End to End Walk memories

After publishing a feature on the End to End Walk last night, and particularly after checking the stats for 27 times finisher Ron Ronan, I found that I couldn't get to sleep.

My mind went back to 1974 when I first completed the course - 35 years ago when I was only 17.

I don't remember how many starters there were (about 12 I think) but there were nine finishers which I have extracted from my database:

Ian Turnbull 07:08:30
John Cannell 07:18:08
Ron Ronan 07:25:11
Murray Lambden 07:29:20
John Corrin 07:39:33
Irene Corlett 07:54:55
Dave Wilkinson 08:03:27
Arthur Jones 08:37:54
Colin Watterson 08:50:31

After a very steady start I remember passing Arthur Jones before Bride and being amazed at him walking in sandals.

I soon caught up with Ron Ronan who was a very experienced walker compared to me - he had one finish from the previous year! He was also a Parish Walk finisher though. As we chatted I think he helped me by preventing me from going too fast.

But after hill after hill after hill, I started to tire and Ron finally dropped me on the Castletown bypass. Although the distance of 39.5 miles was almost the same as I had covered to Kirk Michael in the Parish Walk 4 months earlier, the last two or three miles took their toll and I was struggling.

Ron Ronan went on to complete the old course via Ramsey, Laxey, Douglas and Ballasalla 25 times. I only had three more finishes. I only improved by 12:57 in the next two years before knocking a further 1:25:34 when I returned in 1980.

It was a great day for Ian Turnbull who took victory on his fourth finish after completing the very first walk in 1961 and having two second places.

John Cannell also finished the 1961 event and it was the fourth time he had finished second. In fact he finished second 7 times before he finally won in 1986 in the third fastest time ever of 6:15:04.

This was during JC's late career peak and he was to win it five times:

1985 06:15:04
1987 06:17:20
1988 06:19:49
1989 06:54:15
1994 07:06:25

More stories another day.