When I'm out walking on the local footpaths, I am always aware when there is a runner coming up behind me (from the sound of their breathing or footsteps), and I move to the side of the path to let them pass. So why, when I am running, do walkers ahead of me never seem to be aware of my approach behind them?

On today's run I had to slow to a walk behind a pair of walkers on a narrow section of the footpath up to the Outwoods. But this is not an isolated incident; I am often to be found crashing through the nettles beside a path to overtake walkers who are positioned firmly in the middle of the path.

Interestingly, later on today's run, there was another runner coming towards me on the narrow path returning to the Outwoods from Buck Hill. Before I had a chance to move to the side of the path, she had taken two steps backward to where the path was slightly wider, to let me pass.

This run was my first use of Walshes for a training run in this mud-season. I was more than a minute faster than on the same route last Thursday, in similarly sodden ground conditions.