A few weeks on from the Melbourne Marathon, most of what 11 October did to you should have worn off. The quads have recovered and the stairs at work are no longer a problem. If something is still sore, or it comes back every time you try to run again, book a podiatrist now rather than hoping it clears up over summer.

A workable rule is to give a niggle two weeks of reduced running after a marathon. If it's no better by then, or it's changing the way you run, get it assessed. Running injuries are common enough that this isn't paranoia: a 2007 systematic review by van Gent and colleagues in the British Journal of Sports Medicine put the yearly injury rate among distance runners anywhere from 19 to 79 per cent, with most injuries at the knee or below.

The timing suits the calendar too. Late October and November sit between spring racing and summer base training, so you can sort out a problem without cutting into a build.

The warning signs worth booking for

Heel pain on the first steps out of bed is the classic sign of plantar heel pain, usually labelled plantar fasciitis. It eases after a few minutes of walking, then returns after you've been sitting or at the end of a long day. Marathon blocks are a common trigger because weekly kilometres and long-run time on your feet both climb. Left alone and loaded the same way, it can drag on for many months.

Achilles pain needs a closer look at where it hurts. Pain and thickening a few centimetres above the heel bone is mid-portion tendinopathy. Pain where the tendon attaches to the heel is insertional Achilles tendinopathy, and it behaves differently: dropping your heel off a step, a standard exercise for the first, can aggravate the second. Both are usually stiff first thing in the morning. A typical pattern is a tendon that settles once you're warm and hurts more after the run.

Shin pain that returns with load is the one not to run through. Diffuse tenderness along the inner edge of the tibia that eases as you warm up fits medial tibial stress syndrome, or shin splints. Pain in one spot you can cover with a fingertip, or an ache that lingers at rest or at night, points towards a bone stress injury. That needs assessment, and possibly imaging, before your next run.

Some symptoms skip the podiatrist altogether. Sudden calf pain with a pop, a hot swollen foot, numbness, or not being able to bear weight should go to a GP or emergency department first.

What happens at a first sports podiatry appointment

Bring two pairs of shoes: the ones you raced Melbourne in and the ones you train in most. The wear on the soles shows where you load your feet. A training log helps too, whether it's Strava or a notebook, because the first questions are about timing. Expect to be asked when the pain started and what changed in your training before it, such as more hills or a switch to carbon-plated racers.

The examination pins down which structure is hurting. The podiatrist will press around the sore area to find the exact spot, then check ankle dorsiflexion and big toe extension, since stiffness in either changes how load passes through the foot. Calf strength is usually tested by counting single-leg heel raises to fatigue on each side. A gap between legs is common with Achilles problems, and it gives you a number to retest later. Hopping on the sore leg is a quick screen for bone stress.

Gait analysis usually means running on a treadmill while the podiatrist films you from behind and from the side, then plays it back slowed down. They're looking at how your foot lands and how much it rolls in (pronation). Your hips and knees get checked on the same footage. Take the findings with some caution. Treadmill running isn't the same as a lap of the Tan, and pronation on its own predicts injury less than shoe marketing suggests. A Danish study of 927 novice runners in neutral shoes (Nielsen and colleagues, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014) found pronated feet were not at higher risk of injury. The video is most useful read alongside the exam and your training history.

You should leave with a working diagnosis and a plan. For most tendon and fascia problems that means a progressive loading program, such as heavy slow calf raises, plus changes to your running. Taping or orthoses may be added if they suit the problem. If bone stress or tendon damage is suspected, a podiatrist can refer you for an X-ray or ultrasound.

Podiatrists are primary healthcare practitioners in Australia, so you can book one directly without a GP referral. For a running injury, look for a clinic that does sports podiatry and includes gait analysis in its assessments, because a general foot clinic may never watch you run. If you're looking for a podiatrist in melbourne who works with runners, one option is Up & Running Podiatry, a sports podiatry practice. It has clinics at 5 Bay Street in Port Melbourne and 68 Stevedore Street in Williamstown, which suits anyone whose long runs follow the bay.

Managing training load during treatment

Most tendon and fascia problems don't need total rest. A 2007 trial by Silbernagel and colleagues in the American Journal of Sports Medicine let people with Achilles tendinopathy keep running, provided pain stayed at or below 5 out of 10 during activity and settled by the next morning. They recovered as well as a group told to stop running. If morning stiffness gets worse from one week to the next, you've done too much and need to cut back.

Bone stress injuries are the exception. They need a period off impact, then a graded return set by whoever is treating you.

For everything else, drop intensity before volume. Hills and fast intervals load the calf and Achilles hardest, so keep your running easy and flat for now. Swap one or two runs a week for cycling or deep-water running at your local pool to hold onto fitness.

Hold off on summer race entries until you've strung together two or three weeks of pain-free running. Retest your single-leg heel raise count at your review. If the gap between legs has closed, that's a better guide to adding kilometres back than how the heel feels on a good day.