Jan 31 2007 Run Front Page

Front Page on rooneygate; training run

Getting cold feet in my old age. We'd worked incredibly hard to set up a front page exclusive with Patricia Tierney, the Liverpool grandmother at the centre of the Wayne Rooney prostituion allegations.

Patricia's effort to sue The Sun collapsed around her ears when the paper produced evidence that validated their claims that she was a working prostitute.

She was distraught - and in an effort to clear her name she gave a full and exclusive interview to The Echo, claiming she'd never slept with Rooney and asking the footballer to support her statement.

It was a fantastic interview and the nationals never got near it. Obviously it was our front page last night and two pages inside to boot.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_method=full%26objectid=18550808%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

The headline had me worried for some reason. we wrote it early - I DIDN'T SLEEP WITH ROONEY'. I liked it better than 'I DIDN'T HAVE SEX WITH WAYNE' or something like that, but I still felt it was a bit seedy for page one of a family newspaper.

In editorial conference I was roundly shouted down so we went with it. 'Sleeping' with someone has become an accepted metaphor for sex I suppose.

What do you think? Where should the Echo draw the line. Let me know.

Tough training session for the Liverpool half marathon last night. My trainer Jane had asked me to run for 45 minutes, and after every every ten minutes sprint for a minute. Agony - and my sprints were hardly worthy of the name. All good in the long term I suppose.

Hoylake Prom bustling with joggers despite a chill wind last night. Lots of 20-something women skipping lithely past me.

Question: If I stare fixedly at their rears as they jog gradually out of sight am I:

a. Simply in the zone and taking the boredom out of jogging?

or

b. A colossal pervert who should be on some kind of register?

Answers please.