| STEVE CRAM ON THE GREAT NORTH RUN The Great North Run, the world's biggest half marathon, takes place on Sunday and the women's event is a big test for Britain's Jo Pavey, who is at a crossroads in her career.
She wasn't well in Beijing and it wasn't the Jo Pavey we were used to.
The next step for her is road racing, but does she have what it takes?
It is a good field, with the likes of former winner Derartu Tulu and Geta Wami running, but dare I say they are great names of the past.
The course from Newcastle to South Shields is a good one to run a fast time, and Jo's capable of it, she just needs to prove it.
She needs to run under 70 minutes and if not, she may end up sticking to the track.
In the men's race, Dan Robinson flies the flag for Britain again.
He ran close to his personal best in the Beijing marathon but, if he's going to get down to two hours nine minutes, he also needs to run quicker half marathons and this is a good opportunity for him.
There are no outstanding favourites but Kenyan duo Luke Kibet and Felix Limo are the two who are a bit above the rest.
In Saturday's men's mile race, Britain's Mo Farah has a chance to end a bit of a disappointing year for him on a positive note.
And in the women's equivalent race, I'm tipping fellow Briton Lisa Dobriskey to repeat her victory from last year in front of her home crowd.
Former 1500m world champion Steve Cram is part of the BBC athletics commentary team.
Steve was talking to BBC Sport's Peter Scrivener | 
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