It was funny watching the Magic News Team come into work at about 2mph - and that's metres per hour. Maddy with her bad thighs, Joel with his Achilles problems and Caro with just about every problem there is. I had visions of thousands of others heading into work the same.

The photos all went on Facebook later in the week and they all looked brilliant at the finish.

I think it may have been then hospitality tent that had made them look so good at the end, but the reality hit them unril Monday. Well you may say, 'where were you and why didn't you run?' For me it's very sad that I've only had the chance to do half of it ever. And that wasn't because I dropped out! I was always on the radio or working at the beginning or end.

The first year I came to the North East I was asked if I would particpate in the Great North Run and interview people along the way. But I would have to be on the radio for the lunchtime request programme. Therefore, after learning very quickly that it helps to breathe when you are running and talking to people after asking Sir Jimmy Saville a barrage of questions and nearly keeling over, I got to the half-way line and had to get a motorbike ride back to the studios.

I'd like to think with the handicap of talking to people excessively en route and carrying a radio backpack the size of an army backpack, I effectively did expend the energy to have completed the entire run. In subsequent years I was at the start line at 7am and would do all the Oggy Oggy Oggying and calling out the names of all the charities from the bridge above the Central Motorway. Then I'd be running round at the end doing live broadcasts and interviews at the finish at the South Shields Metro from 11am until 5am. I think I've done as much as the runners. You probably don't agree.

On another note - what on earth is happening to the world's banking system? What a complete mess! And it's now hitting home with our councils having used the Icelandic Banking's great interest offers. Now, I don't know what you think, but it would appear that a lot of financial advisors had discovered the enticing rates and had suggested to a lot of people that it would be a good idea to put their money there. I have to say that once one of the mainstays of the bank was involved in buying West Ham United well, I'd have pulled by money immediately! What happens to bubbles?

I hope you had the chance to hear Brendan O'Carroll on the show on Tuesday. He is the man behind the Mrs Brown series of comedy plays. I had him on the show last year and found him, with his IQ of something like 146, totally fascinating. He's a tiny person and that's not anything to do with his Irish background, but when he appears on stage he is huge as his character Mrs Brown. He told me that when he was asked to record some adverts for the radio in Ireland the equivalent of the BBC there, RTE, have to allow free advertising for the arts. So at the end of each of the ads they say "RTE supporting the Arts" So each time he recorded for them, he ended with those words, although the last word was not quite spelt the same as I have spelt it.

Have a good week.