Our focus on speedy female solicitors has certainly had legs, dare we say. But it seems unlikely that, when it comes to marathon running, anyone in the profession will better former British record-holder Veronique Marot (unless Paula Radcliffe decides she wants more long hours of tedious, mind-numbing training and so heads for the LPC and a training contract – arf arf!!).

Respect is due, however, to Rachel Joyce of City firm Taylor Wessing. A member of the GB long course performance squad, she has just qualified for the World Half Ironman in Florida, which will take place later this year.

And now the chaps want to have their say. David Hardstaff, an associate at Nottingham firm Ashton Bond Gigg, lays down the gauntlet with his performance in the 1982 London marathon ‘when I was a much sprightlier 31 year-old’. ‘From memory, my official time was 2hrs 26mins 3secs – although it took 20 seconds to cross the start line in the elitish crowd and in the old days all times were recorded from when the gun went. My finishing position was 103rd.’

But enough of marathons already. Toby Gibson, a partner at Newcastle-based Gibson & Co – a firm that has previously featured in Obiter for the record number of generations of Gibsons who have passed through its doors – successfully completed the Caledonian Challenge, a gruelling 54-mile course over the west Highlands. We’re told he ran much of it, from Fort William down to Loch Lomond.

Gibson and his three team-mates somehow managed this in just 13 hours and 49 minutes, coming second only to the Black Watch army team, which is hardly shameful. He is pictured on the left of the team shot. ‘His eyes are closed since he was practically asleep as he crossed the finishing line,’ says his wife and fellow litigation partner, Jane.