Tonight the second Seaford Striders Couch to 5k completed the programme, the ninth week, with 30 minutes of non-stop running. It was a chilly night, and my group, who self-identify as medium, set a cracking pace. We finished back at the Downs Leisure Centre, high on endorphins and achievement. On Saturday we go en masse to Peacehaven parkrun. 

I’m not sure how I ended up coaching them. I have no great stores of running wisdom to offer. My approach is similar to that of Ledru-Rollin, the French politician, who was supposed to have said, when running down a street at the rear of a crowd in the 1848 revolution, ‘Eh! je suis leur chef, il fallait bien les suivre!’, which, being interpreted means ‘I am their leader, I must follow them’. 

I may not be a very able or experienced coach, but I had able help from many other Striders, some who helped lead groups every week, some who  dipped in when they could. But the group coached themselves, to a great extent. I am so impressed with them; they came, week after week, in considerable numbers. They were tolerant of the baffling, eccentric and, very occasionally, hilly routes I sent them on, and always cheerful. I am reminded of the story of a report on a British army officer, which said ‘his men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity.’ 

It’s an anniversary today too, the anniversary of my 2003 Westlain Plantation run, a short run, but my first for many years. I’d last run when my son was a baby, a 10k in Crouch End thirteen years before. I’ve told the story of this return across foggy, muddy November fields many times, but I don’t think I ever confessed to the garments I thought appropriate for this first excursion, to wit:

• a t-shirt given away at a conference I’d been too, advertising a database provider, Ovid, with a quotation from the poet of antiquity
• a pair of rugby shorts I had worn at school
• shoes: I think I had a pair of shoes I’d bought for treadmill running in a gym – one day I’ll tell all about my Westminster gym years

And here I am, thirteen years after that, with marathons and all manner of other races under my belt, trying to encourage others to run. It’s a rum do.