Murray's Parish Walk route

Bye bye

2008-06-20T21:02:00.002+01:00

Not much to show for a fairly hectic day.

Still not got the front page ready but have just removed the update my entry section and reference to registration.

I'm signing off this blog. I hope that you have enjoyed it over the past 7 months. Not sure whether I will do the same next year or not - this is probably not a good time to decide.

A new blog will be appearing within the front page to bring you news but it will only be around for about 2 days starting now.

Good bye.

Must buy a belt

2008-06-20T05:50:00.003+01:00

I was hoping to have the design of a new website for the race tomorrow ready by now but I lost of all of my little creativity last night and ended up going to bed early. I had intended to watch a match of Euro 2008 for the first time but although I had a small TV on above my desk, I didn't get the chance to watch the most exciting match of the tournament so far.

Since getting up this morning I have checked the statistics for yesterday and see that 791 different people visited the website and there were more than 3000 page hits. I still find this amazing compared to the early days when, back in 2001, I had to convince people that there were benefits of putting information on the website!

I've continued my daily early morning running routine every day for 65 days but am going to struggle to fit this in over the the next few days. So I'm doing a hard 10 miles at the NSC this morning (I have taken today and Monday off work) and then I'll do another long run on Monday. Sunday's short burst is going to be the hardest due to lack of sleep. Tomorrow will probably be a quick jog down to the NSC with camera in hand.

Its still a little early to start my run today as I need to get some more liquid in but I need to tidy up the manxathletics.com site before I do more on the PW site.

This morning will involve setting up the computers for tomorrow and this afternoon I have a meeting with Richard Jamieson when we are going to plan for tomorrow - technical stuff, choosing our photo stops etc.

I need to get a few things in town this morning including a belt. My get fit campaign has seen me loose a stone and a half and I am nearly down to my old racing weight of 1981 and 1982 - but my trousers don't stay up anymore!

My interview

2008-06-19T19:54:00.001+01:00

Here is my Manx Radio interview from last night.

Graham Young to start Parish Walk

2008-06-19T13:55:00.004+01:00

Although it is in the programme I had not picked up on the fact, until I saw it on Manx Radio a few minutes ago, that Graham Young is to start the 2008 Clerical Parish Walk.

Here is the link: http://www.manxradio.com/readNEwsItem.aspx?id=21890 It mentions that he won the 1971, he set a record that was to last until 1979, but of course he also won it 21 years later in 1992. Graham is one of the Isle of Man's best ever athletes and is best known for winning the 100km championship in 1981 and finishing 4th in the 1974 Commonwealth Games.

Sometimes my advisor and motivation, sometimes a deadly rival, sometimes a colleague on a number of athletics projects, Graham could also have walked much faster in the Parish Walk had he thought it to be important at the time of his greatest achievements. I'm sure that he won't need a microphone to make himself heard at the start!

In the 1978 Parish Walk Graham Young (right) helped me to victory. He walked the first half of the course with me chatting and putting the world to right. Note the total lack of spectators in Peel.

Three years later and he was not quite so happy as I took victory in the TT Course Walk in possible the most dramatic race in the history of the event which in those days was far more important than the Parish Walk. I had knocked 10 minutes off the record the previous year (5.37) and built up a lead of 7 minutes at the top of the mountain. As I was faster than in 1980 I was sure I had in the bag. But Graham never gave up and came to within 10 seconds at the finish. We knocked a further 8 minutes + off the record which still stands.

Left School

2008-06-19T13:46:00.004+01:00

Last year's parishwalk.com office was provided by MSM who also back up Robbie Callister

This time last year I was delighted to have the opportunity to work overnight close to the finish when Craig Hodgson from Manx School of Motoring allowed be the use of their office near to the Sefton.

Craig kindly offered to make the same facility available to me this year but thanks to the Civil Defence my facility will be right at the finish this year. I still really appreciate the gesture,

Chris Moon on the radio

2008-06-19T13:39:00.000+01:00

Chris will be on 3FM some time after 8:00 am on Friday (Kevin Ford) and on Manx Radio some time after 3:15 pm on Friday (Bob Harrison).

Weather forecast

2008-06-19T07:24:00.001+01:00

We are so lucky to have Adrian Cowin providing our own weather forecasts.

Weather forecast by Adrian Cowin

Almost had you starting a day early

2008-06-19T06:54:00.001+01:00

With so many changes to the website in the last 24 hours and trying to keep things current, I almost started the event a day early. For half an hour this morning I had the event starting "tomorrow" on the front page!

Great committee

2008-06-19T06:51:00.002+01:00

The Clerical Medical Parish Walk has benefited from the stability of a long serving committee and its always worth reminding you who you should be thanking for maintaining the very high standards of the event:

So three cheers for:

Raymond Cox, Elizabeth Corran, Karen Kneale, Allan Callow, Kevin Walmsley, Martin Lambden, Winston Liu, Tracy Cook, Debbie Walmsley and Geoff Walmsley.

Temporary front page

2008-06-18T23:15:00.002+01:00

I've spent a good deal of time this evening sorting out a temporary front page to focus on the check in over the next couple of days.

I have finally publicised something that I had hoped to do some time ago - big screen TV coverage at the finish thanks to Colebourn.

You will also see that I have announced my team for Saturday. Fell runner Richard Jamieson will be with me throughout the day in the 4Hire van while son Ben Lambden heads straight from exam week at university to the ferry on Saturday afternoon and joins us to produce the finish line production in the evening.

I'm running out of time. Talking of which it is over 17 hours since I wrote my first blog this morning and the day has included a short hard run at 6.45 this morning and the Steve Jacobs mile tonight. I'm knackered!

Website hits increase further

2008-06-18T06:12:00.002+01:00

There were a pre-race record of 529 different visitors to the www.parishwalk.com website yesterday. More people (67) had a glance or more of this blog than ever before in a single day. I'm still not sure if the visitors to the blog are mainly the same group reading it daily or whether a larger group are visiting less often, say once a week.

I've had a publicity poster on the front page of the www.manxathletics.com website for a talk tomorrow night for over two weeks. Crossroads Caring for Carers are promoting an evening with Chris Moon, one of the competitors in the Parish Walk, tomorrow evening. You can read about it at http://www.manxathletics.com/#chrismoon and if you are hoping to attend you should take action.

Lapping it up

2008-06-17T22:45:00.002+01:00

I remember when my son Ben was little and we went out to watch the Parish Walk (I think it was 1992) he asked "How many laps they did". When it produced a laugh he repeated the question to everyone we met (I hope that he doesn't read this!).

Well you may have heard that Bethany Clague is going to do two laps this year. I try not to repeat stories that are available elsewhere but if you have not seen Michael George's blog that carries the story follow this link:

Website hits increase as countdown continues

2008-06-17T06:34:00.003+01:00

395 different people accessed the parishwalk.com website yesterday - that's nearly twice as many as the previous Monday (204) which is usually the busiest day of the week.

Three or four years ago I would be have been happy with that number the Monday after the event.

There were even 61 different people who accessed this blog yesterday which is close to the record of 66 two weeks earlier.

Tried to broadcast live from Woodbourne Park

2008-06-16T21:24:00.004+01:00

Part of the jigsaw of preparation I have mentioned a few times in passing involves setting up my laptop to enable me to broadcast photos, videos and reports from around the Parish Walk course at the weekend.

Thanks to Manx Telecom I will have a card to enable me to do this without the need to return home each time I want to upload photos.

They provided the facility last year but I wasn't able to make the most of it because I tried to use the Laptop from the boot of my car with bright sunshine pouring onto the screen.

This year the organising committee are supplying me with a van from which to work from - more about my plans and my team in the next couple of days.

Today I met up with Darren Shaw from Manx Telecom at 5.15 to have the card installed but unfortunately their 3G network was down and so he couldn't test it before I left. So I tried to test it myself in Woodbourne Park tonight - hoping that Michael George (he lives in Woodbourne Square) wouldn't see me alone with a laptop in a park and think that Marie had finally had enough of me and my computers!

Unfortunately I still have a snag with the setup but I'm sure it will be resolved tomorrow.

Nigel's quote from his Comrades Marathon experience was picked up by Manx Radio and published at http://www.manxradio.com/readNEwsItem.aspx?id=21686 within two hours of it being written. Oh, the power of the internet and the forum.

By the way, the fact that I am back publishing this from our house proves that I haven't been thrown out. I have been trying to do plenty of housework and odd jobs, however, to ensure that the locks have not been changed on Sunday when I return from 24 hours of computers, cameras and the Parish Walk.

Getting it right first time

2008-06-16T13:31:00.006+01:00

I had a number of silly mistakes in my output yesterday, including the blog post below.

If you were one of the first people to read the feature on David Collister last night then I apologise for the number of spelling mistakes and typos. Sometimes I get someone else to proof read such articles before going live but I was getting tired and wanted to clear it off my list last night. I had a re-read first thing this morning and made some corrections.

As sometimes happens, I also had some hassle copying the video of Sean Hands from my 1995 Sony Viewcam analogue video recorder, which I have reverted to as my main video, onto my PC. Both ends of the recording are clipped slightly and there is also a very small piece lost. Sean responded to one of my questions that "I respect all of the other walkers (the bit that was lost) but particularly Robbie".

It was great to see Nigel Armstrong doing so well in the Comrades Marathon yesterday (the 54 mile run in South Africa). Nigel is a top class athlete and was in great shape for the race and predicted a time of 8 hours to 8.15. He may have "only" finished 815th (there were around 11,000 taking part!) but he was spot in with his time finishing in 8.06.16. Considering that he had never run that far before and that so many things can go wrong that is a pretty sound prediction.

At least someone gets things right first time.

The cat is away but no time for the mouse to play

2008-06-15T21:47:00.004+01:00

Marie has been in Dublin this weekend joining the 85,000 people watching the Neil Diamond concert at Croke Park and no doubt exercising her credit card in the shops.

The first time I ran in the London Marathon (1995) she went with me but after being accused of keeping me awake with her coughing and ending up sleeping in the bathroom (and then not seeing me on Tower Bridge because she was too busy talking to some other Manx people) we decided that it would be best if we took separate spring breaks.

So I have had my "boys" weekend at the London Marathon each year, whether I run or support the other runners. She has normally had her "girls" weekend at the Grand National but this year decided to do something different.

But instead of partying I was in bed early last night to prepare for a tough 20 mile training session this morning (I was pleased to run a couple of minutes faster than in the 20 mile championships in March and this was with a 7.30 start) and other than reading the papers and looking after Robbie, I've spent the rest of the day on the PW website doing a couple of the features I have been planning for some time.

I hope that you enjoy the video with the fastest ever walker and the feature on the most prolific ever finisher.

As I have said before, the featured walker section is supposed to represent a cross section of the walkers and characters and is not just a ranking list. So if you felt disappointed that I didn't feature you or your friend, don't despair as I might feature you next year. If you didn't want to be featured and thought that you had escaped you can wait until I get you next year too!

The mouse is off some cheese and some more sleep. Training every day and doing these websites is getting me trapped.

Sean Hands video

David Collister feature

Final featured walker

2008-06-14T18:32:00.003+01:00

If all goes to plan, the action on the website will be fast and furious for the next 7 days (and a bit!).

I've been working on so many ideas that just need to fall into place now.

I'm meeting up with the final walker to be featured tomorrow at 5.30 and hope to have the feature online tomorrow evening. He or she is a particularly experienced walker but won't be passing on their training tips.

I'm also hoping to do another video feature on one of the top walkers before the big day. I'm hoping the person selected won't be too shy as I have left a message on his answerphone.

Talking of selection, I'm putting together the music that I intend to use for the videos that we have penciled in.

Radio interview

2008-06-13T17:06:00.002+01:00

I've been interviewed by Catherine Nicoll of Manx Radio for the Shiaght Laa programme today.

I thought there must have been a mistake when they asked me to go on a cultural show!

Catherine was exploring the growth of the event, the increase in the number of female competitors, the place of the event in Manx culture and other issues.

It will be broadcast on the programme next Wednesday at 6.05 if you are remotely interested!

I wasn't sure if my nerves today were caused by the thought of going on the radio for the first time in a long time or the thought of running around Mooragh Park in a couple of hours time for the first time in almost a year.

TV coverage continues

2008-06-11T21:35:00.003+01:00

There had been some doubt that the TV coverage of the Clerical Medical Parish Walk would continue this year as the previous three year deal supported by the Department of Tourism and Leisure had finished.

Race director Raymond Cox has confirmed that the TV coverage is to continue this year although he has not been consulted.

I received the programme in electronic (pdf) format from the printers yesterday and so assumed that it was fresh off the presses. I've learned today, however, that all the entrants received their copies last week. That is good news in itself but hopefully my publication on the website is still useful to others who have not yet had sight of the hard copy.

Parish Walk Programme

2008-06-11T07:41:00.002+01:00

Just a quick update this morning to publicise the publication of the the 2008 Clerical Medical Parish Walk programme.

The letter which is to be sent to all competitors is also available to download from www.parishwalk.com . In case you have not seen the press releases, you will be able to view a walker's update via your mobile phone thanks to Manx Telecom's sponsorship.

Young Athlete good for old athlete

2008-06-08T22:33:00.002+01:00

Usually when I attend concerts at the Villa Marina featuring bands from my era I return home to check on the Internet how many of the original band are still alive or in good health. It made quite a change, therefore, to watch Athlete on Thursday evening with son Ben (who has been home studying for his exams) and wife Marie. This old athlete really enjoyed seeing and hearing young Athlete.

Similarly, I think it is good for old athletes to compete against young athletes rather than to indulge in the veteran scene. Whilst the average age was not that low in the 10,000 metres track championships the previous evening I was prepared to take on any young athletes who were there. I'd rather finish three laps behind young athletes but in a faster time than winning in an old race.

I was more excited both before and after the race on Wednesday than for a long time. I have worked so hard to get fit in the past couple of months that if I didn't improve a lot on last year (40.02) then I would doubt if it hard been worth while. I was delighted to run 35.51 particularly as I ran badly and totally unrealistically taking the lead for a couple of laps around lap 10. I finished third.

I'm planning my preparation well in advance of my next marathon in Amsterdam on 19 October and have booked my travel and accommodation. I have entered with an "expected time" of 2.42 against my PB of 2.43.06. I'm going to have to take on the younger athletes if my latest dream is going come true.

I'm always planning a lot of things simultaneously. This takes me back to the Parish Walk. Only 13 days to go and I have a lot to do to deliver all the things I plan for the website. But first some sleep as I am going running soon after 5.30 tomorrow morning to fit in my new daily routine before catching a plane to travel to the UK for planning of a different kind, neither work or pleasure.

I hope to write whilst I'm away about some of the things I'm planning for the Parish Walk website before the big day.

Holland & Barrett

2008-06-04T06:39:00.000+01:00

The following message is from race secretary Elizabeth Corran:

IF YOU BRING YOUR ENTRY ACCEPTANCE LETTER DOWN TO THE SHOP YOU CAN CLAIM A FREE PROTEIN BAR (WHILST STOCKS LAST) ONE PER ENTRANT.

THESE ARE KINDLY PROVIDED BY WEIDER NUTRITION & CNP PROFESSIONAL.

Goodbye Blackberry Lane

2008-06-02T13:31:00.004+01:00

Most people who live in the Isle of Man find their routine disturbed by the TT whether it is for positive reasons such as their involvement as marshals and helpers or for negative reasons such as having to change their training courses because of road closures and traffic volumes.

It is the indirect effect that usually catches me out. More entertainment, less sleep and less time to spend on websites!

I always try and get one or two TT related pictures for the website - last year I was particularly lucky to be entertained by recruitment firm OSA from a tallship in Douglas Harbour where I could get plenty of Red Arrows photos.

This year my first night out was to see the Move at the Villa Marina. I was a big fan of the Move in the 60s and the hairstyles of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne who joined them in the early 70s to see out a recording contract before they made their debut ELO album together.

Roy Wood had slagged off the reformed Move as being nothing more than a tribute band which was a little harsh given that they had two founder members (Roy was not a founder member but he did write all their hits!) and Carl Wayne would have been with them had he not died!

