Another two years of AW

Have just reviewed my subscription for Athletics Weekly - that will mean to about 36 years as a subscriber.

Look who is in this week.

https://subscribeme.to/athletics-weekly

Forum spam

If ever you wonder why you don't get admitted to the forum without a real name, you should bear in mind that I get several emails a day on average, some days as many as 40, from people in Russia and third world countries applying to join the forum, presumably as a way as harvesting personal details. The above is an example of the emails received in the past few days re the forum although I have just approved one Manx one with a real name.

93, 94 & 95

Its almost 20 years ago that we had the offer for our house accepted and soon after we moved into a new building close to the centre of town. That was 93.

I couldn't remember when I wrote the letter, to Race Walking Record, where I advocated the change of rules. But during my scanning marathon (no pun intended) I found the letter and I have published it on the manxathletics.com site tonight. It was in 94.

I couldn't remember how many houses they planned to build behind the school at Kirk Michael. Despite my delight at buying a new home in 93, I did not want to see this green field site at Kirk Michael built upon. I was delighted to hear that all the houses had been tuned down. That was 95.

I wonder how many houses have been build in the village since these photos were taken in the 60s - probably about 96.

Best of Port Soderick

I had too many visits to Port Soderick at the end of last week when the boiler at the cottage started playing up during the worst of the weather. Last night was spent dealing with a complaint from someone whose perception changed within a day or two of our cottage being the best they had ever stayed in to finding every fault under the sun.

Oh well. At least there wasn't a fault under the sun to be found at Port Soderick on Saturday morning as the photo above shows when I walked along the Marine Drive with Robbie.

It appeared that half of the Isle of Man's dogs were there too. I've been with Marie and our dog to Ramsey this evening - believe it or not it is on a course of physiotherapy.

The scanner remains silent tonight. I've done on a few things for the Parish Walk site but not sure if I will manage the one planned for the tonight.

I didn't plan anything to do with Port Soderick but plenty of people are. We've taken an amazing number of bookings in the past couple of weeks including one an hour ago.

No repeat of this

Its a couple of weeks short of two years since I got my hands in the condition above. That was when I got frostbite running in Germany and they were pretty sore for some time until the skin came off and then I lost my finger nails.

I was only about 10% of the way there yesterday on the top of Slieau Ruy. I got to the point where I couldn't move the camera shutter with my gloves on so I took them off - and fairly soon after I couldn't do much again. The top of my "shutter" finger is still numb, although as I am managing to type what you see here I am obviously not at death's door!

I lost my heat fairly quickly yesterday despite having six layers on my top half, partly because I got warm walking uphill for a couple of miles to get to my spot, secondly because I fell over on the way and so had damp clothes and thirdly because my hands go white at the best of times.

Apart from having a laugh at my own expense, the reason for writing this is just to emphasise the need to ensure that, when going on the fells, you not only follow the organisers instructions but you treat their safety requirements as a minimum.

A twisted ankle in freezing conditions and you would loose your heat a lot quicker than I did and have far fewer layers to protect you. After I deserted Ben Corkhill at the top of the mountain I jogged down and was able to generate some warmth of  my own in the process. With a twisted ankle you wouldn't have that most natural of remedies available to you.

Multi tasking

I might have slagged off Microsoft for its handling of its Windows 8 launch for Isle of Man customers the other day, but tonight has been one of those nights when I remember just how many things you can do at once on a computer.

I'm almost through my two year quota of Race Walking Record scanning for the night (just about to do December 1994) but whilst it has been doing its OCR bit at the end of every magazine I have been updating the manxathletics.com website and reviewing the Parish Walk entries (349 when I did that bit a few minutes ago).

Found a very significant letter of mine to Race Walking Record from 1994 which I shall reproduce next week.

Not the photos he wanted

I think I confused a few people this morning when I made reference to the wrong years in the old Commonwealth Games photos. I have now corrected them.

It was good to hear from former Isle of Man Newspapers editor Lionel Cowin recently although it has taken me a few weeks to include his appeal for his missing 1974 team photo on the front page.

