I am a better runner than Usain Bolt. There, the truth is out. I have to admit that it was the most incongruous sporting partnership since the stiletto-clad former Supreme Diana Ross scuffed her penalty at the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony. But there I was, in a Toronto hotel, with assorted athletics legends. Foremost among them was Bolt, Jamaica’s triple gold medallist from the Beijing Olympics, about to receive his Laureus world sportsman of the year trinket. Handing it over were Michael Johnson, a sprinting icon, and Edwin Moses, a man who once went 122 races in the 400 metres hurdles without defeat.

By contrast I am still overweight and overwrought. The Poole 10k never happened for me last Sunday — I succumbed to another dodgy calf strain — and I am starting from scratch as I target the Florence Marathon in November. Martin Yelling, the coaching guru who is helping me, has worked out a new plan that involves a two-minute run and a two-minute walk, repeated five times, framed by 15 minutes walking. Given my apathetic return to square one, I was encouraged to find out that I was a better runner than Johnson, Moses and, indeed, Bolt.

First up, I ventured towards Johnson, a man with a baritone voice that sounds like Darth Vader on lozenges. “Michael, what is the farthest you’ve ever run?” I thought back to my pitiful shuffles along the Bournemouth promenade, larding the lean like a faulty Falstaff, and prepared to be humiliated. Then he said: “Two miles.”

“Two miles?” I repeated, dumbstruck.

“Yeah, maybe?” Maybe? One of the greatest athletes of all time had never run more than two miles. I asked him if he had never wanted to do a 10km or a fun run. He looked incredulous. “Er, why would I want to do that?” So I am a better long-distance runner than Michael Johnson. This is a comforting thought.

Moses was more of a problem, pointing out that he ran 27,000 miles in long-distance training when competing. But the longest run? “Four to six miles,” he said. Once again, I had trumped a history maker.

And so to Bolt. “I don’t like hard work,” he said. Amen to that. “Really, I’m not a fan of it.” Indeed, in a curious attempt at defending his protégé’s lifestyle, his manager, Norman Peart, pointed out that Bolt partied only between 2am and 5am. Bolt obviously does train hard, but you get the impression that he is one of us. He hates pain. The farthest he has ever run? “Six hundred metres,” he said. The best runner in the world has never even gone a kilometre? “Oh, no,” he corrected. “I did do 800 metres once in my track shoes.” Honestly, it’s pitiful.

Any secrets? Well, he does train five times a week on the track and three times a week in the gym. He runs 180 metres repeatedly in under 18 seconds. Bolt’s mantra for successful running: “Enjoy yourself. Relax. Work hard when you have to.” Of course, for these men, life is a sprint, not a marathon. But when times are hard, and your motivation is waning, take solace in the fact that you can run a mile faster than the fastest man on the planet.

This week’s marathon tally: Three legends, one withdrawal, six miles, 162 days to the Florence Marathon

Times recommends

• What took place in 2010...
• Can you really cure a hangover?
• Video: How to do glamorous smoky eyes