The gig was a good one but with only 159 tickets sold, and I'm sure there were far fewer people actually there, you have to ask the question as to why the Department of Tourism continues to promote this sort of event with public money when other promoters can sell out in hours. Exactly a year earlier I had been watching The Who in Peel. The Peel Bay Festival was an amazing event but I always felt it would not be repeated which was why I made the most of it. I did not support a large public underwriting of the festival but if I had been the organiser I would have been asking questions about the Move concert.

The Move encored with "Goodbye Blackberry Way" which I thought showed a lack of local awareness - I was hoping that they would sing "Goodbye Blackberry Lane" - at least Roy Wood would not have been able to say that they had not done anything original then!

On Saturday afternoon I watched the TT from Bray Hill in the company of Michael and Irene George and we were joined later by fell runner Paul Sheard who had much better camera equipment than me for some decent shots. I was brought up on the TT course at Kirk Michael and used to get up for all the early morning practice sessions from the age of 9 and was marshaling by the age of 16. But my conscience has been troubled many times by the accident rate and particularly by the lack of awareness of the accidents. I love watching the action but I could not bear to see an accident and the two are too closely matched. On Saturday, one of the riders well known to athletes came as close as I have seen to having a major accident without doing so.

Traditionally athletics competition on the Isle of Man has been put on hold but in recent years the 10,000 metres walk and runs have maintained an interest for those who can't bear not to compete.

I plan to be there on Wednesday night before resuming my TT social life at the end of the week.

I'm still doing my early morning training sessions but a little less of my late night web sessions. So I think I'll run up Blackberry Lane tomorrow morning. Or should it be Blackberry Way? Goodbye.

Parish Walk wins bring fame

2008-05-29T13:22:00.005+01:00

1990 Parish Walk winner Gordon Vale (red top on left) was photographed outside the GB team hotel in Valancia in May 1982. Also in the picture are Brian Adams, Phil Vesty (yellow t-shirt), coach Julian Hopkins (back) and possibly Steve Barry (photo ML).

There was some debate on the forum at http://www.manxathletics.com/ about the ranking used in the numbering system for the race.

I think that it was the late Arthur Jones, who was race secretary for so many years, who started allocating the lowest numbers to the more serious walkers although he used to list the team entrants before the individuals so if you weren't included in a team you were more likely to have a number in the 70s or 80s (of the 100 odd entrants) in the years of the 70s and 80s.

I was heavily involved in the early 90s and with CMI's sponsorship in the bag introduced the programme in the form that has changed very little since. I thought that if we could increase the circulation of the programme to all entrants and also make them available to people around the course it would reflect positively upon the sponsor. The programme needed as much information as possible so with statistics at my fingertips, I introduced the idea of listing the years that entrants had previously finished the walk.

The idea has been continued and developed further although it has been necessary to summarise some of the finishing information, such as David Collister's years of finishing.

I thought that it would add status to the top walkers by drawing attention to their previous successes.

If this is so, then it is probably more likely to apply to the lower finishing walkers than than the top two but I think they all deserve it. I don't think that there is an exact science in allocating the numbers but I hope that the system is maintained.

Among the men, Sean Hands, Robbie Callister and Peter Kaneen, who have dominated for the past decade, would be well known to spectators even without a programme. They are probably better known to the public than most of our top track and field athletes.

Media coverage of sport in the Isle of Man is second to none but it is always hard to get the balance with every single performance.

I remember that Gordon Vale, who came to live on the Island in the 80s, was not included in the 1990 Commonwealth Games team even though he had the qualifying time for the 30km walk. He had a tremendous pedigree having held the British junior record for 10,000 metre walk on the track for six years with a time of 42:06.35 from 1981. Although he didn't set the time as a resident, he was the fastest ever 50km walker to live on the Island.

But he hadn't taken part in the Parish Walk!

So he entered the 1990 Parish Walk. He was amazed to find people calling out words of encouragement to Charlie Weston, who at that time lived in the South of England, but they didn't know Gordon's name. Gordon won the Parish Walk in a modest time by current standards at his only attempt and received more publicity for this than for anything else that he had ever done before and did afterwards.

Have three generations of the same family competed in the Parish Walk?

2008-05-28T13:40:00.003+01:00

Its good fun sometimes to set the questions for quizzes. But it helps, of course, if you know the answers!

But the question above is one that I don't know the answer to. Perhaps someone would let me know if they do know if three generations from the same family have taken part.

Hopefully there will be someone this year. The picture above shows my late mother, Gwelda Lambden, at the start of the 1976 Parish Walk. She was 57 at the time and it seemed incredible at the time that someone of that age could make their debut in a long distance walking race. She held the lead jointly through to Malew but she dropped out at that point, something she always regretted as she didn't know what it was like to get a "second wind". She never took part in anything like it again.

That is my brother Martin on the left - its 20 years ago since he won the Parish Walk and has been on the organising committee for most of the years since then.

His daughter Kim was involved in a serious car accident as a teenager and suffered permanent damage to one of her legs. But she has been getting stronger and fitter as the years have gone by and regularly walks a few miles around Sulby with her dog. She wondered if she would be brave enough to enter the Parish Walk. She was 30 in April and so we sent her a cheque payable to Manx Harriers for her birthday present leaving her with very little choice!

I wonder if she will be setting a record.

You might recognise the third person in the picture although I would rather not! He was 19 at the time and less than 19 hours away from his first Parish Walk finish.

Yesterday was SPRING Bank Holiday

2008-05-27T13:45:00.003+01:00

I've already written about my memories of the Bradford 50km walk.

http://parishwalkcom.blogspot.com/2008/01/it-used-to-be-best-walking-event-in.html

So although my memory was racing back to those days again yesterday I've decided to write more specifically about bank holidays.

Why is it that in the Isle of Man we have such problems with their names?

Until 1967 (NB 42 YEARS AGO) we used the celebrate the religious occasion of Whitsuntide. But because the date of Whit, like Easter, was variable the date of the public holiday was fixed on the last Monday in May and renamed the Spring Bank Holiday in 1971.

Educate yourselves here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whit_Monday

Why is it that so many people insist on calling yesterday Whit Monday.

What is worse, the Isle of Man Hockey Association have decided to move their hockey festival from "Whit weekend" to, wait for it, the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. They've got it wrong again - they are actually moving it to the first weekend in May which is the May Bank Holiday Weekend.

May Day Bank Holiday has been there for more than 40 years - why do people find this so hard to grasp?

We have one of the two additional Manx public holidays next week so I'll probably be wearing by grumpy old man hat again on Tynwald Day next Friday!

99 out 153

2008-05-23T17:03:00.002+01:00

That's the number of last year's finishers that have returned this year.

My stats are all unofficial of course. I tried to calculate this at lunchtime today and couldn't get my VLOOKUP formula in Excel to work so I had to revert to a semi-manual system of calculation.

So its open to error and if anyone has changed their name in the past year I won't have picked that up either.

So here are the 99 that I think are returning:

Alan Kinvig
Alan McCulloch
Alison Brand
Amanda Whitelegg
Andrew Titley
Bernadette Devlin
Billy McCoubrey
Bob Corrin
Bob Noonan
Brian Connolly
Chris Cale
Chris Goldsmith
Chris Murphy
Chris Swales
David Anderson
David Churcher
David Clucas
David Collister
David Comish
David Cretney
David Whorrall
Denise Foxton
Dermot O'Toole
Dudley Butt
Eammon Harkin
Ernie Radcliffe
Fintan Suddards
Gillian Morphet
Gordon Erskine
Gordon Wynne-Smythe
Greg Nation
Ian Ashcroft
Ian Comish
Ian Marshall
Irene Taggart
Jane Birchall
Jane Crowe
Jane Mooney
Janice Quirk
Jeff Black
Jo Revill
Jo Richardson
Jock Waddington
John C Ryder
John Hunter
John Watterson
Julian Thomas
Julie Cretney
Kath Kelly
Katy Craig
Keith Watts
Keith Wilkinson
Les Webb
Lesley Chappell
Lynsey Singer
Marie Gilbertson
Mark Freeman
Mark Haynes
Mark Hempsall
Mark Kinley
Martijn Biesmans
Martyn Quayle
Matthew Haddock
Maureen Moffatt
Michael Bonney
Michael George
Michael Gray
Michael Shipsides
Mick Holgate
Mike Gellion
Mike Hickey
Moira Hall
Patrick Reid
Paul Boulton
Paul Morgans
Paul Phillips
Peter (George) Cannell
Peter Maurice Bell
Ray Hughes
Ray Pitts
Richard Spenceley
Rita Norrey
Robbie Callister
Rod Phillips
Rosemarie Crellin
Sean Murphy
Shirley Gage
Simon Cox
Simon Starkey
Stan Sille
Stella Corlett
Stephanie Gray
Steve Allen
Sue Biggart
Suzanne Biddulph
Terri Salmon
Terry Moffat
Wendy Easthope
Zoe McAndry

And here are the 54 that I can't find among this year's list:

Antony Atkinson
Barry Cowin
Brian Maddrell
Catherine Lowey
Charlie Turner
Danny Jordan
Darren M Mealin
Dave Cain
David Humphrey
Derek Keir
Eddie Christian
Eleanor Bingham
Gareth Jones
Geoff Finn
Jack Walton
Jackie Campbell
Jason Edwards
Jill Turner
Jon Russell-Dunn
Juan Charles Gell
Juan Hatton
Juan Kinnish
Julie Owen
Kathryn Kennaugh
Keith John Swales
Ken Halsall
Kevin Marshall
Laura Bradley
Lynda Jones
Mark Cleater
Mark Osborn
Martin Hall
Martin T Jennings
Martin Wood
Matthew Halsall
Maureen Jill Cox
Michael Ellis
Neil Shimmin
Paul Condon
Paul Jennings
Paul Jones
Paul Waters
Peter Bettridge
Peter Bradley
Rich Sims
Richard Done
Richard Fathers
Robbie Corkish
Robert G Wright
Rosie Snape
Simon Jones
Steve Partington
Steve Wood
Thomas Melvin

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Murray

Robbie Callister is favourite

2008-05-22T06:34:00.003+01:00

According to http://www.manxathletics.coms/ users, Robbie Callister is the favourite to clinch his sixth title and equal John Cannell's winning tally.

This is how they voted:

Robbie Callister 31%
Michael George 25%
Sean Hands 21%
Someone else 12%
Jock Waddington 10%
Ray Pitts 1%

Who will win this year?

2008-05-21T06:03:00.001+01:00

No speculation from me yet but you can have your say at www.manxathletics.com

I've just created a poll which will close after 24 hours (to prevent multiple voting).

Have fun if you vote - it counts for nothing but it is interesting to know what you think.

Your blogger is more than a jogger again

2008-05-19T06:08:00.003+01:00

Murray the blogger but no longer a jogger - action in the Northern 10 miles yesterday. Photo by Neil Wilson; water from Thomas Melvin.

When I started this blog I was hoping to provide a few stories from behind the scenes at the Parish Walk by telling you what I was doing on the main http://www.parishwalk.com/ site, adding a few stats that didn't justify a main story, sharing my memories of Parish Walks of old but always having my own agenda.

I've got several websites to maintain, http://www.manxathletics.com/ , http://www.murrayandmarie.com/ , http://www.parishwalk.com/ and http://www.autism2008.co.uk/ along with this blog and a number of other websites that really just supplement the above such as adverts which link in to boost the search engine rankings of the above. I try to avoid an agenda which is too fixed and planned because otherwise it is too much like work - this is supposed to be a hobby.

This time last year I was so busy with my day job that I let my running lapse. I decided to seek a new role whereby I can improve my work / life balance (for the xth time!). I started my new job last September and although I have stuck to a pretty modest working week I was spending most of the extra hours I had at home in front of my computer either on my websites, copying videos into digital format (and adding films to YouTube) or on a number of other personal projects which I'll share with you when I get further with them.

What I had failed to do, however, was to improve the quality of overall health and fitness. Although I have always eaten healthy food I have also always had a lot of "comfort" food and drink. My vices begin with AB&C - alcohol, biscuits and crisps.

The winter before last, although I hadn't clicked what it was at the time, I developed exercise induced asthma and during the winter that has just gone this caused havoc with my marathon training, particularly when trying to run hill repetitions. I wrote here in my blog how disappointed I was to have some problems with this in the London Marathon last month. My time was just inside 3 hours 10 minutes even though only 18 months earlier, the day after my 50th birthday, I had run 2.45.01 in the Cardiff Marathon.

I resolved immediately after London that I never wanted to run a marathon and take so little enjoyment from it - the whole thing was unpleasant. Therefore I either had to give up or do something to help myself. I asked myself why I had developed exercise induced asthma. Ok, there are lots of things it could be but was carrying more than a stone over my average weight, eating far too much rubbish and trying to thrash my body two or three times a week when I was not treating it well the rest of the time might be part of the problem.

I decided to go on my ABC diet cutting out the three vices I described above and to start general conditioning by running before work including plenty of hills to develop my breathing.

Its now five months and one day since I ran the London Marathon and within 12 hours of finishing my last alcoholic drink passed my lips. Biscuits and crisps were banned the next day. On the Wednesday after the marathon I hit the road for a 10 minute run at 6.50 am and I have been out every morning since then bar the first Sunday. I lost a stone in weight in about three weeks and started to feel confident about my running again.

Yesterday I raced for the only the fourth time since November and it was the first time that I was really in shape to run. I finished second to Ben Scott in the Northern 10 in 60.24. Three years ago I won it in 57.57 and my best time for 10 miles (53.50) was in a half marathon back in 1981.

So I have a long way to go if I am to achieve my target of getting under 2.45 in the Amsterdam Marathon on 19 October and getting back into the top half dozen in my age group in the country. But with one month out of six gone I am going to give it my best shot.

So its time to do my early morning run and today its (from Brunswick Road in Douglas) down to the promenade along to Little Switzerland then up past the old prison and police station to the Grandstand and back.

Quite how I have motivated myself to do this early morning running I'm not sure - it has been very hard. But yesterday answered my question "Is it worth it".

So if you have noticed that there has been a little less original material on the blog in the past month now you know one of the reasons. There are a few others too which I will share in due course.

More tributes to Brian Goldsmith

2008-05-16T06:41:00.002+01:00

Brian's son Robert set up the following pages:

http://brian-herbert-goldsmith.gonetoosoon.co.uk/my_index.php

Thanks to Ian Turnbull for passing on the link.

Ian is also going to let me have a copy of Robert's eulogy for publication.

BBC cover Parish Walk

2008-05-15T06:21:00.003+01:00

Well, its only on their local website but still good to see it there.

Actually I got a dose of my own medicine and was quoted on the site. I was contacted for a comment about the record entry and explained that I was not part of the organising committee and that they should contact race director Raymond Cox. In fact, I did this for them and he was going to phone them. But it was still my name that appeared on the site with a comment I had made to set the scene rather than expecting to be quoted.

