There were several delays to the TT yesterday, because of the weather, and perhaps it would not be too much fun sitting on one of the new grandstands all day long.
Just after the racing had finished, I took to the track with ten others for the Manx Track 10,000 metres and had my own grandstand view of some good racing. I'm pictured above (by Marie Jackson) just behind Gail Griffiths who has done many laps of the TT course as a competitor in the Manx Grand Prix.
I had a chat with Gail when warming up and she (I think) jokingly asked me if I was going to pace her. When we started I thought that was exactly what was going to happen as she settled in behind me for the first few laps. I thought that pacing her to a decent time might be a worthwhile role for me as I was off the pace of the midfield men, never mind 18 year old Ollie Lockley who was to put three laps on me.
There was an odd moment when a bit of daylight came between Gail and myself as I tried to run slightly faster than 90 seconds a lap. I think it was at about a third distance that she went ahead of me and I thought she had gone too soon. But with several men to chase ahead of me she ran a perfectly judged race. I started to slow and she ended up more than half a minute ahead of me.
I always use 10% as a rule of thumb measure between men and women's performances. So I would suggest that her 37.19 was equivalent to a sub 34 for a man. Factor in that she is 47 years old and it was a performance worth watching from the stands. A pity that a few more of the people who turn up to watch an Olympic flame were not in the stands to watch an inspiring performance.
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