Baldwin - another of my favourite parts of the Isle of Man

I love Baldwin, although I say that about just about every part of the Isle of Man.

The sheer beauty of the landscape was there for everyone to see at the fell race last night and I drove to it via East Baldwin,which is the most special of the two Baldwin valleys.

It was almost wrecked me just a few weeks ago and I hated it then.

The very first time I trained with Paul Curphey (back in the winter of 1992) he said it was hardest training session he had ever done. It became a bit of a joke in our training group. Whenever we worked hard we would turn to Paul and ask: "Was that the hardest session you've ever done Paul?".

Well I had one of those when, thinking I could train through the 20 mile race on the way to the London Marathon, I headed for Baldwin at 6 am a couple of days later. I was absolutely wrecked doing those 12 miles although my recovery was good and and a few days later I did another good hard session.

30 years ago I was among those that did the Boundary Harriers cross country at East Baldwin. I liked most aspects of the course (it was tough) except for the camber.

The races were held on land belonging to my family. At that time it was farmed by my Uncle, Kenyon Crowe. More recently his son Graham has been the main man. Their farm is at Ballachrink on the west side of East Baldwin and I spent many a summer day there as a kid.

My grandmother came from a long gone farm on the other side of the river known as Arderry. My grandfather came from Kirk Michael and I believe that he used to walk over the mountains to do his courting.

With fewer houses but more farms (I am talking about 100 years ago) the beauty of that walk (well in Summer at least) would have been even greater than what the fell runners witnessed last night.

So to the pictures. The oldie shows my brother Mike driving the tractor (I think) near to St Lukes with my cousin Linda behind him. In the trailor are my mother Gwelda and sister Margaid together with cousin Graham and myself. That was nearly 45 years ago - long before the first regular fell races in the Isle of Man. The other picture looks over Injebreck Reservoir and to the left (in the distance) is where I think the old picture was taken.

Next time I go around Baldwin I will probably hate it again. I resumed training on Monday after (almost) recovering from a knee injury that went back a few weeks before London. By the middle of next week I might be out there in the morning and wishing I had stayed in bed.

But that is what athletics is all about. When you are training you hate the thought but when you are not you hate the thought of not training.