You can find the article at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/7398241.stm

1595- - 812 women and 783 men

2008-05-12T06:43:00.001+01:00

The final additions are:

Rob Aitken
Doug Allan
Richard Allen
Thomas Archibald
Mark Avery
Sue Baggaley
Neil Bell
Luke Bellis
Michael Thomas Bellis
John Bennett
Ross Bennett
Malcolm Berry
Kevin Bettridge
Suzanne Biddulph
Heather Birch
George Blair
David Boothman
Helen Borders
Paul Bridson
Neil Brogan
Les Brown
Sarah Burns
Ilya Bykov
Clare Cashin
Paul Cashin
Kevin Cassin
Siobhan Charnick
Ella Cheeseman
Li Li Cheung
Paul Christian
Ryan Connolly
Louise Cowley
Richard Creer
Graham Cregeen
Noel Cringle
Sally-Anne Cubbon
Sue Cunliffe
Stacey Davidson
Mareta Davies
Natalie Davis
Vicky Depledge
Pascale Despringre
Jane Dibb
Karen Dronsfield
Tony Duggan
Gavin Edwards
Paul Elliott
Jackie Emery
Jill Evans
Brian Ewing
Calvin Adam Fayle
Carl Fielding
Tony Gale
John Gallacher
Julie Gandy
Phil Gees
Ava Ghods
Susan Giles
Chris Goldsmith
Karen Gray
Karen Greening
Colin Grieve
Claire Hartley
Steven Hatton
Hilary Healy
Joanne Heavey
Parsons Helen
Robert Higgins
Pat Higham
Richard Hill
Richard Hird
Neil Hiscock
Lisa Hodgson
Angela Hogg
Rupert Hoskin
Maurice Hughes
Jules Hurl
Jacqui Hurstfield
Alan Irvine
Richard James
Nigel Jeffries
Barbara Jemmett
Rob Jessop
Adam Jones
Lynsey Marina Jones
Angelica Joughin
David Joughin
Rakie Keig
Ian Stanley Kelly
Andy Kempley
Susan Laird
Tara Lampitt
Stuart Langford
Tina Lawlor
Pamela Lloyd
Pamela Lloyd
Lisa Lyons
Martin Malone
Danielle Matthews
Gary McAdam
Helen McArd
Andrew McCulloch
Laura McDermott
Michelle McGovern
Alan Millard
Lucinda Milton
Jason Moffatt
Amanda Mooney
Jennifer Morris
Kay Muir
Julia Murton
Andrea Nolan
Rita Norrey
Stuart Norris
Ben O'Hare
Amie O'Neil
Martin Oswick
Joyce Pang
Mark Parsons
Robert Paterson
Graeme Pedler
Lucie Pelzmannova
Mark Plant
Carroll Powell
John Powell
Roger Prescott
Jackie Quilliam
Alex Quine
Tony Quinn
Jane Quirk
Nicola Raven
Jo Revill
Daryl Richards
Lindsay Riordan
Sally Roberts
Theresa Robertshaw
James Ian Robertson
Elaine Ross
Philomena Rothery
Gary Scott
Christopher Shimmin
Stephen Simonde
Gary Edward Skelly
Lucy Skelly
Susan Smith
Ann Stocks
Jackie Taylor
Anna Thomas
Genevieve Thompson
John Van Der Wielen
Jonny Wade
Fred Waggett
Karl Waggett
Chris Wakeling
Chris Walker
Marc Rob Walker
Shirley Watling
Cowin Wayne
Mara Wayne
Tolsa Wells
Dee West
Gillian Wiberg
Jane Wilcox
Steph Williams
Andrew Wilson
Kenneth Wilson
Emily Yovanovitch

Its a record

2008-05-11T21:48:00.002+01:00

I checked the number of entries early today and there were 1486 on the list (just short of my prediction of 1500) and so I published a headline on the www.manxathletics.com site that it was the second highest entry.

Karen Kneale emailed later in the morning to say that she had a further 100 paper entries to collect from Elizabeth Corran.

So its officially a record entry. Fantastic.

The number is only provisional as although there will DEFINITELY BE NO LATE ENTRIES it is possible that someone has been double counted or omitted in error.

More analysis to follow once the names are confirmed.

1429 entries

2008-05-10T23:09:00.002+01:00

I'm not sure if this is final or not but there are now 1429 entries on the list (732 women and 697 men).

Here are the additional names:

Guy Adamson
Moira Anderson
Mark Arden
Kerry Ashton
Dave Ball
Nikki Ball
Marc Barron
Jamie Beaman
Jim Beaman
Margaret Beaman
Andrew Bell
Marc Bell
Noe Benziane
Debbie Black Kay
Simon Black Kay
Joan Blake
Kate Bliss
Nigel Bolt
Dave Boswell
Terry Boyd
Rosie Bridge
Chris Brogan
Dan Brook
Rick Buckley
Sally Burman
Johanna Burrell
Da-Max Burtsteiner
Natalie Bush
Dudley Butt
Brian Byers
Mark Byrne
Paul Bywater
Ryan Cain
Jim Caley
Anne Callister
David Christian
Jane Christian
Karen Clark
Eddie Close
Liz Collins
James Andrew Collister
Stephen Cooke
Angela Corkish
Kate Corran
Dave Corrin
Deborah Corrin
Anita Costain
Archie Coulter
Archie James Coulter
Paul Cowin
Stephanie Cowin
Kevin Cowley
Iain Craig
Mike Craine
Rachael Crellin
Stephanie Crellin
Tim Crookall
Emily Crookall-Nixon
Julie Crookall-Nixon
Julie Cubbon
Tracey Cubbon
Russell Deere
Jessica Dentith
Gary Deuchar
Linda Dobinson
Yvonne Donlan
Eamonn Donlon
Brian Robert Douglas
Garry Douglas
Jeremy Drinkwater
Juan Drinkwater
Anne Maria Dudley
Neil Duggan
Jo Earner
Ivan Edwards
Stephen Edwards
Lynsey Elliott
Marie Ellison
Jonathan Emery
Sue Eppleston
Norman Faragher
Paul Fargher
Samuel Fletcher
Phily Fog
Christian Forbes
Stephen Fox
Antony Gale
Nigel Gautrey
Gemma Gawne
Jayne Gaylor
Ben Gibney
Nicola Gjolleshi
Joanne Glassey
Lisa Goldsmith
R Brian Goldsmith
Hannah Goodby
Robert Graham
Gemma Green
Andrew Grose
Gina Grose
Philippa Gunn
Paul Hadfield
Glenn Halsall
Carl Hardie
Stephen Harvey
Robert Haworth
Malcolm Henderson
Mike Hickey
Dave Horisk
Jane Hughes
Maeve Hurley
Ian Irvine
Samantha Irvine
Arnold John Jacobs
Chantal Johnson
Aaron Jones
Barbara Jones
Karl Jones
Fiona Karran
Caroline Kay
Caroline Kay
Niall Keenan
Pauline Keenan
Debbie Kelch
Ricky Kelch
Claire Kelly
Diane Kelly
Martin Kennaugh
Suzanne Kennedy
Jean Kennish
Paul Kennish
Linda Kermeen
Tony Kermeen
Kath Kermode
Mark Kinley
Sarah Kinnin
Brian Kinrade
Juan Kinrade
Siobhan Kinrade
Chris Kirkman
Jan Kirkman
Brian William Kneale
Charlotte Lee
Beccy Legg
Rebecca Leivers
Diane Limb
Chris Lyon
Karen Mansell
Elaine Martin
Roy Martin
Elaine Masterson
Jane Mather
Jim McDonnell
Fergus McEwan
Marie McGrory
Rebecca McKeworey
Lynne McMenemy
Geoffrey Miles
Sara Millward
Francesca Minay
Joanna Molyneux
Colin Moore
Ian Moore
Stephen Moore
Susan Moore
Caroline Moran
Carole Moreton
Dan Moreton
Mark Moroney
Bill Morton
Amy Mulhern
Andy Mulhern
Bridget Newbery
Carolyn Newton
Lesley Mm Nicholson
Mike Noble
Paul Noon
Lorcan O'Mahony
Anthony O'Neil
Ashleigh Oldland
Dave Oldland
Mark Patterson
Gill Phillips
Michael Phillips
Rebecca Phillips
Jason Postlethwaite
Alison Price
Jen Price
Anna Quayle
Eily Quayle
Ellie Quayle
Rachel Quayle
Catherine Quine
Steven Quirk
Vicky Radcliffe
Jo Richardson
Lorraine Rigby
Wendy Ross
Susan Rundle
Lynne Sadler
Wendy Sandford
Wendy Sayer
Wendy Scott
Sue Scott-Kerr
Lynsey Singer
Victoria Singer
Jean Slack
Jared Smith
Jenny Smith
Val Smith
Patricia Stearn
Donald Stewart
Brenda Stoffberg
Michal Sudul
Ingrid Sugden
Linda Swales
Claire Taubman
Clare Teare
Pamela Temple
Mary Thompson
Hilary Thornton
Adrian Tinkler
Maria Tomaszewska
Janice Trafford
Jane Trenholme
Simon Trenholme
Pam Unsworth
Deborah Upsdell
James Ussher
Shaun Valentine
Angela Van Den Berg
Carolyn Van Den Berg
Avery Viv
Brian Wade
Andy Walker
Rachel Walters
Juana Warburton
Leonie Ward
Mark Watson
Lynda Watts
Michael Wheeler
Amanda Whitelegg
David Whittam
Carl Wild
Gemma Wild
Cara Wilkinson
Emma Wilkinson
Edward Williams
Paul Withington
Sarah Young

Mick Holgate is featured

2008-05-10T06:53:00.002+01:00

Having spent the last hour finishing off the feature I started last night, I am now late for my Saturday job.

New featured walker

2008-05-09T06:27:00.002+01:00

I've chosen the next person that I am going to feature on the website and am calling to talk with that person (and to take pictures) on the way home from work this evening. Whether I get the article written and published tonight will depend on family circumstances - I'm fully committed tomorrow.

I've received quite a few emails in recent weeks that I have not yet replied to - if you are one of those people, I'm sorry but I have been fully stretched with a number of projects.

Here are the latest names to be added to the list with a big thank you to Elizabeth Corran and Karen Kneale who must have been so busy in recent weeks with so many entries piling in using the old system. I think and hope that the online system will be the main method of entry next year.

Debby Ashe
Angie Astley
Matthew Black
Alison Brand
Stephen Brew
Barry Bridson
Kate Cain
Brenda Charlton
David Collister
Denise Foxton
Vzadimir Georgiev
Tommy Kelly
Ivo Krastev
Zoe McAndry
Miro Metodiev
Jane Mooney
Anne Oates
Kaloyau Petrov
Caroline Rielly
Michael Shipsides
Stefan Stefanov
Krastev Svetlin
Sieviya Tateva
Jonny Tyrer
David Warwick
Keith Watts
Keith Wilkinson

Women 597
Men 581
Total 1178

14 near the end

2008-05-08T22:15:00.002+01:00

Well, I failed miserably in my attempts to get people to enter early.

It has been possible to enter since midnight on 1 DECEMBER - that is more than five months ago.

I am not doing any further reminders on the parishwalk.com site - after Saturday "entries have closed" will be published and you should not even consider asking for a late entry.

So if you do know anyone who has not entered but intends to do so, tell them to enter online NOW!

Here are the 14 latest entries:

Benjamin Anderson
David Cain
Katie Challenor
Sharon Cheeseman
Geraldine Conroy
Chris Hall
Thomas Hanks
Roger Hara
Wendy Heath
William Hindley
Ann McLellan
Lindsay J Quayle
Michael Sweeney
Peter Wood

Women 586
Men 565
Total 1151

Slowing down

2008-05-08T06:23:00.000+01:00

19 new names in the past day.

Mark Armstrong
Jonathan Cox
Monica Dixie
Edwina Dugdale
Barrie Fairhurst
Rene Ferreira
Marilyn Gilbert
Emma Haswell
Amy Hogg
Lorraine Huddleston
Samantha Knight
Lisa Macadam
Lisa Marshall
Chris Nash
Malcolm Newton
Jim O'Neill
Geoff Quayle
Peter Teare
Spence Waddell

Women 580
Men 557
Total 1137

Plenty of variety - 57 new entries

2008-05-07T08:22:00.000+01:00

Noel Ash
Sammy Ball
Grahame Barrow
Shirley Boyde
Mandy Buchleitner
Paula Butler
Christa Cain
Peter Caine
Susan Cannell
Derek Carter
Lee Douglas Clayton
Edward Cleator
Kayleigh Coole
Stephen Corkill
Adrian Costain
John Cubbon
Brigid Cummins
Debra Davey
Thurstan Charles Denne
Mary Doyle
Melanie Draper
Paul Everett
Jim Green
Abdel Haddouche
Trudy Haddouche
Fran Harding
Patricia Harrison
Roy Haskett
Karl Horne
Janet Hutson
Claire Jackson
Duncan Kelly
James Danial Kinley
Tracyann Kneen
Mark Lockwood
Sonja Macgregor
Kim Makin
Julie Matthews
Bryan Moyer
Helen Murray
Kay Mylchreest
Jooles Newton
Liz Popelier
Charlie Quirk
Kath Quirk
Paul Quirk
Gustav Rober
John Roberts
Kirsty Russell
Claire Saunders
Ealee Sheard
Simon Spenser
Jacqueline Street
Fintan Suddards
Ed Thomas
Hazel Wright
Heather Wright

Women 571
Men 547
Total 1118

Another 36

2008-05-06T13:39:00.000+01:00

Women = 542; Men = 519; Total =1061

Shauneen Burden
Andrea Burns
Chris Cain
Helen Cain
Barbara Cohen
Ronald Cortez
Sara Crisford
Amy Cryan
Anthony Donnelly
Mandy Duncan
Bill Entwistle
Simon Faulkner
John Gallagher
Melissa Hawley
Jenny Henman
Peter Hughes
James Michael Kelly
Jenny Killey
Vinny Lynch
Rachel Louise MacKellar
Alastair Macleod
Hugh McKnight
James McKnight
Susan Messenger
James Moore
Cem Nergiz
Beryl Payton
Tracey Quayle
Andrew Quirk
David Rawling
Emma Sansom
Tara Sheridan
Pauline Skillen
Steve Watt
Chris Wright
Chris Wright

Why leave it so late?

2008-05-06T07:21:00.002+01:00

I'm staggered to see so many regular Parish Walk finishers entering so late.

There are now 525 women and 500 men on the list.

Here are the latest 83 names.

Kinvig Alan
Ian Ashcroft
Peter Maurice Bell
Peter Bettridge
Sue Biggart
Paul Boulton
Alan Brew
Robert Alexander J Brown
Caroline Cain
John Callow
Peter (George) Cannell
David Chambers
Jonathan Charlton
Lesley Christian
David Clucas
Heather Collister
Gordon Corran
Alan Cowin
Katie Cowin
Monica Cowin
Katy Craig
Rosemarie Crellin
David Cretney
Jane Crowe
Gordon Erskine
Claire Furner
Sue Furner
Mike Gellion
Kevin Graham
Michael Gray
Stephanie Gray
Moira Hall
Ben Harris
Debbie Hawke
Mick Holgate
Mark Hudson
Pauline Hughes
Ray Hughes
John Hunter
Louise Jackson
David James
Haydn Mark Kenna
Tristan Kewley
Lynda Kinrade
Anthony Kneale
Marianne Konieczny
Andrew Marshall
Edward Marshall
Ian Marshall
Sally Mason
Billy McCoubrey
Paul Morgans
Morphet Morphet
Chris Murphy
Sean Murphy
Bob Noonan
Dermot O'Toole
Mina Patel
Paul Phillips
Rod Phillips
Samantha Prater
Martyn Quayle
Andy Quirk
Janice Quirk
Ernie Radcliffe
Wright Rob
Joan Scanes
Stan Sille
Richard Spenceley
Nicholas Stephenson
John Stubbs
Irene Taggart
Steve Taggart
Dave Tasker
Julian Thomas
Sarah Vaukins
Sarah Ward
Karen Watterson
Les Webb
Charlie Weston
David Whorrall
Gordon Wynne-Smythe

293 more names

2008-05-04T22:27:00.003+01:00

Reports from Karen Kneale suggest that there are a lot more manual forms to be processed (poor Karen) but there are now 943 names.

I'll list the 293 new names added to the database but before I do I'll also comment that the trend that I have been highlighting in recent weeks in now quite pronounced - 497 women and 446 men. Let's wait until the entries close next weekend before going over the top with these statistics just in case the entries are being input in batches and women are keyed first.

