These were the tactics that I used to beat Graham:

• Brutal consistency – wherever I was, whatever the time, and no matter how much audit work I had done, I ran. However, I did discover that I develop a rain allergy while I ran. Brutal consistency became a quiet cowardice.
• Nike New Balance Trainers – I like the big “N”.
• Graham’s two knee injuries – perhaps the most successful tactic. I claim full credit.
• Counting - the mad rush to catch the bus/train/DLR/audit work papers was counted as a mile run. This made up 99% of the distance covered.

The highlight
Running through Bath on a cool spring evening after a hard day of audit. Admiring how the historic houses looked so much better than my purple apartment. Eating the room service that awaited at the hotel.

The lows
Running up the hill in Greenwich park. I stopped 4 times on my first attempt. 4 minutes of hell that only ended when I reached the canine waste bin. My fastest time was when it rained really hard. Apparently, Lord Sebastian Coe used to use the same hill for training. It was no consolation.

But the running challenge was a pyrrhic victory as the graphs were produced using Graham’s superior Excel skills. I tried to recreate the graphs myself and gave up after two hours. I missed a planned session because of it. This morning, I came up with the genius idea of using Graham’s perfectly good graph and just apply the cosmetic changes myself, which was to change the cell colours from white to transparent.

And what of the £50 prize money? I decided it was unfair to accept this after (causing) Graham’s knee injuries.