As the running community as well as the primary care medical community become more sophisticated in their knowledge of and treatment of repetitive stress injuries, only the more difficult problems will arrive at the orthopedist's office. As a result, injuries such as stress fracture will constitute a larger percentage of running and other repetitive stress injuries. The universal occurrence of stress fracture and its possible at-risk nature for serious injury if undertreated underscores the need to observe good treatment principles. With these principles in mind, the physician can usually treat stress fracture without major interruption of the recreational or competitive athlete's sport style.