So here are the 293 names:

Kay Allen
Jonathan Ayres
Phil Neill Baillie
Richard Bairstow
Chris Ballard
Steve Bassil
Chris Bates
Norman Bell
Carol Louise Bevan
Rachel Evelyn Bevan
John Binns
Helen Black
Glenn Blacker
Anthony Bolton
Nikki Boyde
Brian Boyle
Faye Bradshaw
Rachel Bridges
Orla Brook
Alex Brown
Christopher Burn
Jonny Cain
Steve Cain
Frank Caine
Dick Callin
Tony Callister
Paul Lorenzo Camarda
Rob Campbell
Michael Cannan
Zoe Cannell
Philip Cannon
Rosalind Cannon
Kerstin Carlson Cook
James Carrel
Niall Chapman
Lynsey Christian
David Churcher
Ida Cihlarova
Steve Clague
Helen Clarke
Nicola Clarkson
Phillip Cleary
John Clucas
Kath Clucas
Ben Coates
Maria Coldwell
Catherine Colley
Gemma Collister
David Comish
Roberta Convery
Richard Cooil
Alison Corkill
Adie Corlett
Sam Corlett
Sally Cornforth
Paul Corrin
Peter Stanley Corrin
Hilary Coulthard
Elizabeth Coward
Tim Craig
Steven Crampton
Aishlinn Creer
Darryl Cregeen
Mary Crellin
Nik Crellin
Michael Crook
Colin Crooks
Eunice Cubbon
Melissa Cubbon
Ros Cubbon
Gilly Culshaw
Linda Curphey
Ben Dalglish
Elliott Davies
Malcolm Davies
Henrietta Davies-Mcgarvey
Henry De Silva
James Devaney
Sean Dickinson
Nicola Dobson
Ciaran Doherty
Colm Doherty
Helen Done
Andrew Dossor
Jim Duncan
Frank Feeney
Laura Fenlon
May Fenlon
Tony Fletcher
Bernadette Foody
Andrew Foulkes
Janet Foulkes
Lesa Fox
Georganne Frazier
Danial Frenzen
Graham Furner
Julia Furner
Rich Furner
Shirley Gage
Jean Gannon
Leslie Garrett
John Garvey
Alan W Gault
Emma Gelling
Helen Gibson
Kate Goldsmith
Marie Goosen
Steve Green
Zara Grimes
James Grimshaw
Geoff Hall
Sue Halsall
Steve Handford
Andy Harding
Nicola Harding
Pauline Harding
Vicky Harding
Victoria Harrop
Matthew Harvey
Rosie Hawes
Brian Hewett
Brian Hewett
Giles Hill
Sue Hodge
Lauren Holdaway
Rachel Holden
Susan Holme
Anne Hon
Graham John Hooper
Greg Hoskisson
Jay Houghton
Jennifer Houghton
Andrew Hunter
Emily Irwin
Nicola Jagus
Christine James
Nick James
Bowman Jayne
Sue Jewell
Chris Jones
Kevin Jones
Jim Kaighin
Mike Kaighin
Pam Kaighin
Peter Kaneen
Wendy Kearney
Katherine Keenan
James Kermeen
Kneale Kermeen
Clementine Kermode-Clague
John Barrie Kettle
Michael Killey
John Kinley
Dawn Kinnish
David John Kinrade
Geoff Kinvig
Terry Kinvig
Allie Kirk
Barrijon Kirkham
Annie Kneale
Marlene Kneen
Kim Lambden
Annette Lannon
Katie Lawrence
Barry Lawson
Tina Lawton
Jane Leece
Ian Lewandowskyj
Steph Lewin
Annette Lewis
Sammy MacDonald
Laura Macgregor
Margaret Manning
Alison Mason
Dermot McAreavy
Joanne McCabe
Sharon McCann
Carol McCoubrey
Lynn McCoubrey
Jackie McCulloch
Kevin McGarvey
Emma McGreevy
Ian McHugh
Suzanne McKay
Lynn McKibbin
Geraldine McLaughlin
Daksha Measuria
Haresh Measuria
Malcolm Meddings
Christopher Melvin
Beverly Milne
Wayne Milne
Cathy Mitchell
Samantha Moolman
Barry Moore
Hannah Moore
Jackie Moore
Stuart Mullan
Ann-Marie Murphy
Caroline Myers
Nicola Myers
Greg Nation
Lindsey Naylor
Sarah Nixon
James Nolan
Kirree Norton
James O'Toole
Stephen Pitts
Neil Potter
Emily Power
Sarah Prince
Matthew Quayle
Val Quayle
Vicky Quayle
Kevin Quirk
Ali Radcliffe
Julie Raybon
Kerry Redmayne
Leanne Redmayne
Sue Redmayne
Helen Renecle
Alan Richardson
Michael Richardson
Sarah Richardson
Helen Robinson
Marek Rogalewski
Kirree Ronan
Victoria Salisbury
Helen Scott
Gill Senogles
Dorothy Shallcross
John Shimmin
Odette Skillen
Mike Smedley
Charli Smith
Deb Smith
Fran Smith
Jill Smith
Paul Smith
Katherine Steele
Michelle Stevens
Susan Stewart
Donald Strathie
Fenella Street
John Street
Sue Sunliffe
Gemma Sutton
Cliodhna Swales
Julie Swales
Lucy Tame
Ben Tang
Trevor Tasker
David Tate
Elaine Taylor
Michael Teare
Nicola Teare
Jill Thomas
Tania Thomas
Jane Thompson
Seba Thomson
Katie Tinkler
Neil Towers
Rebecca Towers
Jane Travers
Michelle Turnbull
Nicola Unsworth
Kenny Valerga
Paola Verardi
Joy Vernon
May Wales
Paul Walker
Bernice Walmsley
Stef Walmsley
Ally Walsh
Ann Walshaw
Nicola Watson
Geoffrey Watterson
Victoria Watterson
Jim Weaver
Chris Webber
Robert Webber
Sean Weir
Eric Wells
Simon Wengradt
Rosemary Wild
Beckie Williams
Mark Williams
Clare Wilson
Pauline Winkless
Carolyn Wood
Paul Wood
Mike Woodworth
Sarah Woodworth

Women increase lead

2008-05-01T13:51:00.003+01:00

I know that there are a lot more manual entries still to be input but I thought that I would run a quick check on the new names in the confirmed entries. There are now 334 women and 316 men, ie 650 entries altogether.

Here are the new names:

Clive Alford
Jon Allen
Stacey Bairstow
Juliette Barlow
Ali Bell
Julie Bell
James Betteridge
Claire Bradley
Terry Bradley
Diamond Buchan
James Buchan
Laura Burman
Anthony Cagney
Bernard Cannan
Debbie Clague
Jorden Close
Miriam Collister
Chris Coole
Charlotte Copparelli
Sam Corkill
Kathleen Corkish
Alison Corlett
Charlie Cowpe
Beth Crellin
Martin Critchley
Les Crowe
John Dignan
Amanda Dougherty
Jenny Dowling
Stefan Dunajewski
Christine Duncan
Robert Ennett
Annette Fargher
Martine Fleming
Audrey Fowler
Karen Galvin
Eleanor Gawne
Adrian Gilmour
Peter Glover
Sharif Gomaa
John Grady
John Griffin
Nick Halsall
Andy Harrison
Nicky Hester
Rebecca Hill
Louise Hopkinson
Paula Howell Evans
James Howitt
Lynn Howitt
Carol Kelly
Matthew Kelly
Phil Kerruish
Margy Killey
Carole Laporte
Matthew Lewis
Karen Locking
Gesina Loubser
Sharon Lunt
Laura Mackie
Michelle Marley
Andrew McCutcheon
Gordon Mellor
Emma Metcalfe
Michelle Mitchell
Terry Moffat
Freya Murray
William Nelson
Kimberley O'Brien
Andrew Oram
Mark Roberts
Tracy Roberts
David Rogerson
Jill Ryan
Dave Shaw
Michael Shimmin
Lloyd Shipstone
Julia Skillicorn
Matthew Skinner
Carol Smith
Christopher Smith
David Smith
Jackie Smith
Jamie-Lee Smith
Julie Snape
Clague Steve
Dave Stockton
Kerry Tasker
Jackie Turley
Ben Watterson
Tara Westcott
Donna Whalley
Delon Yuen

There was an error on the online system that charged £25 a week too early which has now been fixed.

Details at: http://pub38.bravenet.com/forum/3219660836/fetch/674079/

Don't panic if you have entered with a paper form

2008-04-29T13:37:00.002+01:00

A few minutes ago, I started my lastest analysis of the entry list and there were 570 names.

A couple of minutes later and it was up to 572.

The reason is that Karen Kneale, one of the Parish Walk organising committee, has probably just started to input many of the paper entries. She is set for a long day and she has around 300 to type in all of the personal details.

So if you have entered in the past couple of weeks using the old system, think of Karen this afternoon and this evening and don't panic if your name is not on the old list yet.

The new system is really so much more efficient as the names go straight into the database, you don't have to write out a cheque and race secretary Elizabeth Corran does not have to open the post, sort the forms, bank the cheques and deal with so many queries.

Poor Karen has a young family and cannot update the database at a time to suit you!

This is only my thought and not official, but if the organisers were to switch to a 100% online entry system it would take away some of the need to close the entries quite so early. The majority of people leave the entries until the last minute which means that the workload cannot be spread out.

Anyway here are the extra 12 names up to 570:

Alison Corlett
Carol Kelly
Charlotte Copparelli
Clive Alford
Jackie Smith
Jill Ryan
Jon Allen
Julia Skillicorn
Kathleen Corkish
Matthew Lewis
Michelle Mitchell
Sam Corkill

In the time it has taken me to type this, the number has increased to 578. Thanks Karen!

231 view website but only 8 more enter walk

2008-04-29T06:17:00.002+01:00

There was a big increase in the number of people viewing the website yesterday.

There were 605 page loads from 231 different people.

But there were only another 8 entries online since yesterday lunchtime.

They were from:

Denise Peters
Ellen Livesey
James Hogg
Laura Bromley
Melony Corrin
Pauline King
Philip Crellin
Tim Magee

There are now 558 entries from 284 women and 274 men.

Women stride out

2008-04-28T13:40:00.003+01:00

There are now 550 names on the list - 278 women and 272 men.

The three new women and one new man are:

Freda Rimmer
Leila Dobbie
Ned Bowers
Stella Corlett

Sex change

2008-04-27T22:04:00.003+01:00

10 more entries since I analysed yesterday evening. Six women and four women that should put the female entries two ahead of the males. But when I run the test for those with either an "M" or a "W" in the category, I find 275 women and 271 men. So either my stats are wrong or one person has had a sex change (remember that changing one has a double effect because one number goes up 1 and the other down 1!). I'll leave you to guess what it is and to see if anyone else changes sex in my lists tomorrow.

Here are the 10 new names:

Anthony Beagan
Claire Hamer
Colm Andrew
Gillian Manley
Kevin Costain
Lucy McDowell
Martina Lynch
Rebecca McDowell
Steve O'Hare
Wendy Fallon

Only one entry

2008-04-26T18:56:00.000+01:00

I really thought that there would have been a flood of entries today - but there has only been one!

So I'm not going to bother to do another check to see who it is until there are a few more.

COME ONE!!

Still together

2008-04-26T07:01:00.001+01:00

2 entries since 11 o'clock last night - a man and a woman.

David Bell
Trish Cain

536 in total.

Another check tonight.

Neck and Neck

2008-04-25T22:54:00.002+01:00

Another 11 entries on this list since 1'olock today and with 8 men and 3 women the numbers are now equal - 267 men and 267 women.

Here are the names of the new additions:

Alan Teare
Ashley Hanlon
Carl Senogles
Craig Hardie
Darren Mealin
Hilary Borthwick
Huw Warrington
Julie Desmarchelier
Laura Gardner
Leon Steed
Maurice Bellando

If you arer reading this and have not entered, but intend to, get plastic out now!

Women increase their lead

2008-04-25T13:13:00.004+01:00

Since this time yesterday, a further 11 names have appeared on the official list - 7 women and 4 men.

So the 523 entries consist of 259 men and 264 women.

The new names are:

Breeshey Corrin
Breeshey Harkin
Claire Cooke
Eammon Harkin
Hannah Newton
Martin Crellin
Sheila Skillicorn
Simon Cox
Tara-Lee Whyte
Thomas Morfett
Wendy Easthope

More women than men

2008-04-24T13:59:00.003+01:00

The last time I analysed the entries, there were 266 on the list. There are now 512 (or at least there were an hour ago; the person who has entered in the last hour won't be included in this analysis!) so there another 246 names to account for.

The amazing thing is, that for the first time ever in the history of the Parish Walk, there are more women than men in the entry list, although I see one lady has entered twice so maybe this is a Mugabe style poll! 257 women have entered and only 255 men.

Remember that this analysis is unofficial and that there will be a delay before people who enter manually appear on the list - all the more reason to enter online. Actually I think the 246 include many who were previously on the manual list but its too late to rework this.

Here are the 246 new names. I'll try and keep the analysis up to date from now on:

Aalish Bennett
Abbie Leece
Adam Russell
Alan Cooper
Alan Pilling
Alastair Gillespie
Alison Crompton
Alison McCarthy
Andrea Castle
Andrew Hartley
Andrew Moore
Andrew Shephard
Andrew Starkey
Andrew Titley
Andy Finch
Angela Bray
Ann Parry
Anna Teare
Anneka Rae
Annette Heath
Annie Harling
Ben Constable
Ben Walshaw
Beth Thomas
Bethan Saxon
Beverley Broderick
Breeshey Craine
Brian Caine
Brian Cowley
Brian Leece
Brian Sinden
Bronwen Udy
Candy Dias
Carl Wilson
Carole Staples
Catherine Close
Catherine Close
Catherine Kennedy
Catherine Sayle
Catriona Farrant
Cecilia McCallum
Cedric Quayle
Chris Moon
Claire Stanton
Colette Skillen
Colin Clark
Colin Cowley
Craig Riley
Daniel Evans
Darren Taylor
Darrin Oldam
Dave Mason
Dave Meban
David Griffiths
David Griffiths
Dawn Gell
Debbie Rogers
Don McCulloch
Douglas Jacobsson
Ed Walter
Edwina Harrocks
Elena Snidal
Ellen McGirr
Emma Jayne Keig
Fenella Carter
Fran Ball
Gary Merrill
Gary Thomas
Gaye Miller
Gedeon Roberts
Gemma Sharp
Geoff Cowle
Geoff Sharpe
Geoffrey Doggrell
Geraldine St.Ruth
Gillian Cunningham
Glenn Weir
Glyn Evans
Graeham Quilliam
Hannah King
Harry Pugh
Hayley Rigg
Hayley Sayle
Heather Craig
Helen Flanders
Ian Allan Dunbar
Ian Corlett
Illona Leadley
Isobel Gough
Jackie Horne
Jacqueline Kelly
James Clague
Jamie Brown
Jamie Christian
Jane Birchall
Jane Leonard
Jane Ryder
Janette Gledhill
Jason Davies
Jemma Irene Armitage
Jennifer Cannell
Jenny Coates
Jenny Dias
Jill Bennett
Jill Gillings
Jim Davidson
Jo Bridson
Jo Sykes
Joanna Teare
Joanne Ciappelli
Joanne Coole
John C Ryder
John Gunnion
John Watterson
Jon Mercer
Jonathan Hewson
Jonathan Pugh
Juan Readshaw
Jude Angell
Julie Cannon
Julie Cretney
Julie Crossley
Julie Hill
Julie Jackson
Julie Owen
Justine France
Kara Kneale
Karen Lawrie
Karen Sharpe
Karen Smirthwaite
Kath Kelly
Kathleen McGhee
Kathryn Walker
Katie Wilkinson
Kelly Haynes
Ken Harding
Ken Mitchell
Kerryann Cassidy
Kerstin Dighton
Kevin Shimmin
Kim Duncan
Kirsty Weir
Laura Clarkson
Leanne McGarvey
Lee Breadner
Lindsay Grant
Liz Chandler
Louise Cain
Louise Hollings
Lynne Quayle
Marie Jackson
Mark Fensome
Mark Hempsall
Mark Saunders
Martin Rigg
Maryja Judkowska
Matt Moffatt
Maureen Kelly
Maureen Moffatt
Melanie Curwen
Melanie Moores
Michael Farnworth
Michell Husemann
Mick Rafferty
Mike Berry
Mike Radcliffe
Natasha Richards
Neil Booth
Neil Brew
Neil Helmer
Nicola Callow
Nicola Davies
Nicola Horisk
Nikki Salmon
Oliver Webster
Orna Lynch
Pamela Scott
Patrcia Sweeney
Patrick Hartley
Paul Cannan
Paul Malone
Paul Mckinstry
Paul Slinger
Paul Sykes
Pauline Ringham
Penny Craighill
Peta Warren
Peter Callow
Peter Lewis
Peter Russell
Peter Storry
Phil Marshall
Rachael Tewkesbury
Rachel Turner
Rachel Udy
Ralph Pawling
Ray Johnstone
Raymon Philip Myles
Regina Ripamonti
Remo Ricciardi
Richard Creamore
Robbie Callister
Robbie Stockton
Robert Corrin
Robert Mylchreest
Robert Udy
Rod Kaye
Rowena Finch
Sally Bettridge
Samantha Cubbon
Sandra Halpin
Sandra Kaighin
Sandra Wrigley
Sarah Clayton
Sarah Cripps
Sarah Johnson
Sarah Thornhill
Sean Hands
Sheila Davies
Simon Starkey
Sinead Venus
Sonya Mercer
Stephanie Kelly
Stephen O'Hare
Steve Curtis
Steve Willmott
Stuart Fenton
Sue Ferns
Tania Saunders-De-Pons
Tara Slinger
Terrence Lundin
Tim White
Timothy Laycock
Tom Wilson
Tracey Chambers
Trevor Nixon
Veronica Dimelow
Vicki Craighill
Vicki Rawlinson
William Alexander
William Godley
William Meban
Yedhu Jagannathan
Yue Kendall
Zoe Lace
Zoe Williams

Never mind the forum how about your entry

2008-04-23T13:42:00.002+01:00

I got a little silly first thing this morning when I saw that there were still less than 500 entries for the Clerical Medical Parish Walk. I've been predicting 1,500 but at the very least there must be another 700 to come in.

