Mental toughness: something I don't possess. Even if I was as fit as Mo Farah, I wouldn't be winning medals, because I just don't have the tenacity to ignore the pain and give everything to beat the other guys.

The organiser of the Peris Horseshoe / Half Peris didn't appear to have any wooden spoons to hand out at the prize giving last Saturday. Otherwise, he might have given me one for the slowest ever descent from Glyder Fawr to Pen-y-Pass in these races. OK, so I don't know that my time for this descent was an all-time record in the 30-year history of the race; but it was more than 5 minutes slower than anyone else on the day. There was nothing wrong physically: I was tired but not exhausted, and the twinges of cramp weren't severe enough to slow me down significantly. I hadn't even chosen a particularly bad route (although I am sure I could have done better in this aspect). It was simply that the constant mental effort of finding my way between crags and bogs, and having my running interrupted by lowering myself carefully down greasy rocks, seemed to have worn me down so that my mind was no longer in racing mode. I was still enjoying it, but in the way one enjoys a scenic, slow, long training run.

One year in the 1980's, one of the outdoor activity magazines sent a photographer to the Kinder Downfall race. The picture they published (which sadly I have lost), was not of the winner; it was a sprint finish further down the field. One of the runners, who has just moved ahead, has his face screwed up in determination and/or pain. The other one, finally defeated, has a big smile on his face. That second one was me. I've lost, but who cares? I'm still having fun!

All these musings came to me today during one of my very rare reps sessions, on a circuit round a rather rough field near my home. Now you may say that a bloke who goes out to do reps all on his own, with no other runners around to help with the motivation, is showing some mental toughness. Not really. The first two reps, completed in 2m04s, were somewhat painful. The remaining six were all between 2m07s and 2m10s. I didn't consciously decide to ease off the pace after the second one; it was an automatic, subconscious adjustment to keep the pain down.