Scanning is so boring but it pays dividends

Successful athletes put in hours of work that nobody ever sees.

Successful events are organised by people who put in hours of work behind the scenes that nobody ever sees (make their lives easier by getting your entries in or offering to help).

In my case I sometimes spend hours scanning photos or old paperwork in an atttempt to get rid of the things I have horded for years. Tonight I spent most of the evening scanning old documents and had I known when I started how long it would have taken I could not have faced it.

But the benefits were there to be taken tonight. I knew I had an old photo of Graham Davies which I think might have been supplied by Steve Partington (if anyone else deserves the credit let me know). But while looking through the "unsorted oldies" files I found loads of photos that I had forgotten were in my possession which I will bring to the surface from time to time.

Talking of time, it is now 18 hours and 30 minutes since I started my day - 17 hours and 30 minutes ago since I finished by training. I shouldn't be here now but just one more tale to conclude. Even when I found the file of Graham I had to think hard why it was named "VI" - then I remembered that someone had labelled him as the village idiot in that photo! Sorry Graham! Graham has played an enormous part in giving us the sort of big days that we are all looking forward to one Sunday. Cheers Graham. Village hero?

Manx Harriers Half Marathon

I had quite a bit of feedback today about the special feature I did on the Manx Harriers half marathon - thanks.

Although I had planned it and had some of the statistics ready I hadn't planned to spend quite so much time on it. So by contrast tonight, I have kept away from the website all night long as I have tried to complete some of the boring tasks that the website takes me away from.

Needless to say, though, I have been keeping an eye on the forum and the webstats.

Slipping, sliding and uploading

I planned another long run with Mike Garrett starting from the far end of the pier at 7.15 am on Saturday morning and the weather appeared to be perfect - until we reached the promenade! We started to slip and slide and within the first mile we realised that our planned pace for 22 miles was out of the question and we set off on a hotch potch of a course to make up the distance - Garmins allow you to be so versatile.

Mike has long had the reputation, certainly in our training group, of being the unluckiest runner around and Saturday reinforced that verdict. Four times he went over on the ice - the best one being a 20 yard slide on his backside down towards Port Soderick beach.

What an eventful run it was though with a diversion around what turned out to be a fatal round accident in Onchan and a fantastic view from the Marine Drive of the new Royal Navy Destroyer.

If I had trained at my traditional time for a Saturday, in the afternoon, the conditions would have been absolutely perfect and when I set off to film the Greeba Fell Race I was still expecting firm conditions underfoot.

I was covered in mud as I ventured into places that I can't ever remember visiting before in the Isle of Man. Thanks to Tom Cringle for advising me where to go but apologies if you thought that Tom had won the race but as I didn't know and the results had not been published I could only say "Tom Cringle was leading".

Great fightback by Simon Skillicorn and the biggest smile ever from a winner on camera from Sarah Curphey.

I don't think I have ever produced a video in less time than planned and although I was pleased with the outcome the uploading on Saturday night was frustrating as twice it stopped and I had to start again.

At least I got on finished on the intended day unlike this blog and so many other things I intended to do. My intention of getting more sleep as I am doing more training has also been missed.

Clearing the decks

When I got up this morning I intended to do something else but I've just spent half an hour clearing most of the content from the front page and clearing the decks ready to add new content over the next few days.

I'm hoping to provide some personal coverage of the Greeba Fell Race for the first time in 6 years.

I can't find any links or information page for the Jude's Sportshall event. Perhaps someone could add something to the forum for spectators.

I had a long day at work yesterday so wasn't able to spend much time on the website. I added David Quine's photo from York. He offered me several more photos which hopefully will appear elsewhere.

On Wednesday I sent a few emails to various people about things I hope to put on the website soon but then wasn't able to respond to the replies but thanks to everyone who did contribute. As always I have many emails that I'm hoping to get around to soon.

Usual change of plans

I finally updated my Millennium Way Relay database with times from the 3rd and 4th leg this year and I was going to publish all the times between 1999 and 2008.