Lionel was involved in the Commonwealth Games for many years, in both team management and as a journalist, so he is in a good position to publish a book

I have just sent him three photos from 1994 in which he features which he has probably not seen before. I was the athletics team manager at Victoria, Canada on that occasion. The one I have featured of him above shows him climbing the wall of the team accommodation - I can't remember why.

Windows 2008 missed its chance in this house

I've tried to update my laptop a couple of times and got my grumpy old man head on yesterday when I read that Microsoft were going to bump up the cost to those that don't upgrade by the end of the month. I commented on this website:

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2237740/microsoft-confirms-windows-8-price-hike-imminent?WT.tsrc=Email&WT.mc_id=1194&utm_source=Newsletters&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=V3_Daily_Breaking_Technology_News#thanks_for_comment

Another two years of scanning Race Walking Record tonight - I am only 21 years behind with this.

Great atmosphere at the footie on TV. No doubt there will be a few grumpy old men in Birmingham though.

Into the 90s

Just had a "good" session re-starting the scanning of my collection of Race Walking Records from 1976 through to 2013.

Tonight I have done 1988 and 1989 - its a long haul. Hope you like the advert from 1989.

Brass Monkey

I just did a search for the results to find out how the Manx runners got on in the Half Marathon near York.

Unfortunately it was cancelled due to the weather:

http://www.yorkknavesmireharriers.co.uk/brassmonkey.htm

Remembered to make donation

Some time ago I told a few people that I would make my next donation from the profits from photo sales to Alzheimer's Society (Isle of Man) Branch.

Just before Christmas I made a couple of donations to other charities and forgot what I had said I would do! More than a touch of irony.

Thankfully, as photo sales continue to trickle in I have passed another threshold and have just written a cheque to for £300 to Alzheimer's Society (Isle of Man) Branch - now where did I put it?

http://isleofman.in/

I'm pleased to say that thanks to people buying photos from the site, £1,500 has now been donated to charity - £300 each to Hospice Isle of Man, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the Manx Wildlife Trust, Victim Support Isle of Man & Alzheimer’s Society (Isle of Man) Branch. 

Business name

There has been loads of interest over the past couple of weeks from people looking to book holidays in the Isle of Man and we have had our fair share of bookings.

What has only recently come to my attention, and arguably I should have known given my professional qualification, is that we have been using a name through our website that requires registration under the Registration of Business Names Acts 1918 and 1954.

So a cheque for £42 is in the post to register murrayandmarie.com

I've also completed the booking of our own summer holiday today. As a proprietor of a self catering business that has been provided internet access for its guests for 10 years or so, I can't believe that in many parts of the country there are properties charging more than £700 per week that don't provide it. Needless to say, we won't be staying at them!

60 minutes for 60 years

A week ago I put myself under a lot of pressure to produce a special website for brother Martin when I had hardly any time at all. 

Just had another look at it and ran a spell check this time! Here is an extra photo of the 1988 Parish Walk winner who beat Steve Kelly in the School Cross Country race - but was out-sprinted at the top of Somerset Road by 1974 Commonwealth Games sprinter Steve Higgins. 

Here is the website:

http://www.lambden.im/

Easter Festival was the story of the week

Just doing some further tidying of the front page, finishing off what I started yesterday.  I thought I would save my comments about the "big names" from the 1973 event by pasting them below.

The Easter Festival of Running really has been the story of the week. New sponsorship was announced at the start and the history of the event has been brought back to the publicon the website (as usual these things don't happen overnight).

During the past five or six years, the organisers have gone some way towards bringing back the University teams who used to form the backbone of the event. But strangely, very few locals have been running in a series that brings competition to their doorsteps. 

The return of the local runners. That will be the story of the year. Now here is that story of yesteryear.  

Charlie Spedding went on to win the London Marathon and take the bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics; Julian Goater won the 1981 National Cross Country in one of the biggest wins of all time and was 4th in the World Championship Cross Country; Steve Kenyon was the last British runner to win the Great North Run (1985: 1:2:44) and contested nine world cross country championships. If it was good enough for them......enter today!

Its started to snow

Just been out running around Tromode Park and there are a few flakes in the air.

