There’s something going on with my bottom half. Having been taunted with the jibe ‘sparrow legs’ for my of my school life, I’ve come to accept that my legs have an uncanny resemblance to two matchsticks and that I’ll never find a nice pair of knee-high boots that don’t look like I’m wearing wellies.

For the past few weeks I’ve noticed that the skin on my shins has been very dry – add that to the matchstick-like shape and milk bottle skin tone of my pins and you’ve got every excuse you need to never wear a skirt again. Layering on the moisturiser just wouldn’t do the trick, my shins were like a rhio’s arse.

This week, however, they are flaky no more – they’re shiny, smooth and… shock horror… I’ve got muscles! It seems the dry skin was a result if the skin being stretched as my newly-formed muscles grew with a speed matched only by the Incredible Hulk.

I’m still on the matchstick end of the chart when it comes to leg-thickness, but these’s been a definate and measurable amount of muscle growth, and I feel a bit weird about it. I’ve come to appreciate my sparrow-legs in spite of all the mocking and I feel a little bit as though I’m doing them an injustice and caving in to some sort of social norm.

The truth is that starting running was only ever about improving my health and wellbeing, I didn’t have any desire to change my bodyshape. It’s not a perfect bodyshape, but I’m quite happy with it. However, if the changes I’m noticing on the inside are being mirrored by changes on the inside – by my heart and lungs etc – then I can live with looking a little less like a sparrow and a little more like the Hulk.