But I received some photos from the Brass Monkeys Half Marathon so I used them instead.

This morning I added some publicity for the next two fell runs. Don't forget to go the www.manxfellrunners.org for more information.

I've noticed tonight that the entry forms are available for the 20 mile run. No time like the present and I'll get my half marathon and Easter 10km entries done at the same time. Have you done yours?

You will always find an athlete at a Manx party

It was great to read of the success of Darren Gray and Gail Griffiths today and hopefully the other Manx athletes also did well. By the time I picked up on the news, the results had already been highlghted by Paul Jackson at http://www.manxharriers.com/ so there is no point in us duplicating the coverage although I've moved Gail's picture back to the top of the front page.

Last night I went to a wonderful party at the Claremont Hotel to celebrate my cousin Michael Crowe's 60th birthday. As always you meet people that you are not expecting to see and I hadn't realised that one of our most successful sportswomen of all time from the Isle of Man, Marie Noon (pictured above), had married David Morgan (business partner of Michael in Crowe Morgan) last September.

Marie was a great athlete before and after her cycling career and ran in the Half Marathon in the 2001 Island Games. She says that she is not very fit at the moment but is still running a couple of times a week.

It used to be that my relations complained about my photography but I think that they have now realised that they like to have the memories afterwards. So instead of being banned with my cameras, I was actually asked to take some photos.

So my spare time today (after a late night) has been directed towards fotopic galleries and YouTube videos. Nothing different there then except that they are private and not shared with the world.

I've always aspired to write at a level of another athletics commentator so I must say that I was pleased that Chelsea won yesterday but disappointed that Stoke lost!

Cross Country videos complete

I was glad to get the videos of the Lancashire Cross Country finished today. I further music soundtrack I chose was in the Warner catalogue (Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way) and so I had to do a second version of Gemma's race.

Although I did a little extra editing when I put the films together, I thought that David did an excellent job with the video. What made it good was his movement around the course with different backgrounds and angles.

Here are the four videos:

Cross Country Season at peak

I finally got the second video from the Lancashire Cross Country online last night and I hope to extract at least one more films worth from David's coverage.

Maybe a few stats to come to if I get a chance to update my spreadsheet.

Paul Jackson has increased the coverage at manxharriers.com and Chris Quine's blog is worth keeping an eye on for further comment from Blackburn.

David Griffiths was busy before he left for a second weekend off the Isle of Man, this weekend supporting wife Gail in the Half Marathon in York. He wrote some publicity for the Manx Championships last night and I have just published it togethere with a couple of photos.

Yesterday, Andy Fox provided details of the Manx Harriers trip to the National Cross Country Championships on the forum.

There is no excuse for being a stuck in the mud with so much information. Get those spikes out!

Delays with videos

David Griffiths provided me with some good video from the Lancs Cross Country but as I did not get from my holiday until Tuesday evening I didn't expect to get them all cleaned up and published before the end of the week.

I got off to a good start, however, with the first production on Tuesday evening. In the early days of video editing I used to have problems converting various file formats and usually had to "play" them from a DVD recorder onto my PC to get the file. This time I was able to lift the files very cleanly by copying and pasting.

I created an film of almost 10 minutes last night using David's camera work and set it to music but it failed to upload as planned overnight. I started again this morning but I encountered a copyright issue with one of the background tracks - I wrote recently about how Warner Music had ended their licensing agreement with YouTube. The problem was that I wasn't sure which of the three tracks was offending. I had used Elvis Costello's "Watch Your Step", Simon Nicol's "Lancashire Hills" and part of Status Quo's "Ice in the Sun". I think it is the first track that is causing the problem so I will re-do it tonight.

As usual I have lots of things to put on the website or write about here but never enough time.

Manx Harriers team talk 2010

We missed the mud at Blackburn this year but there was plenty at Chester Zoo today. It looks as if there is a team talk in my picture.

