This is the conversation I have most often about running niggles in the run-up to the Great North Run.
Somebody has trained sensibly for two months. Something has started running niggles. The race is close enough that stopping feels unthinkable. Near enough, carrying on feels reckless. They’ve usually been ignoring it for a fortnight. Hoping it would sort itself out.
And underneath it all is a question they’re slightly afraid to ask out loud: am I still going to be able to run it?
Let’s work through it properly, because the answer depends on things that can actually be established.
First: Which Category Are You In?
Not all race-approaching pain is the same problem, and lumping it together is why people make poor decisions.
Category one: the niggle that warms up. Sore for the first ten minutes, eases as you run, mildly sore afterwards, back to normal by the next morning. Not changing how you run.
Category two: the one that’s building. Worse week on week. Taking longer to settle after each run. Starting to appear during everyday activities.
Category three: the one that changes how you move. You’re limping, favouring a side, or altering your stride to accommodate it — even slightly.
Category four: the red flag. Sharp, pinpoint pain on a bone that gets worse the further you run rather than easing after warm-up. Or night pain. Or sudden pain with a pop and loss of function.
Category four is not a training decision. It needs assessing this week, not after the race. Bone stress injuries are common in half marathon builds, they respond well when caught early, and they respond very badly to being run on for six more weeks. That distinction — worse with continued running, rather than better after warm-up — is the single most useful thing in this article.
Categories one to three are what the rest of this piece is about.
The Test That Sorts It
For anything in categories one to three, the most useful tool you have is the next-morning check.
Run. Then assess yourself the following morning, before you’ve moved much.
Back to your normal baseline: the load was appropriate. You can repeat it and build from there.
Noticeably worse than the previous morning: the load exceeded what that tissue currently tolerates. Reduce by roughly 20 to 30 per cent and rebuild more gradually.
Apply that after every run for the rest of your block and you’ve replaced guesswork with information.
What to Change First (And What Not To)
The instinct when something hurts is usually to stop running entirely. That’s rarely the right first move, and it’s frequently the worst one — because you lose fitness, lose confidence, and still haven’t addressed why it started.
The better sequence is to reduce specific variables rather than everything at once.
Cut the intensity before the volume. Speed work loads tissue at higher rates than easy running. Drop the intervals first.
Cut the hills. Both directions. Climbing loads the calf and Achilles; descending loads the quads and knees. If you know which is provocative, remove that one specifically.
Reduce your longest run before reducing frequency. Three shorter runs generally maintain more fitness and cause less trouble than one long one.
Change the surface. Softer, more even ground temporarily.
Look at what changed in the two to four weeks before it started. Almost every case traces back to something — a jump in mileage, a new pair of shoes, hill sessions added, a return after a break, or a big week you were quite pleased with at the time.
The Bit Everyone Skips
Here’s where most people go wrong in the final block.
They reduce their running and change nothing else — so the tissue’s capacity keeps dropping while they wait, and when they return to full training the same problem reappears immediately.
Cross-training maintains your fitness. Cycling, swimming and pool running all keep the aerobic engine going with far less loading. Six weeks of cycling will not ruin your race.
Strength work builds capacity. This is the part that actually changes the situation rather than waiting it out. And it’s the thing that gets dropped as mileage rises, which is exactly backwards.
If you take one action from this article, it’s this: don’t just do less. Do something different, and do the strengthening.
“Can I Still Run It?”
The honest answer depends on the category, and on how much the race matters relative to the next six months of running.
Category one — the manageable niggle: most people can, with a modified block, sensible race-day expectations, and a plan for afterwards.
Category two — building but not changing your gait: possibly, but it needs assessing rather than guessing, and the block needs to change now rather than in three weeks.
Category three — changing how you move: running thirteen miles with an altered stride is how one problem becomes three. This needs sorting out before race day, and there may still be time.
Category four: please get it assessed. This is the one where pushing on has consequences beyond the race.
And a word about deferring. For a charity runner who has raised money and told everyone, deferring feels like failure. It isn’t. The Great North Run happens every year. A stress fracture can cost you six months and a season of running you’d have otherwise enjoyed.
I’d rather have that conversation with you in July than treat the consequences in October.
If You Are Running It
Assuming you’ve been assessed and you’re going ahead:
Adjust your target. Racing a half marathon on a compromised tissue is a different proposition from running one. Deciding in advance to run it steadily removes the temptation to chase a time your body isn’t currently equipped for.
Respect the opening miles especially. The first two miles of this course run net downhill, and the pull to bank time there is enormous. On a compromised leg, that eccentric loading is exactly what you don’t want. Start slower than feels right.
Have a plan for the second half. The long rise through the closing miles is where form deteriorates — and deteriorating form is where niggles become injuries.
Warm up properly. Not a rushed jog. Ten minutes of easy movement and a few gradual accelerations before you get into your pen.
Know your stopping criteria in advance. Decide now what would make you pull up — sharp pain, a change in your gait, something new. Making that decision at mile nine surrounded by 60,000 people is considerably harder than making it in your kitchen in August.
The Week After Matters Too
Most people plan up to the finish line and no further.
The race is a substantial single load — usually the longest and hardest run of the whole block. Give it two or three genuinely easy days minimum, resist testing yourself the following weekend, and expect the niggle you ran with to be louder for a week.
If it hasn’t settled within a fortnight afterwards, that’s the point to get it looked at properly rather than assuming it’s just post-race soreness.
Get It Assessed While There’s Still Time
The difference between a manageable problem and a lost race is usually a few weeks of decent information.
At Paul Gough Physio Rooms, we see North East runners through this build every year. We can tell you which category you’re actually in, what needs to change in your remaining weeks, and whether the plan is to race it, run it, or defer.
We offer a free discovery visit at no cost and no obligation — a chance to have somebody look at it properly before you make the decision.
The runners who have the best day are rarely the ones who ignored something for six weeks and hoped.