The standard entry fee will cease to be available in 10 days time. But bear in mind that you have already had 144 days to set aside a couple of minutes to enter online.

My silliness amounted to declaring 3 May as the National Idiots Day (see www.manxathletics.com) as that it is the day when so many people run the risk of missing the deadline for standard fee entries.

Yes, there are some people who have delayed their entry because they are not reasonably certain that they will be able to take part. But there are far more who are just inconsiderate as it is difficult for the organisers to plan if they don't get a feel for the numbers.

OK, its less important than in the past now that we have online entries than when Elizabeth Corran used to receive a deluge of entries in the final few days but it is still unnecessary to leave things to the last minute.

Every year Elizabeth has had to spend 90% of her time with 10% of the entries - or rather entries and late entries.

Make no mistake about it, unless you enter on time you will not be taking part in the Parish Walk.

And if I had my way I would ban anyone who lied about the date they posted their entry form.

I don't mean to offend those people who have good reason for delaying their entry but I make no apology for offending those that have been training for six months but can't spare those vital two minutes.

I don't know if my message has reached a few people as there have already been 5 entries today.

I'll try and analyse the entries a bit more later this week.

Don't forget the forum

2008-04-21T22:25:00.003+01:00

As frequently stated, I started the http://www.manxathletics.com/ site in 2000 and it wasn't long before I tried to establish a forum.

With fewer users on the site and perhaps because people were a bit shy, in the early days I often resorted to starting debates by posting something controversial - my suggestion that veteran athletics should only start at 60 because most events were being won by over 40s certainly did the trick!

The forum has been in its present form (hosted by http://www.bravenet.com/ ) for about five years and the vast majority of the visitors to the main site also appear to check out the forum on a regular basis.

So if you need some help with your training, with your aches and pains or your race tactics, don't be afraid to ask the expects for help.

A good example of the response you can expect was a recent request for help from a walker suffering an injury. Loads of people, including several professionals, came to his/her help.

The only problem is that the walker did not provide their name and email address as required by the forum rules.

This usually means that the post would be deleted but occasionally I have let such entries go. But the rule is still there - its just not being enforced on this occasion. That is a theme I shall return to on another day.

To access the forum use this link:

http://pub38.bravenet.com/forum/3219660836

3 hours thinking about Dermot O'Toole

2008-04-17T13:32:00.003+01:00

Dermot O'Toole - "I never say never again."

Three years ago I spent many an evening sharing stories with Dermot O'Toole as he compiled his wonderful book about the Parish Walk. If you have not yet purchased a copy of "A Walk Through Time" you are missing out - get one now!

He delved into my statistics, my attic collection of all things Parish Walk and my memory.

At 51, my memory is already much better recalling things that happened a long time ago than events from recent years (ask my friends in London about that) but the one story I remember from our hours of ramblings was that Dermot said that he had given up saying "Never again" after a Parish Walk as he knew he would rescind the threat.

He has now completed the Parish Walk 13 times and he used to say ever year that it would be his last.

Sunday was the 9th time that I had run in the London Marathon and I had a good cross section of times in the previous 8. On watch times I had 3 sub 2.45 performances (one was officially a few seconds over in the days before the chips), two carefully managed sub 3 hour runs and 3 really badly run races when I ran far too fast for my level of fitness and ended up struggling (and walking) parts of the final few miles.

But in all 8 of the previous runs I had thoroughly enjoyed the first 15 miles even if the final stages were to go pear shaped. I always took time to enjoy the atmosphere, slap the hands of the kids holdings them out at the side of the road, share a joke and a chat with other runners.

I missed out completely on Sunday. I ran the first four miles at a pace that I was well accustomed to in training runs of up to 20 miles and yet by 5.5 miles I felt awful. I'm not committing myself in public to the reasons for my problems until I have distinguished between cause and effect, chicken and egg.

For a time I was certain I would not finish and kept thinking about where I would drop out and how I would keep warm getting back to the finish.

It was at an early stage that I made two decisions. For the sake of those that expected it of me, I had to keep going even if it took me all day. The second was that this would be my last marathon - EVER.

Through the increasing pain (Tower Bridge was just a trap full of noise that I wanted to escape from rather than the normal highlight of the run) I couldn't get away from Dermot's words.

Deep down I knew that telling myself that this would be my last marathon was just a mechanism for reaching the end. It wasn't something I really meant.

And from the moment I crossed the line my thoughts were not about avoiding the marathon but on gaining revenge.

Its a tactic that you should consider for the Parish Walk. But if you have prepared yourself well (much better than me), you won't need such a tactic.

Self appointed PR

2008-04-16T13:31:00.006+01:00

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.

I dreamt I wrote a London Marathon Preview

2008-04-11T22:04:00.003+01:00

I continued my London Marathon preparation with five hours a night sleep last night. By the time I finished preparing the Marathon results spreadsheet the clock had slipped past one and I was up soon after six as usual.

But perhaps I have actually been sleeping more than I thought. I thought I had got up early on Tuesday morning to write a preview of the marathon but I see now that it was actually written by John Watterson. Oh well, at least I can stop blaming myself for the typo when I referred to the 2001 census instead of the 1981 version.

Our travelling went ultra smoothly today and Nigel Armstrong took the picture above of myself, Paul Curphey and Mike Garrett after we had registered at the Excel Centre.

The first person we met at the airport today was June Melvin who I only met for the first time on Wednesday when I did the Parish Walk feature.

This used to be the most relaxing two days of the year but now I have wireless access in my hotel (£15 per day for the pleasure) so I'm still playing around with this website lark.

But having also paid handsomely for my hotel room I will ensure that I get more than 5 hours sleep tonight. I've always felt the night before the night before a big event is the most important one.

I'll see if I can bring any more tales from London tomorrow.

I've been to Andreas

2008-04-09T23:36:00.003+01:00

Photo from Andreas

Its only usually at the Parish Walk time that I get to drive to Andreas so it was a delightful drive from Ballasalla via Foxdale and Kirk Michael to meet Maureen Moffatt at her house tonight with her sister June Melvin and brother David "Lon" Chambers.

You only have to go as far as the http://www.parishwalk.com/ site or even the http://www.manxathletics.com/ site to see the purpose of my drive.

And it was also a lovely drive over the mountain to Douglas. When you get to drive on the quieter roads (or on the busy roads at quiet times) you realise just how the Isle of Man has changed. Not quite as quiet as Saturday afternoon, however, when I jogged along the TT course from the Bradywell Road junction to the Bungalow when the road was closed.

I chose my words carefully in the opening paragraph because although I rarely drive to Andreas I have run through there twice on two separate days this winter as part of my London Marathon training. The first day was on the occassion of the worst of my asthma problems which have curtailed my winter training. Too many of my long runs have seen me walking this winter but neverthless with a stack of 20+ plus runs under my belt I think I have enough to be nervous about with 3 days and 10 hours to go to the London.

I'm not bothering to run at all this week (I did two 12 mile steady runs at the weekend in addition to running around with camera in hand on Saturday) but the hours have gone quicker than ever with not many left for sleeping. Yesterday I started a London Marathon article for the newspaper at 5.45 am after five hours sleep and closed down my computer at 1.30 am there was less than five hours again last night.

As always, if you have emailed me you will eventually get a reply but I must concentrate on replying to holiday booking enquiries emails tonight if I am going to get more than five hours sleep again tonight.

50 mile walking races

2008-04-08T13:19:00.003+01:00

Well done to everyone who competed in the Sara Killey memorial races on Sunday.

I didn't see the race but it seemed to be pretty competitive at the front between Mark Hempsall and Jock Waddington and their time was 46 seconds faster than Steve Partington's time from last year. Very good going considering the horrible weather.

It was good to see the results available on the evening of the walk so it would appear to a good investment by the Fire Services to invest in the Manxtimingsolutions.com technology.

I have to admit that despite being a fan of long distance walking, particularly the Parish Walk, I get frightened of the road safety aspects of the events.

When I came into the sport in the mid 1970s there were two long distance walks of just over 50 miles. The big one was the London to Brighton, using the roads that were used for so many sporting challenges, and the other was the Manchester to Blackpool.

The Manchester to Blackpool was the only one that I ever did and that was in 1978 when I was based in Manchchester with BRS for 6 months (my work experience during a Business Studies degree) but I was working in Preston for six weeks. It is somewhat embarrassing to admit that (along with several other walkers) it was in Preston that I missed a turn and had to walk back a couple of hundred yards.

But events were so much more laid back in those days. There were virtually no marshals as we set off from the centre of Manchester and walked through Bolton town centre - can you imagine doing that now even with marshals?

Although it was low key event in those days (apart from the inevitable "stick" that you got from people on the course who only saw race walking once a year) its origins were high profile.

The winner of the walk received the News of the World Trophy and it was presented by the Mayor of Blackpool at a civic reception at the Winter Gardens. I'm not sure when the walk was first held (probably in the early part of the 20th century) but it was at a time when you were fortunate if you could afford a holiday in Blackpool. If you did, it was a long journey on the train. So the thought of tough guys actually walking the whole way at the start of the Wakes Week must have created a lot of media interest. I believe that it would have been back page national news in the sponsor's paper and that thousands would have welcomed the walkers in Blackpool.

The event was the last of the big open road walks to go (in the last 10 years I think) to be replaced by a 50 mile walk around a park in Blackpool.

The London to Brighton went earlier despite a move to country roads. I don't think it ever recovered from the event that I (and many others) dread - a fatal accident involving a competitor.

For many years the walking season would start in November with 7 mile races (especially in the South of England). The National 10 miles were held in March and they would be preceded by area and county championships (the 10 miles incorporated the the inter counties champs).

April and May would see the same round of events for 20km and June would be the 20 miles at area and national level (replaced by 30km and 35km races later).

The distances would be extended again in July for the National 50km. the fields would get smaller as the distances got longer. The walkers would race frequently and the nationals would also be broken by the Leicester Mercury 20 Miles and the Bradford 50km on May Bank Holiday weekend and the aforesaid Manchester to Blackpool in June.

After the Nationals, many a walker's family would be taken for their holiday to somewhere like Hastings (38 miles Hastings to Brighton walk early August), Isle of Man (TT course walk in late August) or to London for the London to Brighton on the first Saturday in September.

The 100 mile walk would be held at the end of July (I think) and old fashioned courses such as the Leicester to Skegness were used every other year. London to Brighton and back had been used in the really old days. Nowadays, of course, these sort of courses are all on traffic free (or virtually traffic free) courses.

It was only in 1980 that a 100km walk was introduced and this moved long distance walking towards shorter multi lap courses. If I told you that they were held on the M42 you might not believe that walking was safer in those days! I walked on that motorway on the second year and live to tell the tale. The motorway development ran out of funds and parts of it were left unused for several years before the funds were found to finish it - lovely surface with no camber!

To conclude, however, having seen the way walking has moved off roads in the UK (also fewer walkers - chicken or egg?) I really do question whether it is realistic to increase the number of long road races in the Isle of Man from two back up to the three that there used to be. They are all extremely dangerous however well marshalled they are.

Despite these reservations I have nothing but admiration for those who completed the course (or even parts of it) and the reports I have heard are of a very well organised event.

The next 10 days

2008-04-04T13:32:00.001+01:00

It seems unlikely that I will be able to provide any coverage of the Sarah Killey Memorial walk this weekend.

You can read Michael George's preview of the event at http://michaelsparishblog.blogspot.com/

The walk was first held last year when I was running in the heat of the London Marathon and the walkers were frozen in the mist of the Isle of Man! The date clash has been avoided this year but I'm afraid that it is just one event too many to find time to commit to.

Good luck to all taking part and please take extra care with road safety, drivers as well as walkers.

My sister Margaid and her husband and two children will be starting their "Easter" Holiday in the Isle of Man on Saturday. They live in Crouch End in London and some of the UK schools have moved their holidays away from Easter this year. Its the first time that I have seen them since the London Marathon last year and we'll be out for lunch at Glen Helen on Sunday and plan to spend plenty of time with them and the rest of our family on the Isle of Man.

My brother-in-law Alan was offered £10,000 in sponsorship if he ran the London Marathon a few years ago but only managed only a single 10 minute run before telling his sponsor that their money was safe! He is Fund Raising Director for UK charity Shelter who had been one of the two special charities in the Flora London Marathon that year.

Since then, unbelievably to us, Alan has completed two short triathlons and now cycles daily to work. Some months ago Margaid looked up the fixture list on the manxathletics.com and noticed that there is a run in Ramsey next Friday when they will still be here. She decided that Alan would take part! Our son Robbie has been getting his sprint finishes honed in the belief that he can beat Alan. With our other son Ben having got the running bug (he goes back to university the next day) and the possibility of my nieces also running the junior race in Ramsey I'm looking forward to that night.

The only trouble is that I will be in London from Friday morning until Monday morning for one of the highlights of my year. I love the marathon weekend and I'll write more about it soon. I may even update the blog from London on my laptop.

As well as having run London in 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 & 2007 (8 times if I can count) I have spectated and supported the other Manx runners every year that I have not run in that period (I also watched in 1983 and 1984). It is quite demanding to provide the statistical and pictorial coverage on the website as well as running.

Before I go, if at all possible, I will do the next of the features on the parishwalk.com . I have provisionally arranged a meeting with the subjects for Wednesday evening.

I'm also hoping to take pictures and to make another film of the Snaefell Fell Race tomorrow, although the difficulty of access has lessened the chances.

Our holiday business at murrayandmarie.com has record bookings for this year and so when I return from London I will be preparing our cottage at Port Soderick every weekend until October (except of course the Parish Walk weekend when it will be outsourced!).

I'm not going to be able to make the cross country presentation tonight either but hope that it is reasonably well supported. Andy Fox, who already has so m any jobs in the sport, has worked so hard to make this happens. I hope that you enjoy it.

I understand that Brian Goldsmith's funeral is planned for Friday 11th April and so regrettably I shall miss it.

It has been an incredibly sad period for the Isle of Man with a succession of people connected with the sport passing away. This is another area that I will return to when it is appropriate to do so.

I hope to have a few words on other subjects in the next 10 days but, if there are gaps, please bear with me.

Parish walkers can be fooled

2008-04-01T13:48:00.004+01:00

I've just made another phone call to Sue: "Hi Sue - did you hear that those two Parish walkers Michael George and Mark Hempsall were among the people fooled by the April fool story on the http://www.manxathletics.com/ site" I asked?

