Marathon start lists

I've only just realised that the start lists are available at:

http://www.manxtimingsolutions.com/Results/2010/20100808_Marathon/StartSheet.pdf

NB Additional entries are still being taken but at a premium of £10.

Video incomplete

The video from last night that has been published was incomplete - only 2.50 of the 4.23 there should have been. Unfortunately I haven't got any more time to fix it.

The expected and the unexpected

The Dave Philips road race at St Johns last night stood out like a sore thumb on the fixture list. Five events in six days starting on Sunday with the marathon and another event scheduled just 38 hours before the start of that lot. So it was no surprise that there was possibly the smallest entry in the history of the series - 15 in the 4 lapper and 9 in the 2 lap race.

Our son, Robbie, did surprise us though winning the 4 lap race by more than 2 minutes. He surprised himself too as he thought he was last!

No less work for Western AC to organise even with such a small field so well done to them for organising and publishing the results with their now customary haste.

I made a video of some of the racing last night and left in processing and uploading. Unfortunately the program crashed so I am just uploading it again now.

Next half marathon

I'm always alert to the fact that a lot more people visit the website when there are big events happening. Although most of them visit because they or their family are taking part, there are always some who have considered taking part but have not yet taken the plunge - a bit like all the people on their bikes after the Tour de France or on the tennis courts after Wimbledon.

So that is why I often move the focus to events a little further in the future in the hope that some of those casual visitors can be persuaded to take part. This morning I have plugged the Haldane Fisher Half Marathon.

Despite the reaction of Les Brown (above) to my camera at the event in 2008, you will be given a warm welcome.

Locking up

The photo above looks like it was taken through a prison window - its actually through my office window in Ballasalla. It was taken on my mobile phone which I don't use very often and i've only just learned how to transfer files to a PC.

It was taken yesterday afternoon when there was excitement in Ballasalla with the arrival of two vintage coaches like the one in the photo. A couple of hours earlier I had gone for a lunchtime walk around Rushen Abbey and noticed a small marquee outside the reopened Rushen Abbey Hotel. So we were able to put two and two together when a special train arrived and the occupants were met by the coach - they must be going to Rushen Abbey.

I noticed that the Chief Minister was among the party but so were quite a few other MHKs. Later I heard that he had handed over the Keys to the tenant of the hotel. No wonder we never saw them going back!

Tributes to John

I'm hoping that a few more people will add tributes to John Stubbs, who passed away on Sunday, on the forum.

But I can understand how hard it can be to find the words that, when they are written, help others to remember him in his full glory.

I put together my music/photo tribute late last night and I couldn't sleep afterwards.

Although I keep my photos in a fairly organised way, I sometimes write about how I take whole evenings to tidy them up, I don't have time to tag them. I organise them by year and then by event.

My digital collection goes back to 2001, although I have lots of other older photos scanned in, and so I started looking through that year and copying all the photos I could find of John into a special folder. He was in so many of the events particularly between 2002 and 2006 - he walked a 100 mile event in each of those years.

The photo I featured on the front page was taken when he was watching Manx Harriers summer 10km walk in 2002. He was entitled to rest as he had done the 100 miles (I think) the week before.

As I was trying to sleep last night I kept thinking of other photos I missed from my selection. I still can't find some of them but I have included in this post one from near the start of the last ever Boundary Stroll with John sharing the early lead with Adrian Cowin. It was quite fitting that Adrian made the official announcement of John's passing, on behalf of the Isle of Man Veteran Athletes Club, because whenever I found a photo of Adrian I would find one of John in the same batch.

I know that John's friends from his club, and the wider sport, gave fantastic support to John and his family during his illness. I didn't know him as well as some but I did make a single trip to Hospice to see him on the Friday of TT Practice Week. It was the first time that I have ever been in a hospice and I was nervous about the visit.

I was a guest in his home city of Stoke-on-Trent for four years in the 70s and I even used to watch his beloved Stoke City for two of those years. I could talk about Staffordshire Oatcakes and Wrights Pies, those two great Potteries delicacies. Failing that, as I had worked for 8 years at Ronaldsway Aircraft Company, John's long term employer, surely I would be able to find plenty to talk about in a difficult environment.

I need not of worried - we just talked as usual about who was going to win the Parish Walk, and who would not, and about his time on the Isle of Man. He remained so strong and so positive and interested in what everyone else was doing.

As I left, I joked that I should have used my visit to write a feature about him for the www.parishwalk.com website.

As I tried even harder to send myself to sleep last night I wished I had written that feature. There are so many things I still don't know about the man. I hope some of you will write them.

PS I have just edited some video from the 2007 Empire Garage Peel to Douglas walk which I will leave as my final silent tribute ..much better than these words.

Great week for athletics

What a great week it has been for athletics. It has been like the old days with photos from the European Championships in Barcelona adorning the back pages of the newspapers and the gold winning performances in the headlines on all the media.

There were lots of positive comments about the atmosphere and depth of upcoming performances too just a week ago from the Manx Championships. And these comments are echoed by Manx Harriers (and Island Games) team manager Anthony Brand on the forum where he reports on the performances of his club in the Northern League.

In fact the week has been even better than the old days with a record number of medals in Barcelona.

Meanwhile the local action has been back on the fells as Nigel Armstrong won the second race in a row on North Barrule. The entry for this race was up on previous years but the headlines have been fewer. I was not able to attend any of the three fell races in July and there seem to have been far fewer photographers going to events since we entered the busy period of the year for fixtures.

Hopefully there will be a few more photos around next week when there is No Rest for the Wicked.