Not sure if it will be as bad as in this photo I published on the Parish Walk Facebook wall last night. Its the snow on the Parish Walk Course near to the Devil's Elbow about two miles Peel side of Kirk Michael. It was taken by my mother - in the late 80s I think.

Remembering Easter

The Celton Manx Easter Festival of Running is now featured.

If you have not visited the easterfestival.info website recently its worth doing so - plenty of old and new material there.

I was delighted to find the old results from the 70s as nobody would believe me that the relay used to be in Saturday afternoon and the hill race on Sunday morning - and I was right.

I reckon that plenty of athletes would have stayed at the Mannin Hotel at Easter over the years. Here is where it used to be (see photo above).

That was better

I took my camera with me to Glen Lough to take some photos of the junior events in the Microgaming Island Cross Country Championships but when I saw Paul Sheard with his camera I decided to give that part a miss - although all morning it had been the running part that I wanted to give a miss!

I then went to set up a video camera at one of the river crossing only to repeatedly receive an error message from the camera. Oh well, at least it has saved me a hour or two of video editing tonight. I don't suppose it had anything to do with dropping a camera at St Johns on New Years Day. If it is, although I have more than one video camera I shall still be cross with myself.

I remember seeing a flash from Paul's camera on one of the climbs when I wasn't running too badly. In fact I was ahead of Lloyd Taggart as per the photo above. What a shame it was his fifth lap and only my fourth! I've been lapped on the fifth lap before but never on the fourth before. Today Kevin Loundes, Lloyd and Alan Corlett all lapped me on that lap.

It was still a much improved race for me even if I was a bit hasty to pass Andy Fox just before the end of the third lap. Chatting to Andy afterwards I had a couple of laughs. At one point he heard footsteps coming fast behind him and thought I had revived - but it was Kevin coming up to lap the former champ. Later someone told him that he was in 4th position unaware that he had been lapped!

Full marks to Western AC today. It was incredibly muddy but they did a great job with the course. The extra lap around the top field and the shortening of the main lap to remove the cambered section was well received. Unfortunately it does remain a bit riskier than other courses and Mike Garrett and Jason Moore were both injured after falling today.

Another massive field (not the muddy one but the size of the entry). Well done to all organisers and to the many athletes who ran well. I'm glad I ran now; but also glad that I only have one more shoe cleaning session left this winter!

PS Thanks for all the shouts today. As usual I had my eyes closed so couldn't see who they were from!

I wasn't going to do this tonight

I've been with Marie tonight but I have sneaked my laptop into the front room now. It was with good intentions, to order another DVD in a series we have been watching, but I am now linked across out network and have just updated the Parish Walk entry list and blog.

I've had my fill of holiday cottages today. Last night we were searching for one for our own holiday and today I have been cleaning the one we own. Driving out to Port Soderick today I don't think I had ever seen so many runners, joggers and walkers on the road.

I'm not running  in the morning but plan to be up in good time to publish something that has implications for athletics and my family. Hopefully it will provide a chuckle or too. I bought yet another domain name today to prepare.

I've got another pair of these somewhere

I'm usually dressed down for work but dressing down took a new meaning today. Keen to leave myself plenty of time for de-icing I went to my wardrobe and grabbed a couple of shoes. Imagine my shock when I went to tie my lace at lunchtime and saw what I had done!

I'm inundated with emails again at the moment. Apart from anything its the busy time of the year for holiday bookings. Tomorrow evening I am setting up the new booking system supported by Isle of Man Tourism so I won't be going to Ramsey. I won't be wearing my other pair of  shoes tomorrow either!

Farming and agriculture

The speaker at an event I attended tonight told us that the Isle of Man used to rely in its three legs - agriculture, tourism and farming!

He also told us the BAD news that since state pensions had been introduced life expectancy had risen from 64 to 85.

Next he said that we should make our 2012 resolutions to be more positive about the Isle of Man - at the age of 56 I think is rather GOOD news that I am likely to live to 85 and not 64!

Can't go back to 93

It was in 93 that I first made the trip to the Lancashire Cross Country Championships and the only salvation from my dreadful run yesterday was that I did not go back to 93.

