Forget sweaty summer afternoons or balmy mornings, for me the perfect conditions for running and those winters days like today when the sun is shining but there’s still a little chill in the air. Not for me “T-shirt weather”, give me “two T-shirts and tights” weather.

What days like today have over warm summer evenings is the unexpected nature of them. Many of us have trudged through miles of snow and ice over the past few weeks. It hasn’t always been easy or appealing, but we’ve stuck with it and now we’ve been rewarded. The winter has given us a jem of a day.

This morning, I didn’t wrestle with my mind about when and how far my run should be – I couldn’t wait to get out there and run as far as my little legs could take me. In the summer we take these days for granted, in the spring and autumn we wait eagerly for them. But in the winter, after eights weeks of cloudy skies and arctic winds days like today are like the best of presents – unexpected. The only downside is that they bring so many people out of their houses to enjoy them that I ran twice as far just trying to dodge dogs, pushchairs and children of scooters.

Eight miles under blue skies in 1 hour 10 mins.