Say what you like about the state of London transport, at least it’s doing its best at keeping me fit. The more consistently unreliable the Victoria line, the more training I get for my twice-weekly evening 100 yard dash from the tube to the overground platform at Vauxhall. If you ever happen to be waiting for a train there just before 7, and spot a tall red-faced chap sprint up the last set of stairs, wheezing, and looking annoyed as he finds out that the train is actually delayed and he didn’t need to run after all, then that’s probably me.

If anyone’s ever thinking about livening up the olympics a bit, they could do worse than changing the events into something a bit more realistic (well, it’s probably the second thing you’d do, after just letting them take all the drugs they want to, and seeing what happens).

Yeah, sure, it’s pretty impressive that all those guys can run 100M in less than 10 seconds on a nice clear running track, but what about making it a bit closer to the real world? The hurdles is a step in the right direction, but they don’t go nearly far enough. It’d be much more interesting if they had to sprint up the escalator first (on the left, of course) taking the stairs two at a time, then dodge past the crowds fumbling for their tickets, run along the subway tunnel (on the wrong side, if necessary), apologise to the homeless people, sprint up the stairs to the outside world, dodge more people looking for their tickets, run past the kiosk without stopping to buy anything, and finally up onto the platform. Of course they would have to build wierd new stadia to house these courses. I imagine something a bit like Gladiators, but without Ulrika and Fash, obviously. Then again, they could just give London the 2012 games and have it in the actual tube stations; it’d certainly save on the cost of hosting the games and provide an excuse for our shoddy transport infrastructure at the same time.