It is good to see that Manx Harriers made the BBC site today http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/7824664.stm

I used to follow football

I said I would struggle to find a connection between the Autosport Show at the NEC in Birmingham and athletics so the best I could manage was a close up of the great Murray Walker being interviewed. I was introduced to him back in 1982 at the dinner at the Villiers Hotel (who remembers that?) as the Isle of Man's Murray Walker. He was a great speaker that night but I thought he looked very tired at the end of a book signing session today and perhaps looked nearer to his age of 83 (at whatever).

I managed to get a question in at a question and answer session with Alan McNish and David Coulthard. I asked "Do Alan and David think that the best drivers in the world constitute the F1 grid". Quick as a flash Alan replied (bottom picture) "Definitely not as I'm not in it anymore". At least my question got the biggest laugh (indirectly of course). DC more or less agreed although no doubt he thinks that he got there with his talent.

When Robbie and I first made plans to stay in Manchester for a few nights I had hoped that we might have gone to watch a big football match held this afternoon. the tickets were available for circa #250 each. I didn't hear the result until Match of the Day tonight (we only just got back from Brum on time) and I'm so glad that we didn't go to the match!

Cities not suited to running

I took my cameras to the Lancashire Cross Country yesterday but in the end, because I was ensuring that Robbie knew the course (he was very apprehensive) and I had to prepare myself, I decided not to bother taking any photos or film.

Hopefully Ian Astin will publish his photos and David Griffiths is going to let me have his video to put on YouTube, although it will be Wednesday or Thursday before I can publish it.

At least I was able to keep my hands warm.

Ben dropped us off at our Hotel and quickly got my Laptop sorted. It makes such a difference to stay in a hotel with free Wi-Fi (Princess on Portland) rather than the frequently charged fifteen pounds were night. But after we had been out for a meal there was very little i could do on the website without any pictures. As always, Paul Jackson did a great job with the Manx Harriers site and it was also good to see Manx Radio have such extensive coverage on their website so soon.

I was out running around the streets of Manchester at 6.45 this morning (more like a jog really) and it makes you realise (again) how lucky we are being able to run from home in the Isle of Man.

Off to the Autosport Racing Show in Birmingham after breakfast. Not sure if I will be able to find any links with athletics to put on the site but I shall try.

Met a previous Lancs champ

I've not been able to get my wireless connection working tonight so I can't do much on the website. Thankfully Ben is passing by tomorrow and might be able to help me.

Robbie bought a pair of shoes in Up and Running today. I got chatting to the man who served him and he is a member of Blackburn Harriers - in fact he won the Lancs Cross Country in 2007!

On location

Provided that the wi-fi in the hotel works, the website will be brought to you from Manchester for the next five days.

I'm currently in the departure lounge at the Isle of Man airport but my flight has been delayed for an hour - a good start to a holiday.

I'm staying in Manchester with elder son Robbie for the next four nights and we'll be competing in the Lancashire Cross Country tomorrow. Its the longest that I have been off the Island for a couple of years and Robbie's biggest trip for four.

I'm hoping to have time to catch up with a few emails.

Most annoying software

I would have a lot more time to add content to the websites if it was not for some of the software mentioned it this link:

http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-3513_11-202392-1.html

Fixtures through to June

I've extended the fixture table on the front page through to the beginning of June.

I've always wanted to make the sport as easy to access as possible and my hope is that if someone new to the sport wants to take part they can easily find out all the details of the events.

The club websites have improved dramatically in recent years but if any of the club web editors would prefer me to link to a different page on their sites for their events, please let me know.

I used to keep scrap books

Although I stopped sticking newspapers cuttings into scrap books a few years ago, I have continued to cut out the majority of press cuttings on local athletics for future reference.

I've made several attempts to stop hoarding things as at some point in our lives we would like to move to a small house. I've already disposed of more than twenty years of Athletics Weekly and converted my old record collection into digital format but if you looked in our attic you would doubt if I have even scraped the surface.

