Wedding Day 7km at Bushy Park

First staged as a celebration of the marriage of Charles and Diana, it outlived that royal relationship and, more than 30 years later, it is still going strong: one of the most fun, if a little bit quirky, races on my running calendar.

Organised by The Stragglers, the club I run for in Kingston, it sees hundreds of people take part, some in veils, tiaras and even full wedding dresses, whilst the male and female winners are referred to as brides and grooms and there are even prizes for the fastest couples.

After a cold event last year, Friday served up a balmy evening, perfect for running the second race of my Yorkshire marathon training schedule. And after the hard work was done, I spent a couple of hours eating, drinking and catching up with friends, many of whom I hadn't seen since moving down to the south coast last year. It was one of those occasions that reminded me quite how special the running community can be.

But there's another reason why the Wedding Day run is so close to my heart. It was at this race three years ago that I first plucked up the courage to ask my partner on a date.

Since then running has played a significant role in our relationship, bringing us together and allowing us to share something we both enjoy. I'm not naive enough to assume that running is the panacea to every potential partnership problem. It certainly doesn't work for everyone and it hasn't always worked for me. An ex boyfriend of mine was training for an Iron Man and I can firmly say there were three of us in that relationship.

But this time, it is entirely different. Though my boyfriend and I like running, it - in turn- helps us like each other more. Not only does running give each of us a respect for our bodies and our minds, for the physical and psychological hurdles that we overcome by training to be fitter and faster, but it gives each of us a real respect for each other.

Sometimes we run together, sometimes we cheer the other on from the sidelines if one of us is injured or unable to run. We've been doing that for three years now. Some of our running club friends who are couples have been doing that for 30 years.

We might sound like a pair of boring old things to outsiders, with our discussions of fartleks and intervals, race splits and threshold training, as we share our strange language of running. And we have got friends who simply don't understand how we would occasionally forsake leisurely lie-ins for early morning trips to races or, heaven forbid, take our running shoes on holiday with us!

On Friday, we were both there running the Wedding Day 7km and as I turned the corner and the end came into view, I saw my boyfriend waiting at the finish line, calling my name - having just finished and barely caught breath himself. It spurred me on to run a time that was over two minutes faster than last year.

My friends and family say they've never seen me happier.

I think we both feel the same way. We might not be running our personal best in terms of race times yet, but we have found our personal bests through this.

And when we both travel to York in October to take part in the Yorkshire marathon, even though he's likely to be some way ahead, I know for sure I'll be running it with my 'sole' mate. And, if he's still standing after 26.2 miles - I'm sure he will spur me on across that finish line once again.

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