I hope YOU stayed in bed

I'm just back from what I thought would be a nice, easy-paced 10k trot around the Leeds suburb of Guiseley.

But instead it turned out to be an hour of literally running through mud, up hills, through trees, over bridges, up some more hills, through some more mud - you get the idea.

And why?

For a "free" bottle of beer (notwithstanding the £9 entry fee), specially brewed and named after the event itself, the Guiseley Gallop.

But never, ever again (probably).

However, whilst my lame effort brought shame and embarrassment on my hometown of Coleraine and everyone who lives there, my old friend Paul "Merv" Gaile did exactly the opposite.

Also fortunate enough to hail from the banks of the Bann, Paul is known in the trade as a "proper" runner and proved it once again with a terrific eighth place and a finish time more than 20 minutes quicker than mine.

Speaking to him after the race, he said he was off to devour an entire Easter egg following a month off chocolate. But unlike me, he'll certainly have earned it.

PS Do you know what the really bad thing about this morning's run was? I could not get "Beautiful" by James ****ing Blunt out of my head. I don't know how it gone in there in the first place - I've told it before that it's definitely not welcome - but it managed to slip through security and then refused to leave. In fact, writing this has just allowed it to break back in. There nothing else for it, I'm off to call the police. Oh, and Happy Easter.