My number arrived for the Wimbledon 10K, number 54. It was very exciting, however on the reverse is a form to fill in with your medical details etc ‘in case of emergency’. Reassuring!

On Saturday I went out for a 5-mile run joined by me flatmate and nemesis. He has put in less training than me but has done a couple of biggish runs (a 5k and a 6k) on the treadmill at his gym.

This was worrying me in terms of the little competition we have going to see which of us will make it over the finish line first. It took me a long time to get up to a 5K distance even on the treadmill and if he was able to do this after a shorter period of time, might he beat me despite my more thorough training.

The flatmate asked if he could join me on my Saturday run and I was reluctant to say yes. I like the solitude of running and I was also a bit worried about not being able to go at my own pace if I ran with someone else. I agreed and Saturday morning we were lacing up out trainers and getting ready to head out.

The first mile went faster than I had wanted and my attempts to slow us down didn’t work. I started to get worried that the flatmate would hold out for the whole 5 miles and have enough in the tank to beat me back to the front door.

As we passed the 2.5 miles point I started to notice his breathing was getting a bit louder and thought I may still have a chance. The chit-chat between us became less but we were both still capable of talking.

As we approached three miles I explained where the route would take us and he asked how long we’d been going. A check of watch said 30 minutes of pounding the pavement had passed. Five minutes later he gave in and took a quick route back to the flat, walking most of the way.

I was elated that my training hadn’t been in vain but now it was just me and my thoughts. On all of my runs so far I’ve been aiming for 10 minutes per mile so I had 15 minutes to finish the route to keep on target. I ran hard and (kind of) fast all the way back. As I turned into my road I could see the blue T-shirt of my flatmate strolling up the drive and I passed him.

Hooray! Now that I know that I can beat him in the 10K a lot of the pressure is off and I can now relax into the race. The only competition I have now is myself… and that massive hill.