Yeah, my pollen allergies manifest as sore throats. They're generally fairly mild, but note that for me colds almost always start as a mild sore throat that gradually gets worse over the course of the day, and you gradually get more and more suspicious of it until eventually you're confident that you are in fact sick.

It does seem to be a less common allergy manifestation: mostly when you hear people talk about allergic responses to pollen it's in the nose or eyes. I guess having it in the throat is better than those alternatives overall: I'm still perfectly functional, I don't (mask notwithstanding) falsely appear contagious. Really, while the pain is a little annoying in its own right, the main problem is the psychological aspect of never being quite sure that I'm not sick: yeah, these days the vast majority of sore throats I get are false positives, but not *all* of them are.