Everyone knows one: those annoying people that turn up to the start of a race having done almost no preparation over and above pinning their race number to their shirt and then turning out a pretty good time. So it got me thinking, why can’t I be one of those annoying people?

Obviously training would be my Plan A for preparing for any race. But with just six days until my half marathon in Bangkok, I haven’t run in two weeks as the weather and a running injury have conspired against me. I say ‘running injury’ because I was running but in truth it wasn’t training but running away from thieves barefoot in the middle of the night in Vietnam.

Safely back in Thailand I’ve been practicing an alternative type of preparation for my race. This has consisted mainly of cycling, yoga, walking a lot and getting almost daily massages. Just in case all that doesn’t work, today I visited a temple on top of a mountain where a Buddhist monk blessed me, tied some holy cotton round my wrist and promised me ‘success in all that you do’. So I’ve totally got this half marathon in the bag!