My advice:
I've never seen a runner smiling, as distinct from cyclists. There will be a reason for this.
As I sat on my sofa, watching the Great North Run on TV, I noticed the same thing.
Apart from thousands of grimacing faces I also noticed many hundreds of people I would consider way too overweight to be pounding their knees into tarmac. Quite amazing how many were wearing knee supports and how many were limping or struggling to run after just a few km. (some looked in bad shape as they crossed the start line).
Again, I'm no expert (but that doesn't keep a good YACF'er down), but I'd have thought running/jogging was perfectly healthy IF:
- You weren't carrying way too much weight
- You were in control of your running style (ie. Not limping or forced into poor posture)
- You weren't in need of some form of structural support before you set off.
Apart from the first half of the field it looked like it was sponsored by ACME Knee Supports Inc.
Edit. Of course the winner was a 7stone Kenyan who was pounding the tarmac for about an hour. That's great, I can see that would be fun. The tail-enders were 20stone and pounding tarmac for over 3 hours. Not fun, or healthy I would have thought.