"Oh yes, the one about Nigel Armstrong, whose main target for the season is to run the 56 mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa on 15 June, will run two laps of the London Marathon on 13 April in preparation. Last month he intended to run the Draycote Marathon in just under 3 hours but couldn't hold back as much as intended and ran 2:46:50. The original plan for London was also to go just inside three hours (rather than attack his 2004 PB on 2:44:32) and possibly help his friend Mark Clague to beat that barrier for the first time. The training schedule that he is following involves a number of "back to back" long sessions at weekends and he thought about running a long session on the day before the London Marathon to ensure that he did not overdo the main event (the faster pace requires much more recovery time and therefore interferes with his ultra marathon training). But there were logistical problems with this plan and so he has been in touch with the organisers of the Flora London Marathon to arrange to run two laps of the marathon on the same day. They are always keen to get the extra publicity and so they are going to help him.He'll start the first lap as soon as the roads close at 6 am. He plans to finish the first lap at about 9.30, 15 minutes before the main event starts. The organisers will have a car lined up to take him from the finish back to the start and he'll commence his second lap at 10 am. This will give him sufficient space on the road to wind his way through the slower runners. Although the lack of clear space will undoubtedly slow his second lap, he will be out to get close to his first lap time - possibly in around 3.45. The chip that runners carry on their shoes will record both times and the faster of his two laps will be included in the official results.He'll have a light breakfast in between laps (the Strand Palace Hotel where he is staying is close to the finish) to get used to running with food. One thing is for sure, he will be so hungry for the next 24 hours that he'll even beat Mike Garrett (who has been planning his full English Breakfast on Monday morning for several months!) to the breakfast table. For the past three years Nigel has taken several of us to the Savoy Hotel after the marathon. The Savoy is currently closed for renovations but I'll take him to the Ritz this year if he achieves this target. Unfortunately Nigel is struggling with a knee injury at the moment which may curtail his plans. I can't think of anything that will stop him. Can you?" that women that I previously described as stupid replied.

Video of Robbie Callister

2008-03-28T13:23:00.002Z

The 22 minute interview with Robbie Callister (split into three parts) is now available from the links on the parishwalk.com home page or directly at:

http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/Videos.htm

You can also see them (and more than 100 other home made films) by going to www.youtube.com/murraylambden

I've been talking about doing the video for almost a year and with his normal pre Parish walk walking holiday in Spain starting next week, it rather forced the issue and made a bit of a now or never project.

I hope that you enjoy watching it. As always, I learnt a bit about the featured person.

How I helped Michael George set a personal best

2008-03-27T13:43:00.003Z

We enjoyed an excellent meal at the Welbeck Hotel on Sunday and helped Michael George towards record bookings for a Sunday lunch. The meal was so good I had to phone Sue and tell her all about it.

“Hi Sue. Did you know that nice Michael George man who is trying to win the Parish Walk and is writing a blog at www.michaelsparishblog.blogspot.com also runs the Welbeck Hotel with his wife Irene.”

“I believe they do lovely meals in the restaurant and their Sunday lunches are £15 for two courses or £18 for three” she replied.

“That’s not all.” I said “Up to two children can eat free when they are with an adult”.

“I seem to have lost their number, how do I get in touch” said Sue.

“Its 675663 or you can visit www.welbeckhotel.com. But before you go Sue, can I ask you a question”.

“Go on” she said.

“Do you realise how many people switch off the radio when they hear your awful adverts”.

The long run

2008-03-26T14:08:00.003Z

The heading is the name of an Eagles song. It has been said that my idea of getting up to date with music is to play the new Eagles album rather than their old ones.

I'm off to see the Eagles perform live at the O2 Arena in London in a couple of hours having previously seen them in Stafford in 1977 and Manchester in 2001 and 2006. The tickets are very expensive and it may not be a coincidence that they encore with "Take it Easy".

So there is no long run tonight and not enough time to tell you about the conversation I had with race director Raymond Cox last night about some exciting plans for this year at the Parish Walk.

Just time to tell you that I recorded a three part interview with Robbie Callister last night. It will be posted on the Parishwalk.com site but if you can't wait that long, go to manxathletics.com

Not looking forward to re-starting the blog

2008-03-25T07:45:00.004Z

Brian Goldsmith, who passed away on Saturday, at Ballacraine in the 2007 Peel to Douglas walk.

I think I implied last week that I would be giving the blog a rest for a few days and those few days turned out to be even more hectic than I could have imagined.

The worst part of the weekend, however, on returning to my house on Saturday morning to download pictures and videos from the Manx Mountain Marathon before heading off to Peel for the Peel Hill Race, was to receive an email from Eammon Harkin.

He was passing on the news that Brian Goldsmith had passed away just a couple of hours earlier. Brian was due to train with a group of walkers on Saturday morning but had failed to show up - Eammon had received the news from their mutual friend, John Stubbs.

Only the previous evening Brian had been marshalling at the Easter Festival 10km. Ian Turnbull, who has written a wonderful tribute to Brian for the http://www.manxathletics.com/ website was due to go on holiday with Brian and his wife Sandie tomorrow and had been with them when Brian returned home from the run on Friday evening.

Brian was a late convert to race walking only after injuries prevented him from running. I'd known him for around 20 years without ever being too close but he regularly gave me feedback about my websites. He would tell me how much he enjoyed them but he was equally quick to tell me if he didn't like something - such as when I experimented by putting text over photos.

Sandie is an amazing lady who, despite coming to terms with such a sudden loss, found time yesterday to phone me to thank me for featuring Brian on the website. She completed the Parish Walk in 2001 (she said she couldn't have done it without Brenda Charlton's company) but it remained one of Brian's ambitions to get the whole way around.

I wasn't looking to re-starting the blog this morning on such a sad note and in the knowledge that that Brian would not be among the daily visitors to http://www.manxathletics.com/ this morning.

You can read the tributes to Brian (or add your own) at http://pub38.bravenet.com/forum/3219660836/show/668272

Murray

Just a few bits and pieces

2008-03-18T13:24:00.002Z

Its been a few days since I wrote anything although I don't feel the need to make excuses.

I think that Karen Kneale, who used to have to input all of the Parish Walk entries into the computer but now only has to do the manual entries, was hard at work at the weekend as the number of entries has shot up.

There is likely to be some duplication at the moment between the manual list and the online list if the online list now includes the manual list! I'll try and reconcile the numbers before too long.

I remembered what the other "celebrity engagement" for Robbie Callister was - he is to open Laa Columb Killey in June. For those who don't live on the Isle of Man (or do live here but have made no effort to get involved in the community), "Laa Columb" is the annual parish festival of Arbory. Whilst the organisers plan to involve as many people as possible from their own parish, they also open up the sports (which have traditionally included a road run and a race walk) to the world. Its held on the last Saturday in June.

The event is held in a field near to Arbory Church. If you don't know where Arbory Church is you shouldn't be doing the Parish Walk!

My main focus, as far as athletics is concerned, for the next few days will be on the Easter Athletics Festival.

I was one of the first to enter the 10km run but last night I made the decision to withdraw. In the past year and a bit I have developed exercise induced asthma and although I now have an inhaler I was obviously not getting it right last night. Its always on the short sessions that I have problems. I tried to go a bit faster than usual but ended up running along the promenade on a 2 x 1.7 mile session at over 7 minute miles. I ran 20 miles at under 6.30 recently so I clearly had a problem again. I don't fancy spending all day Friday preparing for the 10km only to suffer in the same way.

So I shall be out with my cameras on Friday as well as Saturday afternoon as planned. As well as uplifting video to YouTube I'll be making a film for the prize presentation and I may manage to get a few copies onto DVD. Isle of Man College will not be producing a video this year and although mine will not be as professional as theirs, hopefully it will record as few memories as will the digital photos.

I'm also planning to photograph and film the Manx Mountain Marathon on Saturday morning. I'm planning to film some of the earlier stages this year.

All the above is of course subject to the weather. Which is a nice way of linking two of the stories above. Adrian Cowin, who provides the weather forecasts for most of the local events, is also chairman of the Laa Columb Killey organising committee.

Back to Robbie Callister. I have seen him a few times lately and am grateful to him for answering an SOS to do some work on our holiday cottage at Port Soderick. Just when I was about to start cleaning for our first guests of the season (we are pretty well full until the end of September - see www.murrayandmarie.com ) I noticed some water damage. I'm going to be working there on a couple of nights this week.

I'm meeting Robbie again next week though when I am filming him for a special feature for the www.parishwalk.com website.

Thanks to Stuart Gerrard, I am able to attend the Sports Awards dinner this Thursday. Watch out for the photos.

Lots of things to do with the family this weekend too but at least they will be spared my cooking for Sunday lunch - we are off to that excellent restaurant at the Welbeck Hotel run (should that we walked?) by Michael and Irene George. You'll have to read Michael's blog for the next few days.

Happy Easter.

Latest feature - Jock Waddington

2008-03-14T13:52:00.003Z

I've just published the fourth article on a featured walker. This month it is Jock Waddington.

I decided to pick on him this time last week. After exchanging emails we had a chat after the 20 miles on Sunday (I was running, he was lap scoring).

I haven't much of a chance this week to prepare the article but I could feel the pressure of wanting to keep the momentum going with the parishwalk.com website.

I managed to do some late night trawling for old photos of Jock last night and it was an early start this morning to draft the words and research the statistics. I then sent Jock a draft before work this morning and I've now made the final changes.

As always, I learnt a lot about the featured person and enjoyed doing it. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Women do it better than men - again

2008-03-13T13:30:00.002Z

In the last 9 days, my unofficial analysis of the entries show that women are continuing to get their entries in slightly faster than men.

There have been a further 31 online entries in the past 9 days including 16 women. Women now make up 122 of the 266 online entries.

Will they catch the men up at this rate?

Here are the 31 new names:

Andrew Corris
Andrew Willoughby
Andy Green
Antony Quayle
Carly May
David Goldsmith
Helen Lyall
Jeff Black
John Horton
John Staines
Judith Abell
Kate Bottomley
Kelly Sherratt
Lesley Chappell
Maggie Richardson
Mark Johnson
Martyn Anderson
Melanie Christian
Nigel Hart
Patrick Horton
Rachael Perry
Rachel Cuddy
Rosemary Brereton
Samantha Chappell
Simon Dunn
Timothy Fee
Timothy Martin
Tina Cowper
Trudi Halsall
Victoria Tomlinson
Wendy Rolland

Add yours as soon as possible please.

Dutch like blogs as well as clogs

2008-03-12T13:47:00.002Z

A quick review of the statistics for my various websites show that 94% of the visitors to the www.parishwalk.com site are from the UK (I'm afraid that includes the Isle of Man for most computer issues), 2% are from the US (probably looking for walks in Paris!), 2% from the Netherlands and 2% from other countries.

But the blog only attracts 89% of its nutters from the UK, 1% from the US and 1% from miscellanous countries. The remaining 9% are from the Netherlands. The walkers obviously like their blogs as well as clogs.

We get double, double Dutch here.

Some of the people who view this blog have noticed that I usually update it at lunchtime but I didn't intend to today. I was supposed to be in England but due to the severe weather Manx2 cancelled their plane to Leeds Bradford.

At least I now get a chance to stretch my aching limbs tonight for the first time since the 20 mile run on Sunday.

Wayne Rooney to mark the pitch for local football match

2008-03-11T13:52:00.003Z

I'm probably exaggerating things to make a point here. There are probably a lot of highly paid professional sportsmen who put something back into the grass roots other than spit. But I'm trying to get across the importance of everyone doing their bit for the sport. In athletics, they usually do.

As an example that Parish Walkers can relate to, course record holder Sean Hands was lap scoring for about four hours at the 20 mile run on Sunday morning (along with loads of equally important volunteers).

The Parish Walk still needs helpers. The contacts are on the front page if you can spare some time to help.

But there is a short term requirement.

The Easter Festival is one of the show piece athletics events on the Isle of Man and it is so good to see hundreds of young people taking part. Manx Harriers have issued an urgent appeal for helpers and Paul Jackson has tabulated the requirements on the www.easterfestival.info website so that people can select from a range of roles that take up varying amounts of time on different days. Please spare a little bit of time from your Parish Walk training.

Have a look at http://www.manxathletics.com/manxharriers/EFhelpers.htm

I hope to see you at the Easter Festival. Who knows, there may be someone famous there. Nigel Mansell is on the Island the day before. Nigel, could you spare an hour on Friday evening to marshal the junction near your old home?

Young Farmers Concert

2008-03-10T06:40:00.002Z

Judging the teams at the young farmers annual concert is just one of a number of "celebrity" engagements that Robbie Callister has acquired over the next few months.

He is also has an engagement of the primary school at Castletown and I have forgotten what the other one was.

He is training hard for the Parish Walk, however, and judging from what I saw of him on Saturday afternoon looks in good shape to perform well again. He is making his almost annual trip to Spain in April as part of his preparations.

Robbie Callister to judge

2008-03-08T16:43:00.003Z

Robbie Callister will be judging this year. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

I officially gave up walking nearly 25 years ago so I am hoping that I won't be walking tomorrow. I'm planning to run in the 20 miles at the NSC - my first race on the Island since the first weekend in November for various reasons.

Not junk mail

2008-03-07T13:59:00.002Z

After writing about email earlier in the week, it was somewhat embarrassing to discover, when I cleared out my junk mail from the junk mail folder in Outlook, that an email from Kerry Sharpe dated 24 February to tell me that she had set up her blog had been sitting there.

It explains the further delay but I'm pleased to note that her blog is now up and running.

Go the link on the front page to read it. Please give her loads of encouragement and feedback- but no junk mail.

I've not had much time for websites during the past few days, or even email, and the time I had set aside at lunchtime today has just been taken updating the databases from the HSBC Securities Services Manx Harriers open.

So I'm closing now.

3 times a day and women are best

2008-03-04T13:50:00.002Z

Online entries have increased by 21 in the past week - 11 women and 10 men.

Here is the latest roll of honour:

Amanda Butler
Amanda Haxby
Andrew Ferrer
Brian Connolly
Dan O'Connor
Jo Standish
John Robinson
Karen Horwill
Louise Conlon
Mike Crompton
Neil Teare
Nichola Creer
Nick Firth
Nikki Kinrade
Penny Thursfield
Ronnie Kelly
Shaun Wilde
Sophie Cowley
Ste Jackson
Susanna Gamage
Suzanne Kennaugh

Women now account for 45% of the entries to date or 106 out of 235.

Keep those entries rolling in.

Murray

Email - love it or loathe it?

2008-03-03T13:33:00.003Z

That is one of those questions they ask in the profile section of the Business Pages in the Isle of Man Examiner - you know the one that people volunteer themselves for to promote their businesses and make references to how they like to be at their desk by 7.30 (when actually they are never there before 9).

Well I love email and I think it has so many advantages over other forms of communication in that each person can respond at the time that suits them. The only problem is that sometimes we send an email to someone thinking it is the only one that person will send and have unrealistic expectations about the speed of response.

I manage my email at home (and I receive tons because have my fingers in lots of pies) by getting any easy ones out of the way first or then anything that is just interesting.

I then try and find time for the emails that require research or a more measured response. The problem is that then I receive more emails, do the same thing again and sometimes I take ages to reply to some people. Sorry guys.

But I am applying the same principle to Michael George's question about why did I not go back to walking. He says that I am a club standard runner but was an international standard walker. The answer is really easy and in the question.

My body couldn't handle to the training I subjected it to in the early 80s (more about that another day). Having achieved about as much as I could have done as a race walker other than my under performance at 50km, I had no inclination to walk around considerably slower than I had in the past because I was training 30 miles a week rather than the 100 miles that took me to my best performances.

As a runner, however, I still have scope for improvement. On a good day I still believe I can improve my marathon time of 2.43 and so it is much better challenge to try to do so. I would also like to think I would have been considerably faster at running had I been training for long distance running events at my peak. I ran 70.59 for a half marathon off virtually no running training in November 1981, which is good club level stuff. I was 7th best over 50 in the UK at the marathon in 2006 so I would like to think I was nudging towards national standard for my age though Michael.

I'll get back to the harder questions another day. After clearing out some of my emails.

Probably not

2008-02-29T14:10:00.001Z

That’s the answer to the first of Dave Mackey’s questions.

The question was “can I see myself ever competing in the Parish Walk” again?

I would love to of course.

So I’ll try and reason why not, as much with myself as for Dave or anyone else reading this.

My involvement in race walking came about in three ways.

