Good advice part 2

As I began my run today I bumped into a neighbour taking her children to school. Knowing that she is training for a half marathon in 2 1/2 weeks I walked with her for a while to chat about progress and training programmes. She is suffering from a problem that I had a couple of years back - plantar fascitis - in other words really, really bad pain in the heel caused by inflammation of the plantar fascia. Mine was caused by wearing the wrong trainers despite buying them from 'Run and Become' in St James Park. Obviously buying trainers from a renowned running shop is no insurance against bad advice. I limped through this injury and eventually bought myself a pair of trainers for £40 without any 'professional' advice, spent a fortune on acupuncture and osteopathy, got through the injury and started running again.

And then this got me to thinking of the first run I ever did which was another exercise in 'how the bloody hell do these people get to think they are experts'?

It was the local YMCA some years ago. Every year they put on a children's fun run and 10k race. I got to talking to the organiser (for this particular year) and told her that I could not believe that I would ever be able to run 10 yards let alone 10k. She told me that there were training sessions planned for beginners and it would be a great way for me to start running. Believing myself in the hands of an 'expert' I went along.

Yes, you guessed it, the first session took me on a 6 mile run. The friend I signed up with ended up in tears with the fascist trainer (Michelle you know who you are) shouting at her to get moving up the hillside of Ally Pally (which, by the way, I still find hard to run up).

The next day we could barely move. Being helpers at the school trip to the Science Museum meant that we had to (which was probably a good thing) but it was a full 4 days before I felt human again. Needless to say I didn't make the 10k that year. The knee injury that I sustained through that first training session made sure of that.

I am a sensible person. I always take advice. But, how can I be really and truly sure that the people I am taking advice from really know what they are talking about? Can anyone set themselves up as 'experts' in this field without much training? Or is this just me being cynical?