People are always smaller when you meet them in real life than you image from seeing them on the telly. Maybe it’s because his running achievements are so massive but I wasn’t expecting Haile Gebrselassie to be the same height as me. Turns out I can’t use the excuse of only having little legs as an for not running faster.

I was in St James’ Park on a Sunday lunchtime with 20 other runners to go for a run with Haile. Adidas had invited us down for the run and had asked that we wear Adidas kit. For me this meant the very orange, very short orange shorts got an outing. Haile on the other hand was wearing two pairs of running tights “The ones underneath are very warm” he said.

We’re the same size – would it be out of order to ask him to lend me his spare pair? I didn’t ask.

Haile loves running and was more than happy to chat with us about it. As we ran around he answered our questions. Will Mo Farah win London? “Why not?” What else do you do other than running? “I cycle in the gym.” And my question: Is there a marathon you haven’t done that you’d like to do? “I’d like to do Boston.”

After our five miles he led us in some stretching which he said is important. “You know when a cat gets up he stretches like this. Why does he do that? Because it makes him faster for catching the mice.” And he spoke to us about why running is important.

“Running is everything. It’s the best medicine. It makes you fit in your mind and helps you with stress. When you get back from your run you have a shower, but you’ve already had a shower in here