I’m a big fan of the Marathon Talk podcasts. They kept me company on a couple of my long runs and I’ve picked up quite a bit of information from them. One thing I learnt from Tom Williams and Martin Yelling nattering in my ear is how to carb load. I had assumed, like many people, that stuffing my face with as much pasta as I could the night before was the best and only approach.

I like to think I can gorge myself with stodge as well as the next person and disproportinately well compared to my size – but my appetite for just one more slice of pizza and my small build are locked in a constant battle that I always seem to loose. I often find myself in baggy tousers clutching a hot water bottle to my swollen belly unable to move. And yet I never learn.

So when Tom and Martin said that this sort of binging maybe wasn’t the best approach, my ears pricked up. Instead they suggested adding carb-rich snacks throughout the days before the race. So with three days to go I type this having already eaten an Egg McMuffin and an almond croissant, and I’m currently grazing on Jaffa Cakes. With 1g of fat and 8.6g of carbohydrate per Jaffa Cake, they’ll be a staple of the next few days. And not a hot water bottle in sight.