“Would you like to take part in a 6km race for charity?” It was an innocent enough question that the woman outside the Tate Modern asked me this lunchtime but one that demanded a more complex answer than simply yes or no.

She’d already foiled my plan to avoiding her talking to me by pretending to be asleep. Since it’s been very sunny, my scabby foot is preventing me from running at lunchtime and I’ve been hungover, I’ve spend the last couple of lunchtimes laying on the grass outside the Tate. This is the great thing about sunshine – on a grey miserable day people would think there was something wrong with you if you were to lay down in public. For the past two days, however, the weather has given me the perfect situation in which to sleep off my hangover in my lunch hour.

Charity woman saw me open my eyes and sit up to check the time on my phone, though, and she pounced: “Would you like to take part in a 6km race for charity?” My answer was no, but it came with too many caveats that needed explaining because I didn’t want her to think I was unfit and uncaring.

No – because although I am interested in running and in races, I’m like Naomi Campbell – I don’t get out of bed for less than 10K. Besides, just last week I wrote a blog post extolling the virtues of smaller, locally organised races and it would be a shame to be shown to be a hypocrite quite so soon after.

No – because last year I ran a marathon and raised £800 for charity. This should act as a ‘get out of fundraising free card’ for at least a couple of years. And besides, I don’t think my friends and family would donate much if I were to ask them for sponsorship for a fraction of the distance.

No – because my charitable donations/acts and my running are two seperate parts of my life. I give to charities regularly, I sponsor friends and family to run but I don’t need a reason to keep running. I run because it’s a fundamental part of my life now and being sponsored to do it would be like getting sponsored to eat a takeaway curry.

No – does Paula Radcliffe get sponsored to run the London Marathon? OK, we’re both going at considerably different speeds but neither of us needs a bigger reason to run than the act of running itself, to improve our times and see what we’re capable of.

But did I say this? No, I said “possibly” and I gave her my email address.