Should have been in Amsterdam tonight

The photo above was taken by son Ben when we travelled to the Amsterdam Marathon in 2008 and I failed to start through injury. 2009 passed me by: 2010 I was also injured but ran and blew up; 2011 I thought I could run 2.50 and ended up with about 3.13; 2012 I entered but withdrew.There is more to life than running marathons!

History on side of scanning

I moved through another couple of years of race walking history this evening - my scanning of Race Walking Record is up to 1982. I was trying not to look too closely at the content as it was very much "my era". The indulgence can wait for another day.

I was kept going tonight with the aid of the wonderful BBCiPlayer and the even better documentary about World War II - chilling but fascinating history.

I have rounded off the evening my moving all the features of the fast few days off the front page and I was going to feature the cross country. But then I saw the headlines on the iomaa.info and saw that some more history had been made. So I have featured that.

Making dispatches

I've just stopped the scanner long enough tonight to edit a bit of the video of the Welbeck Hotel & Restaurant One Hour Walk from Sunday. The expectation is that I usually do these things in a few hours but I can't always.

I've had quite a long day as the odd scraps of time that I usually use at lunchtime and when I come home (if I beat Marie through the front door!) to do  few updates was taken up with a couple of seminars today. 

When I did get to the computer tonight, whilst listening to the hilarious attempts by the ITV commentators talk about the rain, the roof and the pitch inspections, I continued with my latest scanning project which is nearly as mad as having an all weather stadium that can't be used in all weathers.

I have attacked my collection of Race Walking Record magazines that go back to August 1976. I'm up to August 1980 so far and just starting to get the odd plug.

If anyone would like to take my collection of magazines which is virtually complete from the last 36 years, please let me know although it might take me a few weeks to get them all ready for departure.

Routemaster

 

As an amateur photographer you need a bit of luck for your shots sometimes. Although I am always looking for the best backgrounds, I was fighting a loosing battle at the Isle of Man Bank Hill Race on Saturday afternoon until Rosey Craine asked if I could take a photo of herself with her two team mates who had grabbed the first three positions. The photo turned out to be the best of the afternoon!

One of the things I like about the current group of athletes at the Northern AC club is that they have the ability to smile. I have to say that we should be allowed to pull silly faces when we are competing, but the more we smile, especially if we can take pleasure at other people's performances when we have a bad day ourselves, the better.

Rosey was smiling too on the first photo I took of her way back in 2002 at the London Marathon when she met Paul Curphey who she knew through Paul's hockey playing wife Paula.

London is known for its iconic routemaster buses and its always known that if you want to be a successful fell runner you have to be a route master.

The hill races are designed to be slightly different. Not only shorter but the routes are well marked. Saturday should have been no exception especially when members of the Manx Fell Runners club gave up time on Friday afternoon to flag the course. Imagine the disbelief on Saturday when it was discovered that some mindless idiots had pulled out the flags and thrown them into the trees.

A fair number of starters did not complete the course on Sunday.

Lap counting

I attended the second event of the weekend this morning, the Manx Harriers organised One Hour Walk. The  outstanding weather of the previous 48 hours continued and it was good to see some new faces.

There were also a few faces from the past, not least former international Carolyn Brown.

With my new scanner in full flow I have scanned 21 scrapbooks covering 1974 until 1992 plus a few extra bits and pieces. Although I continued  to keep press cuttings I either photo copied them or kept them loose in plastic sleeves thereafter apart from a brief attempt to revive the scrapbooks in 1997. The loose cuttings have already been converted to pdf form.

One person who featured heavily in the scrap books was the aforementioned Carolyn. Apart from her walking, did you know that she was the Isle of Man's first female football referee at just 18 years of age.

 

As always the lap scorers were hard at work at the NSC where Carolyn is photographed above. Their task was made somewhat harder when Richard Gerrard wore his number upside down and 191 became 161!

I completed another lap myself today reaching the youthful age of 56! Last night we visited the sponsor of today's walk, the Welbeck Hotel & Restaurant. Unlike my ageing limbs,  the Welbeck never lets me down.

Dramatic changes

Anyone who was not on the Isle of Man on Thursday afternoon and evening would not believe how the weather changed so dramatically.

There was flooding on Thursday and a beautiful day with the roads clear by Friday morning. I don't know if it is only because I have been out today, but my perception is that it is even better today.

I was out earlier having a walk around Port Grennaugh and Arragon with Robbie and the colour contrasts in the countryside were wonderful. Should be good for the Hill Race at Cringle this afternoon.

Scanned another three scrap books before I went out and the fourth is just processing. Time for one more before I go out again.

Bang the drum

I'm really pleased to have got through the scanning of another three scrapbooks tonight, particularly as two of them were double thickness. They will give me loads of material for the website and although they are hard work at the time, like the results databases and the photo collections, the work will pay off in time.

Right now I'm listening to a Squueze concert on BBC 4 as the final bit of scanning for the night processes. Earlier it was a great feature on Paul Carrack who I really like and have seen play twice on the Island. The first, during TT week in around 2002 (correct me anyone as I haven't looked it up) in the pouring rain in the Villa Marina gardens. The second was inside the Villa in 2004. The distinguishing  feature of that concert was a bit bizarre - I kept checking my phone as I was expecting my mother to pass away any time although she held on for a good few weeks!

I saw two of Paul Carrack's bands play in Stoke in the 70s - Ace and Squeeze. But on checking Wikipedia it seems that it was in neither line up when I saw them.  And I missed him again when I finally saw Mike and the Mechanics this year several years after he left the band. Mind you, the concert at the Villa was the best night of the year for me.

Glen Tilbrook, lead singer in Squeeze, is singing at full belt at te moment.Its hard to believe that I saw him as part of a crowd of about 10 a few years ago. He was doing a solo gig and he burst into WH Smith in Strand Street singing one of his latest songs to promote the concert and sell CDs in WH Smith.

The scanning has just reached the point where I can leave it to finish so I am quitting now.

But before signing off, to add to all those useless scraps of information, here is a scrap from one of those books.