Firstly, my elder brother Martin did the old Parish Relay and TT Relay Walks and I was desperate to have a go. I did the last leg of the TT relay Walk when I was 12 or 13 and I trained three or four times for the Parish Relay Walk the year it was cancelled.

Secondly, we used to do walking at school as part of the wonderful Walls AAA 5 star scheme. If it was only throwing and jumping I would probably have been in the 1 star category but the walk and the 1500 metres pulled me up a bit. Brian King, Head of PE at the old Douglas High School for Boys suggested that I did the English Schools Walks. I went to Redditch in 1974 and Sheffield in 1975.

Thirdly, as a kid I always tried to walk or cycle as far as I could and the Parish Walk was something I wanted to do. Refer to my earlier posts about entering under age.

Having won the Parish Walk in 1978 I should have stopped there. Graham Young was starting to influence me and even though I knew that I was not ready for the Commonwealth Games that year, he and all the other Boundary Harriers walkers and officials sowed the seeds for trying for that goal.

I spent six months working in the North West between April and October 1978 as part of my Business Studies degree and indeed I have a few tales to tell from this era yet such as when various athletes stayed with me in Manchester.

But for six weeks I was based in Preston. I had been doing loads of races without training that summer and although I won the Parish, the other events caught up with me. I still recall the evening in Preston when I decided that I wasn’t doing myself justice in this way. The Commonwealth Games were on at the time and I decided that, once I graduated the following year, I would start training properly and try and make the 1982 Commonwealth Games team.

This was what I did and by doing so achieved a lot of other things beyond my wildest dreams. I still did the 1979 Parish Walk (when I failed miserably) but that was just before I started my training.

Once I started competing at the sharp end of British championships and walking in Europe, the Parish Walk became an irrelevance to my own career although I loved following it still.

I’ll never know what I could done if I had entered the Parish Walk in 1981 or 1982 but despite being a much better athlete, I don’t think I would have had the motivation to go such a long way.

I retired at the end of 1983 because my back would not stand the level of training I was attempting.

Many times I have considered the possibility of doing the Parish again based on once a week training. I’ve run a 2.43 marathon on less than 30 miles a week training so I think that it is quality that would count over quantity. My thoughts were on doing long walks at the weekend in between getting my head into gear.

The thoughts often start with the idea of completing the course inside 24 hours. But in no time I think, if so and so can do it in 19 hours I think I could. I fear that when I start the walk I would go too fast and drop out it would take me at least two attempts to get it right.

Then my thoughts go back to the website.

I won’t say never but it would have to be a special reason such as walking it with others for charity. It that way I would be obliged to walk at someone else’s pace and I would be forced to ditch stupid thoughts that I could still go fast but drop out.

Now here is a statistic you've never had before - 9 hours 41 minutes 2 seconds

2008-02-28T13:38:00.004Z

One of the frustrating things about compiling statistics is that as soon as you release them someone asks you another question that you can't answer.

I'm not sure if I have been over this bit before in public, but I first started compiling my Parish Walk statistics on a typewriter in the early 1980s.

The late Kevin Madigan produced a list of all finishers by year as part of the 1979 Parish Walk programme. I typed them out in fastest time order.

The following year I would start typing all over again - but the list would be a bit longer!

I don't think that many young people are likely to be reading here but yes, believe it or not, there was a time when we didn't have word processors.

When I bought my first computer in 1987, I could at least store the data.

But then people would ask me how far around the course someone had gone or how many times someone had started the walk.

I also used to hear people in the pub claim that they "had done the Parish Walk" when they were not on the list. So I decided to research a list of all walkers who had started the walk. I recorded their finishing point and time. Many of the times were typed into the database copied from my press cuttings whilst I had to visit the musuem for others. The quality of the input depended upon the quality of the typesettings and my own typing. Names were spelt differently in different years and I am still ironing a few bugs out.

Unfortunately I was never able to locate the times (other than finishers) before 1974. Arthur Jones had taken the very practical view that the old result sheets were history and not required anymore. The newspapers only published the finishers names (we don't realise how lucky we are now).

So the lists got bigger and bigger and eventually, in December 2000, I published them on the internet.

But still couldn't provide enough statistics for some people. "Do you know what time I went through Jurby in three years ago? You know the year I finished at Andreas" would be the typical question.

Thanks to the brilliance of the organising committee, the sponsorship of Manx Telecom and the quality of the service provided by SportIdent, the electronic timing provides masses of new statistics.

So for once I am going to give you a couple of new statistics BEFORE you ask for them:

Last year's walkers were on their feet for a total of 10,913 hours 46 minutes and 53 seconds - that is an average of 9 hours 41 minutes and 2 seconds.

Were you going to ask that one?

David Griffiths in the Parish Walk

2008-02-27T13:49:00.002Z

If you follow the links from the Parish Walk website to http://www.manxathletics.com/ and the forum you will often find the name of David Griffiths.

He is incredibly enthusiastic about all aspects of athletics and provides results, comment and advice on the forum. He is often busy with his video camera and I have used quite a few of his films on my YouTube channel.

We don't always get the chance to put names to faces (or should it be faces to names) and, as I just stumbled upon a nice picture I took of him in the 2003 Parish Walk, I though I would use it for today's short update.

He has been been plagued by injuries in recent years but is hopeful that he is going to be able to do more of something, running or walking, in the future.

Here is his Parish Walk record:

Ballaugh 1982 10:59:00
Lezayre 1985 15:51:00
Jurby 1997 10:36:00
Maughold 1998 15:45:00
Andreas 199912:42:00
Finish 200021:26:25
Rushen 2001 03:18:00
German 2002 06:10:36
German 2003 05:48:10
Rushen 2007 03:32:51

More paper entries

2008-02-26T13:27:00.002Z

I also received the latest list of paper entries from Elizabeth Corran (race secretary) last night.

There are an extra 26 entries.

That takes the list to 109 and together with the 214 online entries up to 323.

I am expecting another 1277 in total, or to put it another way, we have received 21.5% of the 1500 that I have been predicting.

Here are the 26 extra names.

Lynne Quayle
Tara Slinger
Regina Ripamonti
Alan Pilling
Karen Sharpe
Geoff Sharpe
William Aleander
Nikki Salmon
Peter Storey
Gemma Sharp
Pamela Scott
Hannah King
Craig Riley
Sonya Mercer
Raymond Myles
Peter Lewis
Geoff Cowle
Ian Dunbar
Gary Merrill
Kim Duncan
Janette Gledhill
Remo Ricardo
Alan Cooper
Ian Marshall
Jane Crowe
Julian Thomas

1 a day is not good enough

2008-02-26T13:20:00.002Z

Since I last analysed the online entries 11 days ago, there have only been 12 additional online entries.

If you are reading this, intend to take part but have not yet entered - shame on you! Get your entry in now.

The men have been particularly slack in this time and the female entrants account for two thirds of the additions.

The 12 new names are:

Charlene Smithies
Craig Jenkinson
Dean Sowerby
Erica Bellhouse
Graihagh Shimmin
Jill Carter
John Hotchkiss
Lesley Joyce
Nicky Cormode
Patrick Quinney
Rebecca Straw
Sonia Grainger

Thank you for entering.

This is the BBC calling

2008-02-25T13:36:00.004Z

Although I have not received the link yet, I'm pleased to announce that the third blog to be written by a Parish Walk entrant, is to be by Kerry Sharpe one of the BBC journalists on the Isle of Man.

I'll have the link of the parishwalk.com website as soon as I receive it and I shall look forward to reading it myself.

I have only got a minute to spare today but I'll be back with a few more yarns during the week. If you want to read the properly written stuff, watch out for the new blog.

Pregnant excuses

2008-02-22T13:47:00.004Z

I apologise that, since launching the http://www.parishwalk.com/ at midnight on 1 December last year, there has been a missing link on the blog section "coming soon ....??".

It was originally supposed to be a mystery but any element of suspense has been well and truly lost after 11 weeks!

I was very grateful for all three of last years volunteers to write blogs. You may remember that my idea was to get three contrasting ambitions. Someone who was trying very seriously to get near the front, someone who had said "never again" but had given into the bug, and someone who was entering the event for the first time.

So thanks again to Steve Partington, Mark Hempsall and Dave Mackey for adding a new dimension to the website.

Women were very reluctant to write in the same open way as the men and, good as last year's bloggers were, they were all people taking the event fairly seriously.

So I wanted to try and get a bit more variety this year both in terms of someone that the novices could relate to - and preferably a woman.

Michael George is writing an excellent blog in the Steve Partington mould and I think Richard Wild's one brings a different approach. But I still wanted to find someone who would perhaps encourage people to open a dialogue with and to offer tips to rather than the tips coming from the blog.

About a month ago I found someone who said that they would write a blog if they got medical clearance to take part.

That person is a woman, a first timer and she is already making excuses! What more do we want? Well she is a professional journalist and last year she had the best excuse of all for not taking part after entering.

She got pregnant.

She has ben cleared to take part and she has kindly agreed to write the blog. It will be on the web at the weekend.

Maybe I can create a bit of suspense for that long.

Why I haven't got the latest Parish Walk news

2008-02-21T13:14:00.005Z

For the past three years at least, Clerical Medical have hosted a buffet lunch in their boardroom to which they invite representatives from the co-sponsors of the event - the companies that provide feeding stations etc as well as Manx Telecom. Also in attendance are the media, the organising committee and a couple of the top walkers. Last year I was invited for my website involvement and an enjoyable day it was too.

I was also invited to this year's event which was held yesterday but I had to decline. So there you are, I can't bring the latest news, or any photos or videos, How I wish I could.

I very rarely go out for lunch but it just happened to be one of those days when I had a prior engagement. In fact I decided to take a day off work for the first time this year to fulfill the other obligation. I hoped that by taking the day off I would end up with a bit of extra time for website and athletic interests but in fact it was one of the few days in recent months when I didn't update any of my athletic websites. To ensure that I was not shaking too much with withdrawal symptoms, I did update a non sporting site late last night.

Some of those reading will know that our elder son, Robbie who is 22, has endured considerable difficulties during the last 9 years or so brought about by an autistic spectrum disorder.

Having an autistic member of the family has a profound effect on families, particulary siblings. We have done our best to learn about the causes of autism and some years ago Marie (my wife) learnt about the work of Paul Shattock at the University of Sunderland, arguably one of the world's leading authorities on autism. She made contact with him and as a result Robbie has been on a dairy free diet which has made life a lot more endurable for him.

At Marie's initiation, yesterday she brought Paul Shattock to the Isle of Man. Organised by Autism in Mann, she obtained sponsorship from Barclays Wealth which enabled two meetings to be free for all who attended.

The most important meeting was at at the lecture theatre at Nobles Hospital yesterday lunchtime. It is not only lay people who lack detailed knowledge of autism but few people in the medical profession, who are stretched in so many ways, have an in depth knowledge. Whilst the medical profession only formed a part of the audience, it was extremely valuable to have the interface.

When that meeting was fully subscribed, Marie organised a second meeting at the Promenade Methodist Church which was open to anyone with an interest.

So, I spent a good part of the day yesterday attending both these sessions and taking photos and videos. I was also helping Marie with lifts for the speaker and acting as her assistant for a very worthwhile effort. The video will not be in the public domain but will be made available to anyone with an interest in Paul Shattock's talk. Some of the photos are on the http://www.autism2008.co.uk/ which was the only one of my websites to receive any love and attention yesterday. The evening session was also recorded by Manx Radio and an edited version of the presentation will be broadcast in the near future.

I make no apology for writing about autism on this Parish Walk blog because education and understanding are so important. Whilst undoubtedly some people in the past were not diagnosed when they should have been, it is hardly likely that 97% of autistic cases were missed. There has been a massive increase in the incidence and my hat is certainly in the Paul Shattock camp. The way we are treating the world, particularly with the use of chemicals, is putting many more people at risk of autism than previously. If you don't already know anyone with these problems, you will do in the next few years unless we change the way we produce food.

By taking the day off work I managed to get my training session, planned for the evening, out of the way in the daylight of the NSC at around 10 am.

But you should know that I could find a couple of Parish Walk links to the day.

I saw the smiling face of one of the greatest Parish Walkers of all time at the lunchtime seminar. Sue Biggart was there but I didn't manage to get to talk to her or I am sure I would have had some "skeet".

I also saw Dave Mackey out training at around 4 pm (he didn't see me as he sped past the old bus station) and when I got home I found he had asked me a couple of questions in the comment section of the blog. They have got me thinking for future blog posting and ensured that whenever my attention was flagging last night (hearing the talk for the second time) I didn't stop thinking of the Parish Walk.

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

2008-02-18T13:31:00.009Z

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

Mistaken identity

2008-02-15T23:37:00.003Z

Try this link to hear a Manx Radio interview from 2005. You may need broadband but please give it a go and let me have your feedback. It is another new addition to my websites to try and provide audio. Like every new feature at the development stage there has been more swearing than rejoicing tonight.

Women on top this week!

2008-02-15T13:24:00.002Z

Yes, there have been 17 online entries by women in the past 9 days and only 16 by men.

It takes the online total to 202 (115 men and 87 women).

I'm fairly sure there will be over 300 entries in total by now. I'm sure I'll have another update from Elizabeth in the next few days. Enter online if you can - it saves a lot of work.

Here are the 33 new names in the online category:

Ann Henrard
Ann Newman
Antony Atkinson
Chris Balmer
Chris Wilson
Dean Martin
Emma Shimmin
Eric Jones
Frances Brook
Jane Thacker
Jeanette Sheridan
Julia Page
Karen Williams
Kerry Beattie
Kirk McCarthy
Liz Hunter
Margaret Willard
Marie Gilbertson
Mark Freeman
Martyn Oates
Neil Cracknell
Pam Hewins
Patrick Reid
Paul Devaney
Pauline Beattie
Rod Leonard
Roy McLean
Sarah Cretney
Sarah Kelly
Siobhan Pirrie
Steven Cannon
Steven Kimmins
Steven Stanley

I should point out that all my analysis is unofficial.

10 of the best

2008-02-13T13:51:00.002Z

My choice are:

Alan McCulloch
Antony Atkinson
Chris Cale
Jock Waddington
Marie Gilbertson
Martijn Biesmans
Michael George
Ray Hughes
Ray Pitts
Terri Salmon

Why do I select them?

By my calculations, and I could be wrong and it will exclude anyone who has entered by post since Sunday, they are the only 10 from last year's top 50 to enter yet.

Therefore, if you know any of the following, have a word in their ear to try and get them to enter:

Alan Kinvig
Alison Brand
Andrew Titley
Barry Cowin
Catherine Lowey
Danny Jordan
Dave Cain
David Churcher
David Clucas
Dermot O'Toole
Eammon Harkin
Ernie Radcliffe
Fintan Suddards
Jackie Campbell
Jane Mooney
Janice Quirk
Jo Revill
John C Ryder
Juan Hatton
Julian Thomas
Julie Cretney
Kathryn Kennaugh
Kevin Marshall
Mark Cleater
Mark Hempsall
Martin Hall
Maureen Moffatt
Michael Shipsides
Mick Holgate
Mike Gellion
Neil Shimmin
Richard Fathers
Robbie Callister
Rosemarie Crellin
Shirley Gage
Stan Sille
Steve Partington
Sue Biggart
Terry Moffat
Thomas Melvin

Website finding its target

2008-02-12T06:52:00.000Z

I'll do another piece at another point about the number of people using the website over the years, but I was amazed (when just checking the stats) that there were 455 page hits on parishwalk.com yesterday alone.

125 different people viewed the site yesterday taking the average up to 92 for the week ending yesterday.

I must stop though as I have just realised that this is the third post to this blog in less than 24 hours. Addicted again!

Latest offline entries

2008-02-11T21:57:00.001Z

In addition to the list of online entries, race secretary Elizabeth Corran has kindly forwarded a list of walkers who have used the conventional method of entry - 83 up to yesterday (Sunday).

There is now a link on the front page but, unlike the online version, it will not be updated immediately upon receipt of entry. It will be updated in batches.

