Last night’s Olympics-inspired take-no-prisoners attitude to trainin lasted until, um, this morning when we were woken by the swish of cars through puddles as the rain fell steadily. Then I remembered that the Olympic women’s marathon had been run in a downpour and none of them had melted (although a few didn’t took too impressed at the wet sponges that we’re being proferred at them by the stewards).

Of course the one thing missing from the marathon was Paula Radcliffe. I was sent a rather lovely infographic (that I don’t fully understand) that maps out her world record-setting London Marathon run in 2003.

“This fabulous work represents an aerial view of the Marathon’s route and plots Radcliffe’s progression through London. The crosshair signifies the starting point of the race. Each kilometre is shown as a concentric circle in gold, growing in width the further along the route that point is. The silver markings represent the increase and decrease in Paula’s speed throughout each 5-mile split, whilst the gloss layer showcases the official 5-mile split times.”

My run was nothing like that and I did 8.5miles disturbed only by a thunderous tummy rumble of hunger at 3 miles. And it didn’t even rain that much in the end.