Despite a full eight hours sleep I still wasn’t any more positive about the race today than I was last night, and I still couldn’t put my finger on why I was feeling this way. I’d trained well, I had all my gear ready, a phone full of morale-boosting songs, and I even arranged to have a decent healthy breakfast.

I don’t know what would have happened if I would have been able to gain a refund (these race events almost never offer a refund, they simply move your entry to another race), but they don’t, so I did the race and despite not being at all happy with how I ran I managed to knock another nine seconds off my best time – finishing in 55:38.

After picking up my medal, and robbing about half a dozen bananas, I made my way to Hackney Marshes to watch the last 35-40 minutes of Bow Badgers’ match against Wenlock Arms. I approached the Wenlock Arms sideline people and optimistically asked what the score was, when they told me it was 5-0 I said “I don’t supposed that is to Bow Badgers, is it?”

They shipped another two goals to lose 7-0 and then we went to the pub where I had two pints of bitter while we talked about what was happening to us as a team. Two games played, ten goals shipped and none scored. Not a disaster, but it is definitely a cause for concern.

And I still can’t believe Millwall won yesterday!!