Fastest Northern AC athlete and one of the people who helped him

We have friends arriving for the TT on Sunday evening and they've watched all of the TT TV programmes and I had not watched any. So I started with the Conor Cummins special. Boy has he shown determination to get back where he is.

I read that he had been circuit training with Northern AC and I have some photos of him (as above) in their club colours in the 2006 Millennium Way Relay.

I've only spoken with him once and that was at my uncle's funeral.

Kenyon Crowe was one of those people who liked to help without making a big fuss but I know that Conor appreciated every penny of support. On one occasion when he called into see Kenyon he stayed the whole morning chatting.

Quite how many sports people Kenyon supported over the years we'll never know but I was one, although I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. The photo above is from the Millennium Baton Relay when Kenyon ran a short leg through his birth place of Kirk Michael, and handed the message from the Queen to meet to take as fas as Bishopscourt.

Weather forecast spot on

Whilst chatting to one of our visitors on Saturday, he said that Manx weather forecasts had not improve much over the years.

I could not agree less. I find it amazing that we could plan our long weekend so well because of the weather. Rather than go for our traditional bank holiday walk we opted for a day out yesterday and a day in today when the weather was known to be bad.

We headed for Ballaglass yesterday and then went down the path to Cornaa and back the long way on the road to the Ballaglass car park. We even visited somewhere he had not been before - Cashtal Yn Ard burial site.

Some selected photos before and the whole set are at http://isleofman.in/maughold2013

Just remember that I uplifted the whole set including a couple with Marie in, which I am not allowed to do, so I shall remove them now.

Martin home

I'm pleased to say that Martin is back from Broadgreen and is well given the circumstances of a mild heart attack earlier in the week.

Beautiful day

I was out for run at around 7 am this morning. Little more than a jog, a went down along the prom and round Onchan Head. And it was beautiful, The tide was out; the Mannanan was departing and there was another ship in the harbour.

There was evidence of the arrival of TT fans with bikes parked and fans chatting in the sunshine. My only grumpy old man complaint was the camper vans that park at the far end of the promenade, and on Onchan Head.

Out to the cottage until 4 then back into the sun with Robbie for a walk.

First time in more than 20 years

I didn't attend a single event in the Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races this year, the first time in more than 20 years. I intended to go to St Johns to take photos this evening but I was a little later coming home work and the phone was ringing and the question came into my head - why? Its been an eventful week outside of sport and why was I worrying about attending?

I can't pretend that I thought it was a good idea to organise five handicap races in less than two months when there are so many other events on at the same time the year but after attending the series for the past couple of decades, first through the streets of Peel, then on the Poortown Road and latterly at St Johns, I felt obliged to go at least once but I'm still not sure why.

I've long championed handicap races where novices are given a warm welcome and serious runners can take a break from their training and chase after them. Is this still what we are doing?

Robbie Lambie, Paul Trees and Mike Garrett start outside Peel Camp Site in June 2002

Nobles Car Park this morning

Three out of four

We timed our short walk to the House of Keys election to perfection this evening arriving just a few minutes before the result was announced. Just time for a bit of banter with photographer Mike Wade and we were in. Here is the video:



I spoke to three of the candidates afterwards and I felt bad as I obviously only voted for one - in fact for all they knew I might have voted for the fourth person.

Clive Dawson was at school with me and possibly had the longest journey in the Island when his father took on the Jurby Hotel and he travelled to school in Douglas before switching to Ramsey Grammar School.

The successful candidate, Chris Thomas, ran in the Easter Festival (above) and has plans to complete a triathlon. His wife, Tania, is a more frequent competitor in the fell and trail races as well as the Easter Festival.

Quintin Gill has walked as far as Rushen in the Parish Walk on three occasions. I felt sorry for him on his walk home tonight.