Now you know me, I don’t like to moan but........ well honestly, the weather is really becoming a bore. When it’s not snowing, it’s a bloody monsoon. Hardly ideal for the athletes among us who need to train. You’ll notice how I effortlessly included myself in that group. Honestly a couple of 5 mile runs and I think I’m going to be in the Olympics.

Seriously though, it is miserable at the moment and for those of you hitting the final few weeks of marathon training, or indeed any kind of race preparation, I thought I’d cheer us all up by talking about the nicest places we have ever run. For instance my running mate has just had a weekend in New York where, top effort, she went for a run in Central Park. It got me thinking about the nicest places I have ever trained and I have to say, running around Alderney a few years ago was one of the nicest runs I've ever done. It is simply a little island paradise. I did take my trainers with me to LA last year, but I didn’t dare venture out onto the streets, for fear of running into some young whippersnapper like Anne Hathaway or Kristen Stewart, (of Twilight fame, the young people tell me she is very now), who would have made me feel like Nanny McPhee, no no, on second thoughts, try Mrs Doubtfire...... So I spent my every morning running in the gym at the hotel. Sad but true.

I did also take my running gear to Crete last summer and went for one run first thing in the morning and promptly threw up. Nothing to do with the exercise and everything to do with a family tummy bug, I might add. I was also chased by two hounds. It didn’t go well and I didn’t venture out again. When my husband trained for the marathon a couple of years back, he went out one morning when it was so cold, he didn’t realise he’d rubbed most of one nipple off. Ahh happy, happy days. So any ideas gratefully received. It will make me feel slightly better about the fact that I didn’t go out today on account of the fact I might have drowned. However I will be venturing out tomorrow and indeed on Sunday, as I have just realised my 8-mile run, sorry 8.2 mile run, is only 5 weeks away. Oh dear.