What do I have in common with Robbie Callister and Steve Kelly?

You might want to rename this post as "today's bit of useless information"!

On the other hand, if you think like that you probably shouldn't be reading this blog in the first place.

I doubt if there is anyone reading this (don't stop there) who does not know who Robbie Callister is for his Parish Walk and End to End Walk successes. In my view he actually achieved more as a runner. He sneaked inside 2.29 in 1994 and, although not the fastest Manxmen, he could stake a claim to be the most successful marathon runner of all time. He certainly has many under 2.35 and even more under 2.40.

A person with an even greater claim to that honour would be Steve Kelly. Although he did not achieve quite such a quick time as his 20 mile and half marathon times would suggest he would, he ran 2.27 and ran under 2.30 on x times. For the record, the Manx record still stands to Dave Cowell from 1974.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I made my Parish Walk debut in 1974 aged 17.

Robbie and Steve made their debuts on the same day!

I think that Robbie would be 19 and Steve 21.

I only realised this at the weekend when doing some further research.

It really was a tortoise and hare story as far as I can tell. Of the three of us, I reached Kirk Michael first and stopped. Steve reached Ballaugh before Robbie but retired. Robbie made it to Jurby (correction).

I'm not planning to repeat this blog next year, so I'm using it as an excuse to use up all my remaining Parish Walk photos from the archives - the ones that are not quite interesting enough to go on a real website. Inevitably, because they are taken from our family archives, they are going to involve me. but I'll mix the 1974 photos up with the list of the results from that year.

The first photo is from the Oatlands Road. My mum (Gwelda) is running alongside and behind me is Kevin Knox who walked to Peel.

There were only 94 starters in 1974. See whose names you recognise.

The first to retire were the following at Santon:

Ian Wrigley 02:20:00
Alan Pye 02:33:00
Philip Faragher 02:38:00
Kevin Kelly 02:42:00
Alan Ogden 03:02:00
Gregory Joughin 03:22:00
Nigel Kewley 03:22:00

Three more fell by the wayside at Malew:

Martyn Gawne 03:20:00
Bruce Walker 03:35:00
David Clague 03:58:00

and two more at Arbory:

William Stevenson 03:31:00
Peter Quilliam 03:35:00

I'm still going at Arbory (poor mum has to run again!)

Here is the list that reached Rushen:

Peter Lewthwaite 03:57:00
Patrick Miller 04:05:00
Juan Gale 04:08:00
James Robson 04:12:00
Ken Crellin 04:16:00
AA Quayle 04:16:00
Graham Skinner 04:16:00
Chris Kelly 04:21:00
Paul Baker 04:23:00
Roy Cregeen 04:23:00
Adrian Jackson 04:25:00
Paul Jennings 04:29:00
Brian Leece 04:36:00
Graham Barron 04:39:00
Gordon Haughton 04:39:00
Juan Hudson 04:39:00
Trevor Taubman 04:40:00
Tommy Daugherty 04:41:00
P Howland 04:41:00
Michael Oates 04:44:00
V J Christian 05:15:00
Brian Condon 05:15:00

Up the Sloc (photos by the late Bill Lambden)

Two retired at Patrick:

John McBride 07:55:00
T J Westwood 08:10:00

And Peel was the stopping point for most:

Graham Young 05:29:05
Derek Harrison 05:34:35
Daryl Gribbin 06:26:00
Alex MacDonald 06:28:00
Kevin Skinner 06:52:00
Cyril Evans 07:04:35
Juan Gill 07:09:00
Kevin Knox 07:11:00
Noel Walls 07:12:00
Heather Staley 07:17:10
Eric Costain 07:33:00
Lol Jenkins 07:33:00
Arthur Walmsley 07:40:00
J W Brew 07:43:00
Albert Lowe 07:45:00
Jeff Black 07:58:00
Eric Clague 07:58:00
Colin Jones 08:01:00
Kevin Gleave 08:02:00
James Brown 08:04:00
Geoff Clague 08:06:00
Les Gale 08:11:00
Roberta Moore 08:13:45
Peter Cannell 08:14:00
David Jones 08:14:00
Bruce Kirkham 08:16:00
John Cringle 08:21:00
Jimmy Thompson 08:22:00
Norma Gardner 08:25:30
Kevin Brennan 08:27:00
William Thompson 08:37:00
Jennifer Corlett 08:42:00
Marylyn Hughes 08:42:00
N J Voyle 08:42:00
Tom Menice 08:47:00
Maureen Turnbull 08:56:00
Sylvia Walmsley 08:56:00

Graham Young and Derek Harrison, who both competed in the 1974 Commonwealth Games earlier in the year (there is a separate story there) were clearly well ahead when retiring at peel. Only 21 went beyond Peel with Sheffield Harrier John "Paddy" Dowling taking the honours from Ian Turnbull.

Here are the names that walked past Peel (or at least reached Kirk Michael or beyond):

Murray Lambden 08:25:00 Michael
Richard Haddock 09:00:00Michael
John E Cannell 09:15:00 Michael
Tim Crispin 10:10:00Michael
Phil Brooks 10:44:00 Michael
Alan Walls 09:40:00 Ballaugh
Kevin Walls 09:40:00 Ballaugh
Arthur Jones 09:55:00 Ballaugh
Steve Kelly 09:58:00 Ballaugh
Alec Oates 11:00:00 Ballaugh
Robbie Callister 10:15:00 Jurby
Peter Corris 10:50:00 Jurby
Colin Goldsmith 10:50:00 Jurby
Barry Corris 11:10:00 Jurby
John Corrin 12:55:00 Bride
George Peach 14:15:00 Bride
Stewart Watterson 14:28:00 Bride
David Christian 14:40:00 Bride
John Dowling 16:40:07 Finish
Ian Turnbull 17:06:52 Finish

Ron Ronan 20:40:34 Finish