'HERE comes the next Tracey Morris," joked a neighbour as I pounded the lanes round our way one evening this week. I wish.

As someone who came in a pathetic second last in a ten mile run this time last year, closely, and rather humiliatingly, followed by the official race ambulance, I am as far behind Britain's latest champion marathon runner as a proverbial chicken dressed in a deep sea diving suit.

But still, just the thought of the 36-year-old Leeds-based optician's triumph has helped me push myself that little bit further this week. This truly amazing novice, who has only run one other marathon in her life, is an inspiration to all of us, and not just because of her athletic talent.

She started training just four months ago, preparing for her incredible 2hrs 34mins London Marathon finish by getting up at 5.30am to run every day before work. As a result, she knocked an hour off her previous time.

Morris didn't have a band of professional coaches, support staff or expensive training equipment. She doesn't have a huge salary or the sort of sponsorship deals enjoyed by so many other world-class athletes.

With little more than a pair of trainers and an iron will, she simply put her head down and quietly ran all the way from the footpaths of Leeds straight into the Olympic squad.

Her only ambition on Sunday, she said, exuding the sort of quiet, unassuming modesty we rarely come across among top sports stars today, was to get to the finishing line without making a fool of herself.

Morris is more than just an inspiration to enthusiastic plodders like myself. She puts those pampered, overpaid Premiership footballers who won't get out of bed for less than £100,000 a week to shame.

ACTOR Kevin Spacey says he feels the biggest fool who ever lived because he believed a youth who gave him a sob story about needing to call his mother in order to snatch his mobile phone and run off with it. Having been the victim of yet another burglary from our outbuildings, I feel pretty foolish at the moment too. We partly blame ourselves for not being security conscious enough. And, like Spacey, we feel the burglars have made idiots of us. The worst bit is that now we are more mistrustful and suspicious of others. I hope this will pass. Because I prefer to think most people are basically good and trustworthy. I don't want to constantly question everyone's motives. But this is how a burglary affects you. Sadly, as Spacey's story illustrates, when someone approaches us apparently in trouble, we now risk being considered fools if we offer help. Yet all Spacey did was show he is a decent human being.

I HAVE always thought many of our more glamorous celebrities dress as if they live on another planet. Even in the depths of winter, while the rest of us are shivering in our thick woollies, they are pictured stepping out in backless, shoulderless, micro mini dresses with bare legs, looking as if they are bathed in constant, tropical sunshine. It is almost as if the glow of fame alone is enough to keep them warm. So it was refreshing to see so many stars sopping wet in their designer dresses at this week's rain-drenched Baftas. It appears they're just like the rest of us after all.