My leg hurts and I'm grumpy. About three weeks ago I had some lingering soreness in my glute. The next run that grew to stiffness in my knee (or maybe where my hamstring connects or maybe my calf or maybe my IT band). That happened before at about mile 23 in my marathon. I took a few days off, ran two ok miles and then six miles that went ok but had stiffness an hour later. I took a week off and had a nice 7.6 mile hike. No issues. So Sunday I tried a six mile run. I gave up at 4.5 miles just feeling exhausted and a little stiff and started walking back to the car. That was fine for maybe a mile before the stiffness turned to pain. I walked for a mile yesterday which was fine, but I felt the stiffness a bit this morning. I'm trying to stay optimistic and mostly succeeding.
I filled out the form for the local university that does running evaluation but haven't heard back. You're undoubtedly right. I'll try my PCP next. I happened to have my annual checkup in the "sore but not stiff" stage, and he said PT was an option if it got worse.