I'm therefore converting all my press cuttings into digital form as one of the next steps. I did the whole of 2008 last night.

There may be a few people who would like to access the information either now or in the future so I'm making it all available online but, be warned, the files are very large.

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/AthleticsNews08a.pdf (New Year to Parish Walk: 78MB)

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/AthleticsNews08b.pdf (Post Parish Walk to Marathon: 30MB)

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/AthleticsNews08c.pdf (Post Marathon to End of Year: 40MB)

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/PW2008News08.pdf (Parish Walk): 29MB)

Some of the files may still be uploading.

Easter Festival

THREE DAYS, THREE RACES – WHAT A WEEKEND!
http://www.blogger.com/www.easterfestival.info

Suitable for clubs, university teams and individuals

10th – 12th April 2009

What’s on?

Good Friday:
10k road race – Port Erin – evening start

Easter Saturday:
Hill Race – Peel – afternoon start

Easter Sunday:
Road Relay – Douglas Promenade- 4x5k per leg (men), 5k race (women) – morning start
Plus Junior Races

In addition, there is the famous prize presentation on Sunday evening including the fourth event of the weekend - the 4 x 1 pint beer drinking races! – Separate competitions for men and women!! This is held at a privately hired sports themed bar/nightclub in Douglas.

How much will it cost?
We are pleased to announce that Isle of Man Steam Packet Holidays have a range of packages offering travel accommodation. Prices start at just £109 for your travel and 2 nights B and B. Contact them on 08457 585833 (charged at local rate) for more information. You may of course, wish to arrange your own transport and accommodation. Please see contact details on our Festival website http://www.easterfestival.info/ for some useful websites and phone numbers.

Full festival entry costs just £22 which includes all 3 race entries, coach transport to and from Friday & Saturday’s races, a festival t-shirt and a ticket to the prize presentation on Sunday evening. Races can also be entered individually if preferred (see website for details)

How would we get there?
The main – and usually cheapest - transports links are through the North West of England; Liverpool and Heysham for ferries and Liverpool and Manchester for air travel.

Where could we stay?
There is a large range of accommodation available from small guesthouses to 4* chain hotels. Most athletes stay in Douglas.

Can we speak with someone who has organised a tour in the past?
We appreciate that organising trips for groups can be a tricky affair. Therefore, we are delighted that one Isle of Man Easter Festival regulars has offered to help guide you through the process. Please contact Emma Waterhouse; phone 07890 734711 or E-mail e.k.waterhouse@durham.ac.uk

What do we need to do?
Tasks you might want to consider:
- Obtain agreement to run all finances through club funds.
- Obtain a deposit from all those making the trip – athletes and supporters
- Book your UK to IOM travel
- Book your accommodation in the IOM
- Maybe arrange your own tour t-shirts
- Submit event entries
- Set a final date for all monies to be paid

Please come and join us in this unique event – don’t take our word for it, speak to Emma for more information. They will be pleased to help.

For full information on the 2009 Easter Festival including entry forms see our website http://www.easterfestival.info/ or visit the organising club website http://www.manxhariers.com/

If you have any other questions please contact Kim Harding on 01624 628403 or e-mail kimharding@manx.net We would be delighted to see you in 2009.

Yours in sport,


Manx Harriers
Easter Festival Organising Team

Lancs cross country stats

I've been playing around with the Lancs Cross Country stats trying to get a pivot table to work in Excel but I've still not got them into an easy format. I did, however, publish the performances of the most regular Manx runners this morning (on the front page) and here are some lists of the finishing positions by position. You will see that there are a few missing results with "0" alongside and its possible that there may be the odd person missed, although hopefully not as I have been building the list for a long time. It is only of the senior positions so if you want a similar list of the other classes start researching now! There was no event in 1998 because it was stwitched from December (1997) to January (1999).

