I took several hundred photos of the Peel to Douglas walk a couple of weeks ago. It was for moments like these that I finally ended my two years of deliberations in June (in time for the Parish Walk) and upgraded to an SLR camera as I was able to take these seven shots in 26 seconds.
As John Cannell passed me, I remember saying "I'm sorry that you got soaked John but you have just given me a great picture". The most dramatic one was to be featured over half of the back page of the Manx Independent.
Opinions varied when the picture was seen. My wife's first comment as she saw me about to publish it was on the http://www.manxathletics.com/ website was "Oh don't put that on as everyone will think that race walker's are mad". Well, as I used to be one I knew it to be true so Marie didn't manage to stop me. Quite a few people questioned whether the event should have been held in such circumstances but another person told Marie that, as the registration plate of the car was visible, the police ought to prosecute the driver for driving without due care and attention.
Well I'm delighted to say that the soaking has a happy ending.
The car driver, Sue Sayle, was devastated when she realised that she had soaked JC and left a box of chocolates at his house. John was keen to demonstrate that he was not vindictive and tried to track down a woman of that name by phoning all of the S Sayles listed in the phone book who lived west of Quarter Bridge! But later in the week, in the bar at the Woodbourne Hotel, a friend suggested that it might be Sue Sayle who worked at the town hall. John called on her to say how pleased he was that she was so remorseful and intends to frame her letter of apology and the photo of the big splash.
I've just ordered A4 sized copies of the whole of the above sequence for JC.
No one has ever won the Parish Walk more times than John Cannell. No race walking story has ever made a bigger splash.
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