Self appointed PR

Half an hour before the start of the Flora London with Nigel Armstrong. I had the luxury of a start in the AAA championships but they have still not got wireless access in the warm up tent!

I warned you 12 days ago that I would struggle to update the blog over the following 10 days but I actually managed three postings, including one from London. But it has taken an extra 2 days to get back into anything like a routine.

Once I was established on my Laptop in my hotel room I thought about adding several more stories especially as, although I finally had the chance to catch up with my sleep, I woke up early each day through nerves.

Whilst in London I continued my self appointed PR role for the Manx runners in the Marathon.

I hope that you liked the preview in the paper - I tried to avoid just re-listing all the names that were at the foot of the article but to explain the history of the event and how people manage to get repeat entries.

I understand that Manx Radio previewed the event on the Friday but I tried to get some extra publicity on Saturday morning.

I tried to feed a different line on Saturday when I was sending emails to Manx Radio studio and newsdesk (I'm not sure if they used them) about the number of couples that were taking part. I'm sorry that I did not cover them all to begin with mentioning the Halls, the Quines and the Cains when I emailed David Callister and then adding the Kellys for the newsroom. I still missed the Gannons. Quite remarkable to have so many family couples.

On Sunday morning I contacted Radio 2 and got a mention for the Manx runners at about 5.50 - not sure what the audience figures are at that time on a Sunday. Ian Callister was mentioned for his 20 runs although I was introduced as Murray Lambden from the Isle of Wight.

Within a hour of finishing my own race (I'll save that story for another day) I was back online working on some pictures and the first draft of the statistics. The London Marathon website is much improved and I was able to list all of the sub 5 hour runners before heading to the bar. Unfortunately when I returned to finish before going out to eat the site was down so I had to leave the job unfinished.

When I got back to the Island on Monday lunchtime I tried to finish the project but I ended up having to re-run the exercise yesterday lunchtime when I realised that some of the positions had changed.

I closed off the website project last night as planned but then I spent the rest of the evening writing the report for the Manx Independent. You can read it tomorrow afternoon if you are interested. As well as listing all the performances I have tried to give an insight into three featured runners. I know that one or two people will be disappointed because I have not featured their personal best or their fancy dress but if a story is going to be interesting it has to be selectively researched.

And to get my annual gripe off my chest - if anyone tells me that I have missed someone off the list - tough! The sort of people who complain weeks later that their names were not in the papers are obviously the ones who don't normally read them but only want to see their own names.

Thanks to everyone who helped me gather the names especially Steve Cain who really does know more than anyone on the Isle of Man!

Being the self appointed PR for the London Marathon means that I am already knackered when it comes to doing the Parish Walk publicity (although I did start on 1 December) but over the weeks ahead, as the Parish Walk fights for a bigger share of my time, the blog will be closer aligned to the big event on home soil.