There’s one sentence that winds me up more than anything else when it comes to running: “I haven’t really trained.” It’s heard a lot around the start and finish line of races and, and in the days either side of a race, and it needs stamping out.

What you’re saying to me when you say “I haven’t really trained” is “If you beat me it’s only because I haven’t trained” or “I’d be much faster if I’d actually done some training”. When you see me bite my lip and turn away, what I want to say to you is this: “There’s no honour in not training”.

Training is as much a part of a race as the miles between the start and finish lines. Running 26.2 miles on marathon morning is, in comparison to training, the easy part. running a marathon is hard, but having your friends and family, along with thousands of strangers, cheering you on as you make your way round a course is nothing when compared with 18 lonely miles in training with nothing but the road for company.

I also don’t see the point in taking part in a race if you haven’t trained for it – it’s like paying £20 to do a training run. But if you have money to burn and the only way you like to run is with legions of supporters then that’s up to you.

People that say “I haven’t really trained for this” generally have done some training – just not as much as they should have. You get out of running what you put in and the time you get in a race is (injury and freak weather aside) generally the time you deserve.

I don’t care if I cross the finish line before you, or you before me. I care only that I put in a time that I’m proud of and that I know was deserved. So if you want to take part in a race but you don’t want to put in the work in training, that’s you choice. But don’t try to tell me that you PB comes with some sort of caveat, because it doesn’t.