I thought that it had been a while since Chris Kneen (above) had raced (other than the first round of the series) but I didn't realise just how long it had been until I spoke to him last night.
Marie and I headed south in the car this morning intending to start a walk from the Sound. The mist came in though and we did a U-turn at Cregneish and headed over the Sloc, still in the car I might add. 
I was waiting for the runners to arrive at the Northern 10 miles this morning. I was chatting to Martyn Strickett of Northern AC and he asked me if I thought that the first three were likely to change throughout the race.
I told him that I was quite sure it wouldn't. I knew that Kevin Loundes, who was a long way ahead was in good form and thought it unlikely that he would be beaten. But Christian Varley's youth should keep him clear of Ben Scott and I was even more certain that Ben wouldn't be caught.
A few seconds later Christian arrived in the lead! I spoke to Kevin at the NSC this afternoon and he had a stomach upset last night and felt too weak to continue.
As Christian Varley was heading for victory in the Northern 10 Miles today I was fairly sure that he had created history as he and has dad Tony had become the first father and son to win the Northern 10 Miles. I checked as soon as I got home and Tony had won it in 1984.
In fact I think that the history is a lot deeper. I can't think of anyone who has achieved this in any other road race either.
It was great to talk to Christian's mother Mary today as I hadn't done so for many years.
She was a little bit worried at the finish because with Christian less than half a mile from the end there was not a person to be seen at the finish and there were no marks on the road to indicate a finish line. We should not have panicked as Steve Kelly arrived with the stopwatch at least a minute before Christian arrived!
For those that don't know all the Manx connections, Mary is a sister of athletes Stuart and Robbie Lambie and I am sure that she used to win all the races in the Western District Primary School Sports for St Johns (I could only make the relay for Michael).
Back in the late 80s Mary used to work part time from our house. Marie was running the Isle of Man operation of a diving company from our home in Albany Street. Although she worked through to an hour of going to the Jane Crookall Maternity Home to start the long process of delivering Robbie, she needed some help afterwards and Mary was, for a short time, one of the people who helped to pay the divers' wages working from an office in our attic.
It was at about the same time that I used to train regularly with Christian's father Tony. Tony, Andy Garrett and I used to train a couple of times a week at Nobles Park and occasional other places - it was with him that I first started using Belmont Hill for a training session and I used it so much with my later training partners.
I remember that I was studying hard for the Institute of Chartered Secretaries exams, Tony was studying for his Fire Services exams (and having to go off the Island a lot) and, long before Andy became Dr Garrett, he was also working hard on something. We all used to buck each other up when we would report on how hard we were finding our respective challenges and try and convince each other that it would all be worthwhile in the end.
I also trained with Tony a few times at race walking for the 1978 TT walk. Tony came into the sport through the ultra events and then for a time switched to race walking before finding his real forte - winning the Manx Fell Running Championships more than any other runner I recall. He later switched sports again and made the 1995 Island Games team as a cyclist.
Going back to the short time he competed at race walking I was just starting out. I won the 1978 Parish Walk and thought I was being a good sportsman when I got my dad to drive me back around the course to cheer on the other walkers - we thought that there were a good number of finishers that year but only 8! I got a dressing down from Tony as I had the opposite effect on him as he saw that I had finished but he still l had a good few miles to go. It was Tony's only Parish Walk finish.
My dad died suddenly just a couple of months after that and there were so many things that I wished I had done with him and that he had been around to see some of the things I was to do.
But a father and son winning the same race. That really is something a family should treasure.
Our 23 year old son, Robbie, resumed his athletics career just 19 months ago.
During the winter of 2007/08 his finishing time in some of the cross countries was more than 200% of the winner's times.
He has gradually got fitter and more confident culminating in his decision at the start of the Manx Harriers Track League to enter every track event in the league other than the two weeks that he knew he was going to be off the island (what a shame he fell one week and missed the start of his other event that week when it started early).
Today he set a new personal best in the 5000 metres and he took just 125% of the winning time.
Marie and I are really touched by all the support that he receives. All the other competitors try just as hard as Robbie and of course some of them make it easier for themselves by specialising in their training and racing!
But its fair to say that that the impact of the support on Robbie has played a bigger part in an improvement in the quality of his life than just about anyone.
Robbie is not the easiest of people to talk to because his thoughts are mainly about himself but the simple dialogue has always been effective. Even when he wasn't competing but was going to watch events with me, Peter Kaneen always used to tease him: "Have you brought your pumps Robbie?" and he always used to laugh.
I only attended the track and field championships briefly this afternoon and it was as a parent and not as an "media reporter" so although the attached file shows a few clips of medal winners Martin Malone, Ed Gumbley and Andy Fox in the 5000 metres, there is quite a bit of Robbie.
Thanks again to everyone who encourages Robbie.
A professional journalist told me recently that one of the first rules of journalism is that you act as if you don't know the answers to your question, whether you do or not. The problem arises when the interviewee doesn't know the answers to the only two questions that you ask as I found out when I interviewed Simon Skillicorn tonight after his victory in the Carraghan Fell Race.
You can probably find statistics to show that more people took part in road running races in the UK last year than ever before.
But most of the people who do so now are in the major city events such as the London Marathon, the Great North Run or the Manchester 10km where the roads are closed and therefore the majority of the health and safety risks of running on roads are taken away.
Traditionally, road races took place on open roads. The number of cars using the roads in the Isle of Man has increased quite dramatically. Not only has road usage increased in most countries throughout the world (and the Isle of Man is no different) but the population has also increased and so there are more people to use their cars.
There is also a lot less tolerance between one form of road user and another. It used to be common, if inconvenient, for a farmer to move his cows along the road (or his sheep). More people used bikes for everyday transport and even children used to be allowed to ride their bikes or walk to school rather than being driven in a four wheel drive.
And so tolerance towards athletes running or walking on the roads has diminished. At the same time the governing bodies of sport have, quite rightly, insisted than event organisers give a lot more thought to health and safety.
Paul Jackson took on the role of road race secretary for Manx Harriers at a time when these changes were quite noticeable. His first event, the 2002 Douglas to Castletown, was held in terribly misty conditions. With the benefit of the objectivity that a newcomer brought, he quickly realised that that event was no longer safe, if it ever had been.
PJ has brought new standards to road racing organisation. If you drove along the road from Douglas to Peel yesterday morning you would not have believed the number of warning signs and information for motorists.
He is in the process of handing over these duties to Phil Motley and Chris Cale who have also worked tirelessly on the Peel to Douglas run and other events.
There would be an outcry if the Peel to Douglas run, the oldest and most traditional of the remaining road races, was to be cancelled.
Three questions must be answered to avoid this outcry:
Have a watch of Paul's safety instructions in the video attached and then have a look at the photos and videos and you will see why question 3 is (although potentially the easiest problem to overcome) probably the issue putting the event most at risk.
