First ever 5K

I ran my first ever 5K race tonight, along the river in Exeter. Bizarrely, David James - the goalkeeper - came to watch. I think his wife was running or something. All the kids from the skate park were circling around him and calling each other over.

I started off the race at a bit of a charge, but before I knew it we were 3km in and I just had to hang on for another 2km - I love the way kilometres skip by compared to miles. I finished in 8th place but don't know my time yet. One runner was telling me the story of the day he was racing against a top athlete in a cross country race and the guy turned to him on the start line and said: "I can see you're a real runner, you don't wear a watch. You run on instinct." That made me feel better, as I never wear a watch. I think I would get too fixated on the times and lose the joy of just letting myself run as fast as I can. Though it may stop me going off too quickly in races.

Halfway around tonight's canter I almost fell in the river laughing. I was about ten metres behind a group of four athletes when one of them started farting uncontrollably. None of them said anything, they all just kept running, staring ahead as though nothing was happening. I'm sure the distraction added a few seconds to my time.