When I was a kid my school held an annual cross-country race. That was my opportunity to mess about at the back and have a good laugh with my mates. In the fifth year, just before I was to leave for the world of work, I decided to actually run the race as hard as I could, to see how fast I was….I finished 6th – no I didn’t win, this is a real life story.

On the strength of this performance I was picked to run for Campion School  in an inter-county tournament held at the track in  Leamington Spa. I was in the mile and finished second from last. I only avoided complete humiliation because my friend was even slower than me.  I couldn’t believe how far in front the other kids were, I had never seen anyone run as fast as them.

Tonight I will be running to the same track where I performed so dismally 38 years ago, and I will watch a new generation of kids training really hard. That’s what the difference was all those years ago, I was beaten by people who had trained for the race and therefore deserved to win.

I now coach a group of adults and it is very satisfying to see the improvement each runner makes over a season. It’s almost a mathematical formula: Hard Training = Fast Running. The only proviso is to avoid injury. Like most things in life, what you get out of it is proportionate to what you put in. Work hard and you will get your reward.

John McNally