SO HERE I am. It’s just two weeks until the Paris Marathon and less than a month until London.

I have done all I can training-wise, now it’s just a matter of tapering down and that means six miles next weekend and in between just short runs and sprints to help build stamina.

My last long run on Saturday, however, nearly ended in tears and injury after I was forced off the road by a lady in a people carrier on Three Maids Hill who seemed to think mowing down a human being was the lesser evil compared to slowing down and dropping behind the car in the other lane!

Actually I know I’ve whinged a lot about how careless - and often just plain reckless - many drivers are when passing runners on roads without pavement, but it is a very real danger.

Long runs give me plenty of time for deep thought and after my near miss on Saturday I came up with a brilliant idea that I think should be adopted by the Government without further ado. All learners/new drivers should be made to sit a simulator test so they can experience what it is like to be passed at 70/80mph by a speeding vehicle - how vulnerable being on two legs or two wheels can feel when a car cuts you up or a gargantuan lorry draws up alongside. Experience is, after all one of the greatest teachers.

That said, another salutary reminder would be a quick click onto You Tube to see that poor motorist who was clipped by a tanker lorry on a UK motorway, only to be pinned to its bumper and driven sideways at 60mph for more than a mile by the oblivious driver!

If that doesn’t make people drive with a little more awareness of what’s around them, I don’t know what will!