Many female runners think twice before heading out of the door for a run once the sun has gone down on safety grounds. Luckily attacks on runners aren’t all that common, but it’s down to each individual to decide where and when they feel safe running. If you do decide to run in the dark, whether you’re a man or a woman, there are a few more things to be concerned about than just the local crazies. The dark makes it hard to see where you’re putting your feet – so tree branches, loose paving stones and rubbish can easily trip you up. Or if you’re unlucky like me you’ll put your foot in a big pile of dog poo.

Yes, today’s run started with the exciting task of picking dog poo of the sole of my trainer with a stick. It was made worse by the realisation that my trainers had been in my bag for the last couple of days and the poo had grown a bit furry. Yuk, yuk, yuk. My notion of what is gross has changed a lot since I started running – weeing behind a bush, wiping my nose on my sleeve and (as you all know) wearing smelly kit are all things I’m fine with. But dog poo – that’s still minging.

Yesterday I swapped running for drinking shots. It wasn’t a wise decision for many reasons but we’ll say no more about that. Today I ran two miles and imagine how the dog poo discovery helped my hangover.