Here are the first 83:

Adrian Moore
Alastair Gillespie
Alison Crompton
Andrew Hartley
Annie Kneale
Ben Constable
Ben Harris
Billy McCoubrey
Bob Noonan
Brian Sinden
Carl Wilson
Carole Staples
Catherine Close
Cedric Quayle
Christopher Burn
Daniel Evans
Darren Taylor
David John Kinrade
Debbie Rogers
Elliott Davies
Emma Jayne Keig
Emma McGreevy
Fenella Street
G Morphet
Gaye Miller
Geofaray Doggrell
Gill Senogles
Glyn Evans
Graeham Quilliam
Helen Done
Helen Flanders
Ian Ashcroft
Ian Lenandowskyj
Jayne Bowman
John Shimmin
John Street
Julie Cannon
Julie Hill
Karen Lawrie
Katie Wilkinson
Kelly Haynes
Ken Harding
Ken Mitchell
kenny Valerga
Kerryann Cassidy
Kevin Shimmin
Laura Clarkson
Lindsay Grant
Louise Cain
Lynn McKibbin
Malcolm Davies
Mark Saunders
Matthew Quayle
Melanie Curwen
Michael Killey
Mike Berry
Natasha Richards
Nicholas Stephenson
Nicola Clarkson
Nicola Teare
Patrick Hartley
Paul Lorenzo Camarda
Paul Morgans
Pauline Winkless
Penny Craighill
Peter Russell
Ray Hughes
Robbie Stockton
Ros Cubbon
Samantha Cubbon
Sheila Davies
Sinead Venus
Stephen O'Hare
Steve Bassil
Steve Curtis
Steve Green
Steve Handford
Steve Wilmott
Stuart Fenton
Sue Furner
Sue Jewell
Terrence Lundin
Vicki Craighill

New feature on Roy and Stella Corlett (and how they helped me)

2008-02-11T13:25:00.001Z

I hope that you like the latest feature on the parishwalk.com site on Roy and Stella Corlett.

I must admit that, as usual, I have been in danger this year of biting off more than I can chew with the site. Although I have created a bit more time for my passion of athletics in the past 6 months, by changing my working environment and being free from my summer role of cleaning our holiday cottage each Saturday, that time has been used several times over with the YouTube videos and many other things that I have been doing on the manxathletics.com site - and of course writing this blog.

The old YouTube videos are definitely a "one off" - or least part of a "two-off" if I can recover some of the films from the early 80s which are not currently in my possession. At least this exercise brings more immediate enjoyment to those that watch the videos rather than the much more tedious task I undertook a few years ago when I compiled the statistics which formed the main content of my websites in the early years. I typed all of the names from the Parish Walk from newspaper cuttings and notes of my visits to the museum for the majority of the years, in addition to similar exercises for the Northern 10 miles (still not finished), the Peel to Douglas, the Syd Quirk half marathon and the Manx Harriers open.

So as I was saying, the features page has not been changed frequently and I am only up to number three. Please don't feel offended if you are not included or if someone you know isn't - they are not selected from a ranking list but intended to be interesting to me as well as you. There may well be someone else equally interesting but they may appear another year. Apart from anything else, I want to enjoy compiling the website content and so I will decide which projects I work on.

It was as I was worrying about how I would find the time to update the PW site in the middle of the night last week that I thought that I could write something about Roy and Stella Corlett.

I'm so glad I did.

I arranged to meet them yesterday and when I called at their house in Inner Circle, Douglas, it was the first time that I had been there for more than 20 years even though they had been great friends of mine.

As the feature mentions, Roy had to drop out of athletics competiton due to injury and he dropped out of the administrative side over the direction some of us took his club, Boundary Harriers. He did not support the building of clubhouse in Douglas or the merger of Boundary Harriers with Manx AC. I most passionately did.

But I will forever be grateful for the support that Roy gave me towards the latter stages of my race walking career. I had always been (still am?) pretty stubborn about doing things in my own way and although I had benefitted greatly from the advice offered from Graham Young and Allan Callow, I had never had anyone who I discussed every training session with and planned every race with. Roy took on this role in 1983.

Unfortunately, the punishment I gave my body through the winter of 1982 (I set myself the target of trying to reach the 1984 Olympics) on top of what I had done for the previous 3 years brought about my demise and 1983 was not my most successful year. I also suffered in the early part of the year from a recurring virus (again it was probably my body saying "enough is enough") and by November 1983 I had retired.

In April I failed to finish the York 50km - the race I had planned (for the umpeenth time) to go under 4.10 and failed. The only real success I can remember was, having foresaken my beloved Bradford 50km for the Leicester Mercury 20 miles I won the 50th edition and added my name to the list of winners which included Olympic champions.

But with no time recorded for 50km, if I was going to make the British team for the World Cup, never mind the Olympics the following year, I had to win the National 50km in July at Enfield as three out of four places had already been taken.

Roy and Stella went with me for this "win or bust" race.

I've never been very good in the heat and there was a heatwave. I walked with one of my heros from a few years earlier, Roger Mills in the early stages (Roger used to always win the AAA title when it was the only race walking to appear on TV) and Amos Seddon, who I still meet up with each year on the Bournes Sports stand at the London Marathon exhibition.

Trying to maintain a decent pace, I then pushed on by myself but inevitably "hit the wall". Barry Graham was to win the race and the most experienced 50km walker of all times, Bob Dobson, took second. If I remember correctly, I finished third well over 4.30. It was win or bust. There was no win and on this occasion it was the failure and not the time I remember. I never walked another 50km.

I regret not walking another 50km but I regret not having the time to spend with old friends like Roy and Stella even more.

Friday on the Steam Packet with Roy.

Early stages at Enfield with Roger Mills and Amos Seddon.

The wheels are off but Roy keeps me going.

My impression of Olive Loughnane (see the YouTube videos if you don't understand that one!).

142+18=159

2008-02-06T13:29:00.000Z

My sums do not look right but they are.

When I analysed the entries last week there were 142 names among those that had entered online.

There are 18 new names this week but the total still only adds up to 159 as one entry has disappeared!

Here are the 18 new entries (Joan Bradley is no longer on the list):

Caroline Corteen
Chris Reynolds
Donna Gregson
Helen Fitz-Gerald
Jane Smith
John Ashton
John Currie
Jonathan Hebden
Leila Ashton
Nick Bowden
Patrick Crowe
Perry Downward
Peter Bradley
Rachele Quayle
Shaun Nesbitt
Steven Callister
Tim Knott
Victoria Hill

Tell your friends, tell your children, tell your parents, brothers, sisters and anyone you know - ENTER THE PARISH WALK ONLINE NOW!

Don't go too far too soon (like I did!)

2008-02-05T13:58:00.001Z

Ban him! A 17 year old approaches Malew in 1974. The Ford Anglia belonged to the late Arthur Jones and the Mini Clubman to my parents.

For many years there has been an age limit of 21 for men to walk beyond Peel in the Parish Walk and indeed, until recently, for women to go beyond Rushen.

As someone who forged their age and entered the event as a 17 year old in 1974, I am probably not the best person to say that there are good reasons for these rules – but there are!

You’ve got your whole life ahead of you when you are 18, 19 and 20 and, as has been demonstrated so many times in recent years, you don’t have to be young to win.

Find your feet (so to speak) in your first three years, try and develop a good technique, try and get used to the pain but, most of all, don’t do too much too soon and risk missing out on the golden years because you do yourself long term damage.

Not only did I enter under age but I went as far as Kirk Michael when I was 17 but my best anecdotal tale comes from the following year in 1975.

It has to be said that the standard was at its lowest level in that era. I walked to Peel with my school friend Allen Moore but he retired in his home town. I pushed on after that, overtook one or two people and caught the three leaders (I think) between Kirk Michael and Ballaugh. Local man Steve Gardner was with two Leicester walkers Ted Warner and Bill Roe. They were stopping and starting quite a bit and I ended up going ahead of them.

I was still feeling good past Ballaugh Old Church but it seemed a bit irresponsible to be leading the race at 18 years of age and not using the experience of three aforementioned walkers. So I decided to turn back and walk in the opposite direction until I met them! I had forgotten that I had done this until I was chatting to Steve Gardner at Dermot O’Toole’s book launch a couple of years ago and he said that he could still vividly remember his disbelief at seeing me walking the wrong way back towards Ballaugh.

Soon after, I pushed ahead for a second time but fatigue set in around the Lhen and, after my first taste of that seemingly never ending road to Bride, I called it a day at Bride. I was proud to tell my school friends on Monday that I had been leading the Parish Walk when I retired but I didn’t tell them that I had added a bit to the course.

I completed the whole course the following year (second to John Cannell) but I recognised that it was unrealistic for someone under the age of 21 to stand a chance of winning, even if at that time they were allowed to. My family donated a modest trophy to be awarded to provide some recognition to future youngsters. Maybe its time to increase the award but definitely not the distance.

The men have it

2008-02-01T13:38:00.000Z

Michael "Blogger" George -among the latest entries.

There have been a further 30 online entries since I last analysed them - 18 men and 12 women. With 60% of the latest entries being of the male variety, they now represent 58% of the total entry.

Here is a lst of the new additions:

Abbie Corkish
David Anderson
David Tyler
Dot Saunders
Ed Burn
Emma Morter
Graham Webb
Irene George
James Head
Jonathan Keel
Juan Garrett
Katie Young
Kevin Ford
Kingsley Lambert
Leanne Whybrew
Maria Dimsdale
Mark Stewart
Matthew Haddock
Maxine Barlow
Michael George
Nicola Gardner
Pam Giles
Pete Russell
Peter Beighton
Peter Hartley
Ray Pitts
Rob Cannell
Sacha Rice
Sarah Joughin
Stephen Kelly

Drive not walk?

2008-01-30T13:32:00.000Z

For some years, the organisers of the Parish Walk have been trying to discourage walkers from having support vehicles all the way around the course.

Not everyone does - thankfully. The roads might be busy enough already but just imagine if every single walker had just one car following them. With 1500 or so walkers expected in June this year the cars would be following the walkers from a big distance and the roads would be unpassable.

More and more feeding stations have been provided in recent years and those walkers who manage 20 miles on their own in training should not really need any help until at least the climb up the Sloc.

If you do want to watch the walk, you can at least be sensible by using back roads to access the course without driving along it (and without racing around those same back roads creating extra hazards).

With the use of Manx Telecom's texting service you should also be able to pinpoint the location of your walker without driving up and down the course.

The opposite problem occurs in the later stages of the walk. You really do need someone to be available to help you later on. In fact, the rules require you to have an attendent after Peel.

If there were more helpers available then maybe eventually this requirement could be put back to a point later than Peel but here are the two reasons I can see why walkers have to have attendants.

Feeding

The gap between the first and last walker gets bigger the further you progress around the course. Whereas in the early stages the feeding stations need only be open for an hour or two, by the time you reach Laxey the gap would be up to 8 hours. Providing feed stations every three miles would be nigh on impossible.

The requirements are also very different from a marathon where standard drinks are taken from tables. With up to 24 hours of walking, competitors need food and often a change of clothes or footware. Some walkers have a whole car load of supplies.

Safety

You need someone to take you home if you drop out. Its all very well thinking that if you have no one with you will be forced to cover the whole distance but this is a reckless approach. In the early 90s I had to (on two occasions) leave the job I was supposed to be doing to take walkers back to Douglas who, without help, would have ended up in hospital. On one of these occasions, Maughold Church was without a checker as a result.

So where does this leave the visitors that we are trying to attract to the Isle of Man to share the Parish Walk with us?

Inevitably there will be people who will not be able to take part unless a local person offers to provide a support role.

So roll your sleeves up and be prepared to lend a hand.

One such person approached race secretary Elizabeth Corran recently to ask for help.

Robert Bucknall from Stockport will not be travelling to the Isle of Man unless someone can help him. Could it be you? Email him on rbucknall@btinternet.com if you can help.

It used to be the best walking event in the British Isles

2008-01-29T13:25:00.000Z

Most of the people reading this blog will surely believe that the Parish Walk is the best walking event in the British Isles. Apart from exceptional international events, I do too. But I didn't used to.

I used to think that the best event was the Bradford 50km, or "the Bradford" as it was always known. In the days before the London Marathon, which attracts seven figure crowds, the Bradford probably attracted the biggest crowds of any road race in Britain. Yet there was never a massive field. Usually the crowds gathered outside the pubs along the 31 mile route on a Spring Bank Holiday Monday to see just fifty or sixty hardy souls.

I took part in five Bradford Walks between 1978 and 1982 and was very proud to win three of them from 1980 onwards. In 2004 I spent some time writing my recollections of those five years and the article can be found here.

The reason I am writing about the Bradford Walk this week is because on Saturday I flew to Leeds/Bradford airport for the first time and returned to the Island from the same airport on Monday morning, staying the previous night at the Travel Lodge next to the airport.

The Bradford course goes past the airport near Yeadon and is at one of the highest points on the course. As soon as I drove away from the airport on Saturday I recognised the course that I had not visited for 24 years (I had been to Ottley in 1984) and could not believe how steep the hills were. On Sunday evening I diverted into Ottley to refuel and then drove to the airport. If Pool Bank had seemed like a big hill when I walked it then it was more like a mountain now. What an incredible course it was.

I walked around those roads in 4.26 in 1981 when I was supposed to be holding back (and had a dose of what Steve Partington and Michael George do best!) and yet I was only to walk 4.20 on a flat course.

Although I never did my justice elsewhere, I am so glad that I did spend those years plodding around the Yorkshire countryside and became known as "that lad from Isle of Man".

Just how the Bradford Walk, now more than 100 years, has continued to exist with small entries on what are now such busy roads I don't know. What I do know is that, for me, it was the best walking event in the British Isles.

Things and times change.

In 1978, although I won the Parish Walk as a 21 year old, in between walking the Plymouth to Dawlish 42 miles and my first Bradford in a mad four weeks I made up my mind to train. The training took me to many places around Britain and Europe but the Bradford was my favourite.

Since that time many of the other walks have gone or in the case of the Bradford is only a shadow of its former self.

Meanwhile, there is one event that is 10 times bigger than in 1978.

It didn't use to be the best walking event in the British Isles - but it is now.

Parish Walk entries open on 31 January

2008-01-25T07:39:00.000Z

That was last year's headline!

This year they opened two months earlier than ever before and at the time of writing we are up to 130. Keep nagging your friends if their names are not on the list.

I had another marathon session creating videos of old races last night and one of the people featured in the 1997 Manx Airlines 20km walk was Kevin Walmsley who is the course director of the Parish Walk.

Kevin is another member of the Parish Walk committee who puts in many hours of effort over the course of the year (no pun intended) to ensure that you can enjoy the event for just 24 hours. He must make sure that all the road signs are up, road closures enforced etc.

He set a personal best in 1997, although he was still disappointed with his time of 1.33.09. Here are two short interviews with him, one by Steve Partington and the other by the late Geoff Cannell.

Oh crumbs, the women are catching up

2008-01-23T13:21:00.000Z

Over my lunchtime sandwich (and I've got the crumbs on my keyboard to prove it) I have just compared the latest list of 122 entries with the 101 that I listed earlier on the blog.

The 21 new names are:

Joan Bradley
Tracy Brennan
John Byrne
Pauline Clague
Ian Comish
Kirsty Cregeen
Georgia Crellin
Di Cummins
Gary Devaney
Bernadette Devlin
Lynton Hoch
Mo Horisk
Jade Maddrell
Tracy Maddrell
Angela Martin
Charlene McGarry
Sheron Quayle
Glenn Saunders
Ian Scott
Russell Smith
Karen Thomson

I noticed that two thirds of the new entrants were women so that gave me more food for thought (the orange and banana have gone now too).

What sex are the entrants? (The use of the word sex is bound to bring a few new readers to the blog when they search Google!).

Well we have 70 men and 52 women so far.

So there is a challenge to the women. See if you can encourage your friends to enter and get ahead of the men. I'm hungry for more statistics.

I hope that you can digest them well.

New feature on YouTube

2008-01-22T23:03:00.000Z

The link above will take you to a playlist at http://www.youtube.com/murraylambden with all of the Parish Walk videos available in one place.

Enjoy!

Andrew Titley feature

2008-01-19T17:57:00.000Z

I've published a new feature on Andrew Titley here.