When you win, suddenly this celebrity status is hoisted upon you.
There are a lot of kids coming in to athletics, but there is also a big drop-out rate. We've got it right at the top end, but we have to maintain the base of the pyramid.
It's perseverance that's the key. It's persevering for long enough to achieve your potential.
The Cardiff Half Marathon has already proved itself to be one of the biggest and best road races in the U.K., and when the best athletes in the world run on the same course, the times should be spectacular. But the real beauty of this event is that ordinary runners get the chance to line up on the same start line as the best athletes in the world.
I think a four-year ban would effectively rule out one Olympic games - a life ban is too harsh. I think everyone deserves a second chance. If you come back from missing one Olympic games and serving a four-year ban, you are a pretty determined and reformed character.
I believe the friendship of the Games still exists. There is a tremendous camaraderie and atmosphere at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games - where else could you go and sit down and have breakfast with a Russian weightlifter, an East German sprinter, and an Indian fencer and talk about different cultures and problems?
There's so much hard work, dedication, and focus goes in from not just the athletes but from the coaches, officials, governing bodies, and Sport Wales. It's a real team effort, and it's rightly called Team Wales.
I remember one of my first international trips to Poland. After a long, tortuous journey, we arrived at the hotel exhausted but without the team management, who had gone ahead of us from the airport in cars, checked into the best rooms, and left us with what was left.
It's not just about a coach telling you what to do and just following it unthinkingly.
The reception and the welcome home was quite overwhelming but an indication of how much the Welsh people valued my winning in the Olympics - it was a great memory.
