Walkers eat and greet

I undertook one of my favourite tasks this morning when I drove our Swiss work guests around the Island for a couple of hours before their flight. What was so different to anytime during the past six months was the absence of people training for the Parish Walk. So where had they all gone too?

Well judging by the difficulty we encountered booking a table at a restaurant last night, they were all celebrating their success. We met one such table in the Harbour Lights in Peel.

And there were a few at the Tynwald Garden Party this afternoon  although of the three Parish Walkers featured in the first two photos below 10 times finisher Roey Crellin has retired, and David Cain didn't enter this year. Caroline made it to Andreas (55 miles) despite a fall in the wet the day before which affected her performance. 

Middle distance star Kevin Loundes was also at St Johns and I was glad that it was me who was in control of the camera as I passed him with two plates of food. One was for Marie - honestly! My support for her Tynwald involvement means that I might not make it to the Great South Run and definitely won't be at the veterans mile. 

I don't think I have ever had 10 days with so many things on and running has moved ever earlier in the morning to fit it all in. At the very time when I needed energy I lost it at Port Soderick yesterday - we had a power cut. Not the way to impress the visitors especially when the power returns but not the heating.

Inconvenient but hardly life threatening we should remember. As with the poor soul who couldn't read the Parish Walk results on their mobile phone last week and had to get their laptop out. Neither does eating too much this week really fit into the hardship category. But more time with knife and fork in hand means less time with hands on keyboard.