Going off too fast, I pulled up at the end of the first lap before rejoining and struggling around but giving my all over the final stages to avoid loosing my 92nd position! It is only 4 years ago that I finished 30th.

An enjoyable day as always even if I had not read the notes to see that we were flying to Manchester this year and not Liverpool. Andy Fox did a wonderful  job of organising the trip.

The event is a great stepping stone for local athletes and quite a few shone. Although Andy, Gianni Epifani and I have been on nearly all of the trips, the rest of the party has changed many times over the years. Those travelling yesterday made me feel as proud of the Manx as any other and I did lots of talking.

Now to clean that muddy gear.

More Lancs statistics

I'm going to try and find time this evening to update my statistics on the Lancashire Cross Country. I'll be up at 5 am tomorrow morning to travel to the event for the 18th time in 20 years. My own 13 finishes have been:

Year	Venue		Position
1993	Blackburn		31
1996	Lancaster		25
1997	Leyland		?
1999	Blackburn		37
2000	Lancaster		36
2001	Burnley		26
2002	Blackburn		29
2004	Blackburn		27
2005	Blackburn		30
2007	Blackburn		52
2009	Blackburn		30
2010	Blackburn		46
2012	Blackburn		66

I didn't travel in 1994 or 1995.
There was no event in 1998.
I was injured in 2003 and went on crutches.
I was injured in 2006 and retired at the first corner.
I only took photos in 2008 - after a bad run in 2007 I said I had retired from cross country.
I only took photos in 2011 as I was so unfit.

Not fit this year either but made the most of what and have eased down from a low mileage!

Personal worst here we come!

To be sorted

I spent about an hour and half tonight doing more face tagging of photos, mainly from the New Year's Day Fell Race. A never ending job. It is supposed to get a lot quicker the bigger the database but there were so many new faces to teach the software to recognise.

I then moved onto a file of photos named "to be sorted". There were a few nice surprises, such as the one above from a walk with Peel in October, and a few I had been looking for. They were mainly from my pocket camera.

I've been good with ebay recently and not bid for a camera for well over a year but I was following a video camera over the past couple of days intending to enter the bidding at the very last minute. Whilst I was sorting the "to be sorted" I sort of missed the cut off for the video sale. Sorted for now. But there is another one in a couple of days!

Tree surgery

I thought I was well prepared when I set off for the Supercards St Johns Fell Race on New Year's Day. I had my wellies, waterproof trousers, warm coat and hat.

Whilst sitting very close to the river splash on the descent with cameras in hand, I start to wonder what I had done to upset some people. Several people registered direct hits on me as I was soaked. Not only did I have to continually wipe the lenses of the cameras to have any hope of any photos/film but, because I foolishly tucked my trousers into my boots, my feet were drenched too.

I went back to the car park and couldn't remove my right wellie. I walked over to the Cain family and asked for help to be treated unceremoniously by Jordan tugging and Phil and Ann holding me still! They couldn't get it off so they called upon the nearby Alan Corlett, a tree surgeon, to assist. Thankfully he didn't use a chainsaw but there were no delicate movements just me being lifted up as Alan tugged it off.

Now if anyone wanted some revenge on me, that would have been the moment if they had a camera!

Half full....or half empty?

After enjoying the company of Ben for the past 10 days, and having visitors in our adjoining property for the past four weeks, we have been enjoying our own company tonight...apart from Alfie the dog.

The glass has been in various states of capacity tonight just as on Christmas Day when Ben captured me through my wine glass.

I have been beavering away today at a few background jobs including more face tagging (Boxing Day photos) but without much to publish.

And in answer to my own question? So far as my athletics career is concerned, 2013 starts with me reaching the dregs at the bottom of the glass. With regard to website publishing,  the glass will need plenty of refills but I'm starting believing that it is more than half full.

Very best wishes to everyone for 2013. It won't all be good for everyone but I hope that we can hide from the real world by enjoying our sport. If you can make a sentence to include  "Isle of Man", "best place to live", "athletics", "fun" and "achievement"  you will know where my thoughts lie.