1993

Andy Fox 12
Chris Quine 14
Murray Lambden 31
Paul Curphey 41

1994

Steve Brennan 0
Steve Partington 0
Andy Fox 12
Paul Clarke 13
Chris Quine 17
Paul Curphey 45

1995

Paul Curphey 0
Gianni Epifani 7
Andy Fox 13
Ray Cox 20

1996

Andy Fox 9
Gianni Epifani 10
Paul Clarke 11
Chris Quine 13
Steve Partington 21
Ray Cox 22
Murray Lambden 25
Paul Curphey 33
Kevin Albinson 54

1997

Gianni Epifani 0
Kevin Albinson 0
Kevin Wynne-Smythe 0
Murray Lambden 0
Paul Curphey 0
Andy Fox 7
Chris Quine 15

1999

Andy Fox 11
Paul Clarke 16
Chris Quine 19
Keith Callister 21
Murray Lambden 37
Paul Curphey 39

2000

Andy Fox 8
Chris Quine 15
Tony Rowley 21
Keith Callister 24
Gianni Epifani 27
Steve Partington 32
Murray Lambden 36
Peter Kaneen 42
Paul Curphey 48
John Crellin 70
Jim MacGreggor 73

2001

Tony Okell 4
Gianni Epifani 10
Andy Fox 11
Paul Clarke 13
Chris Quine 15
Murray Lambden 26
Tony Rowley 28
Keith Callister 35
Paul Curphey 53
Andy Garrett 84
John Crellin 88
Jim MacGreggor 114

2002

Tony Okell 10
Andy Fox 12
Chris Quine 17
Gianni Epifani 19
Paul Curphey 28
Murray Lambden 29
Darren Gray 34

2003

Paul Clarke 11
Gianni Epifani 12
Nick Percival 35
Mark Preston 39
Chris Quine 43
Brian Osbourne 48
Paul Curphey 53
Darren Gray 63
Steve Partington 64
Glen Butterworth 70

2004

Darren Gray 11
Gianni Epifani 15
Andy Fox 16
Murray Lambden 27
Mike Garrett 28
Nick Percival 38
Dave Newton 52

2005

Andy Cannell 12
Paul Clarke 21
Gianni Epifani 28
Andy Fox 29
Murray Lambden 30
Mike Garrett 40
Andy Watson 54
Paul Curphey 62
Nick Percival 66

2006

Keith Gerrard 1
John Halligan 9
Andy Fox 26
Darren Gray 29
Paul Clarke 32
Nigel Armstrong 37
Mike Garrett 42
Nick Percival 60
Dave Newton 63

2007

Keith Gerrard 5
John Halligan 11
Gianni Epifani 14
Andy Fox 19
Kevin Loundes 24
Mike Garrett 30
Andy Duncan 33
Darren Gray 35
Murray Lambden 52
Dave Newton 90

2008

Keith Gerrard 1
John Halligan 7
Kevin Loundes 12
Ed Gumbley 16
Nigel Armstrong 17
Darren Gray 25
Gianni Epifani 26
Andy Fox 31
Mike Garrett 33
Russell Collister 42
Dave Newton 87
Les Brown 105

1994 Commowealth Games walks

Three of the women who featured in the latest YouTube film - Cal Partington, Karen Smith and Lisa Langford (as they were then).

I was delighted to finally get around to editing the film of the 1994 Commonwealth Games women's 10km walk.

Its 50 weeks ago since I produced three videos from the same source of the men's 30km and intended to deal with the women's events a few weeks later. It got lost in my list of half finished jobs until I stumbled upon the film last night.

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the film. This is due to the conversion of the film through several different formats. I certainly had some frustrations last night with the production - not least after I went to bed leaving it uploading only to find this morning that one of the original soundtracks was not permitted.

On New Year's Eve I spent more than 2 hours trying to get the remainder of David Griffiths's film from the 2007 Island Games into a format that I could use and decided to admit defeat. But with another job off the list I'm now going to revert to the latter project over the weekend.