shoe.

Obne of the approach for nonrunner is to run barefoot only, this will not allow for wrong techique is forcing the body to do the job correctly. If You can only handle 10 metrse so thats it, it will get gradualy better, as well as the skin on the feet will get stronger.

Another way is to use nonshoe shoes, like Dunlop Volleys or Aquasocks, which onnly protects the skins but does not do any shoe job, I am using Volleys for about 70 % of the training run and walk, and for the rest the minimum shoes like Dunlop KT26 ($ 20-30) or extremely thin shoes called racing flats from any big company.

The most important running muscles are :

glutes, hams, calves, lower back, and various stabilizing muscles around the hip, around the knee and muscles of the foot.

The exercises for it are 1 legged semisquads, 1 legged balancing,
heal drops of the stair
good mornings
moving the leg backward and up in standing
and lifting the leg up on the floor on Your tummy.

Walking is good running preparation, working lots of those muscles, and copying racewalking is great for the hip movement and core twisting strenght.

1 leg semisquat - stay on 1 leg, be close to wall or chair so You can use the arms if needed to keep the balance initialy, and start going lower, like to squad, initialy the movement will not be great, but thats not important, repeat up and down as many times as You can, later do more sets. Concentrate on getting lower as You progress and also concentrate on ability to keep balance without using arms support

1 leg balancing - saty on 1 leg and lift the other up, move the free leg forward , backwards sideways, bring the feet to the groin area, lean the body forward and free leg extend back - like the positions from ballet etc, do whatever You like, to music or not, enjoy, the point is to keep balance in all sorts of complicated situations.

Good Mornings - stand on 2 legs, keep the beack straight all the time, bend forward from the hips only, to about 90 degrees and come back up, keep going in good rhytm, when You are experienced the point is to come fast down, so the hamstrings (back of YOur thights need to do the breaking function - to stop the movement down and imidiately move the upper body up. The back is arching backwards all teh time so no stress on spine or lower back, only on legs and the bum. Later it is done with iron bar on Your shoulder, and later littel weight is added on the bar

Stand on 1 leg, and push the other one backwards and up, without rotating.
the similar is to go on the flor on Your tummy, face down and lift the leg up 1 at the time without rotating the pelvis
You need to feel it in lower back, gluts(bum) and hamstrings again
You can also stand on 1 leg and attache some ruber string to other leg and other end of the string somewher in front of YOu, so as You pull the leg back YOu work agains the resistance.

Heel Drops - find little step, stairs, edge of the footpath or simply step up on thick book (yellow pages etc), just with the fron of the feet, so the heels are hanging over the the edge and You are able to lower the heels below the level
of the front feet - than rise up on both legs, when up, relax and lift of 1 leg and drop the heel down bellow the level only on 1 leg, do a set of 15 if You can, and than change the legs.
It is set than if You do 3 x 15 of each leg, 2 times a day (morning and eveining for example, and do it with straight knees, and than also the same with bended knees (bend as much as You can ),

Than this will cure any achilles problems and will prevent any achilles problems.
Calves are composed of 2 different muscles, 1 working when the knee is straigh, 1 when the knee is bend (idealy 90 degrees), so thats why there is need to exercise both.

and that means you have the genetics to be a pro runner too if you want to. talent is limited, effort is unlimited.

nike recycle more shoes than anyone on the planet, and have best workers unions in 2007. a turn around from the 90's.
nike air pegasus is the most popular shoe on earth for a reason. it fits lots of crew and does the job without too many bells and whistles.

ive seen people wear hard soled shoes get a pair of decent runners and unleash their true athletic potential.

its hard to feel fast wearing slop on our feet. with empowering footwear we feel empowered. ever wonder why heels and hard soled footwear are the norm? makes for a society less than excited to use their body as transport cos it will hurt their feet. bit like the roped milk goat. cant travel to0 far without pain.