The back and the recipes are pretty much all I read because talk of 'rock-hard abs' and 'Swiss extensions' frightens me. I am, however, assured the former is A Good Thing and the latter does not require planning permission.

Yes, after running through snow, hail, gale force wind and 57 varieties of rain it all comes down to Sunday at 9am, when I and 1,800 others get underway in the Wright Hassall Regency Run.

So, what would be a decent result? Well, the elite guy who comes home first will probably regard anything under 35 minutes as a job well done.

For the 70-year-old woman running for the cancer charity which cared for her son, every step is a triumph. And then there's the rest of us.

Many, like me, will have some sort of time they would like to do. That's pretty much unavoidable if you have trained regularly, even if the idea of competition with actual other people, as opposed to a clock, does not appeal.

There is, of course, absolutely no way I will make my own personal mark public, until I claim to be well satisfied with whatever I ran next week, but suffice to say Gebrselassie will not lose any sleep.

At the same time, it does occur to me that three months ago, when I first crunched through the icy puddles, got lost and spent the next three days penguining around the house smoking, I would have said that just finishing the thing was unlikely.

And had I not dragged myself out I wouldn't have met the spring lambs (Arthur, Martha and the Back-combed Disaster).

I wouldn't have seen a buzzard, a mole or a radio-controlled helicopter - or got on nodding terms with the community of runners with routes near to where I live.

And I wouldn't have found the peace and quiet to plan numerous things for later in the year.

I also would not have attended Potato Day at Ryton Organic Gardens, having run past the sign for a month.

I would not breathe as well - there's a fundamental. I would be fatter, more tired, more stressed.

To everyone who has helped get me in some sort of shape a big thank you. And to everyone running on Sunday good luck.