I knew that the safety record for road races in the US was poor, but it was not until I experienced one staged on a busy freeway that really understood the danger to life and limb.

Such was the status of the car in North America that runners were forced to share the main carriageway with the everyday traffic. Should there be an accident – as was the case when TPR and I witnessed a saloon car collide with, and squash, a man in a white vest and shorts – the driver had no obligation to stop.

The accepted risk to runners on race days was simply astonishing, as was the inhumanity of the American driver.