I’ve been in Sydney for three days now and my trainers are still firmly lodged in the bottom of my rucksack. That’s despite the best efforts of the place I’m staying in displaying several 4k routes round Sydney Harbour ideal for running on their wall.

Today, however, I followed in the footsteps of a running legend. My sister had kindly booked me onto a climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It’s a three hour trek up the ‘largest single arch span bridge in the world’ on a very hot day. Good job I was packing my marathon running legs.

In reception they have photos of various celebs who have climbed the bridge including Kylie, Nicole Kidnan, Matt Damon and Prince Harry. Then Olympians Torvell and Dean. But the one I was most impressed with was running legend ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springstein. OK he may not have won a marathon but he did author the greatest running song ever.

So the climb was pretty awesome. It’s really high, you can see almost all the way back to the UK (it looks quite rainy – sorry about that) and I can now add Sydney Harbour Bridge to the list of things that, when they come on telly, I can say ‘I’ve stood on that’.

To bring it back to running, being a badass marathoner gave me two advantages over my fellow climber. First the obvious: I was fit enough to climb it and look around rather than worrying about having a heart attack. Second: I have a lot of experience having to wear nerdy outfits while sweating and then having someone take my photo so the jumpsuits you have to wear were no problem for me.