Who would be a selector?

I have to admit that I was not one of those that thought Lee Merrien should be selected for the Olympic marathon when he failed to run the qualifying time. And had Jess Petersson elected to represent GB instead of Denmark, and I had been a GB selector, I would not have chosen her. Objectively too, I would have been with them on leaving behind our own Keith Gerrard.

Yet Lee ran a great race, much more realistically than his team mate who was quoted as saying that you don't want to train too hard for a marathon. He fully just justified his selection and the Danish selectors were wise to select Jess who arrived back at the Mall before all the British team - and one place higher than their best man too. I couldn't help but feel that Keith would have given a better showing than the British number 2, Chris Thompson, but that one has to be left to conjecture.

Although I have enjoyed taking part in the big city marathons in recent years, watching the elite races is equally enjoyable and I would urge people to watch the world's top marathon runners to realise how lean and fast they are. Unfortunately too many people got closer than me to the runners because of my inability to make decent arrangements so only a few of my photos are worth looking at.

http://isleofman.in/olympicmarathon

But they are further memories of a great weekend for me.