Setting the alarm to go off on a Sunday morning for earlier than it does on a weekday is something I don’t do very often. If the little hand is pointing to a number that doesn’t have a one in front of it when I open my eyes on a Sunday, there had better be something pretty spectacular going on.

Yesterday was the Berlin marathon. The men’s and women’s world record holders were both in town and needed to qualify for their respective national teams for London 2012. Berlin is a fast flat course. Something spectacular was on the cards.

Unfortunately German efficiency let us down on the coverage front. Most of the men’s race was viewed from the helicopter camera which made it feel we were watching ‘Cops with Cameras’ and a few glipses of the women’s race were all we caught before the finish.

But what a race, the men’s race was. World record holder Haile Gabrselassie pulled out, started again then pulled out again. Patrick Makau sets a new men’s world record. Paula holds on to grab third place and a spot at London 2012. It had it all, if only we’d been able to see more of it.

Inspired, I headed out for a 12 mile run. Somehow it wasn’t even 11 o’clock yet but I’d already watched a whole marathon. My legs seem to have forgotten about their own marathon two weeks ago and were charging off as though a new world record were in their grasp too. It seems they’re yet to catch on that we have a half marathon in two weeks time and a PB to smash.

One thought kept going through my mind the whole way ‘Don’t leave your race out on a training run’. So unable to stop my legs from running fast, I forced them to walk twice. Let’s hope they don’t hold this against me at the Great Eastern Run.