Down Wembley Way

I used to follow a lot of football when I was a kid but never thought I would get close to Wembley.

I used to listen to a lot of Fleetwood Mac when I was still pretty young and had their first Greatest Hits record almost worn out before Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band. I never thought I would get close to them.

Last night I walked down Wembley Way to the Wembley Arena and was lucky enough to see Fleetwood Mac play. And it was a great experience.


It took me a while to be won over by the "new" Fleetwood Mac in the 70s. It was a bit like when the best players leave a football team and you are unsure about the replacements but in time they turn out to be even better.

Nothing could be further from the truth and half way through the show last night Marie whispered to me "its like a one man show", referring to a superb performance by Lindsay Buckingham.

It was as it we were watching a football match at the stadium next door. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were a pretty sold defence; Stevie Nicks was a creative force in midfield but the drive that Lindsay Buckingham got all those years ago (32 years since Rumours) when he discovered that Nicks was not being faithful to him, gave him the agression to be star of the show and score goal after goal up front.

We are off to London City Airport shortly but I will be back online tonight.

There is a great entry for the half marathon tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it

Not doing anything new tonight

I've just updated the front page as if it is tomorrow. Earlier in the day I copied Adrian's appeal for marshals from the forum to the front page. It really is essential that the organisers get a lot more help for the Haldane Fisher Syd Quirk Half Marathon.

It would help them a lot too if they don't get jokers trying to enter on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

What part of "NO LATE ENTRIES" do some people not understand?

Compared to years gone by I can't believe that a) I got out of work on time before a short break and b) I haven't got a list of essential emails/website updates to do before I travel to London on the "red eye" tomorrow. So I am going to quit and chill out to "Fleetwood Mac" on my headset.

I will be updating the site at some point over the next couple of days....along with other meaningless stories that only the people reading this can be remotely interested in!

You'll always find my queuing with Richard

I can only remember queuing twice this year (for any significant length of time).

The first time was at the London Marathon. Several of the Manx runners travelled together on the train to Blackheath but it was only Richard Radcliffe and I that were in Pen number 1 on the blue start. So we stayed together for the final hour and half and put the world to rights. The time went quickly.

On Saturday Richard (and his wife Helen) were immediately behind me in the queue for tickets for the Bryan Adams concert. We put the world to rights. the time went quickly.

We didn't get tickets.

I have since consoled myself that I much prefer Fleetwood Mac, who I will be seeing at the Wembley Arena with Marie on Friday evening, but I have still been playing Bryan Adams in the car all week. And you may have noticed that I used on of his tracks for the soundtrack of the race walking video on Sunday.

From my mail box 5

Had about 10 of these because I own www.easterfestival.info where PJ publishes the Easter Festival website.

Hello,

Good news! The domain easterfestival.com is now available for purchase.

To buy the domain now, or to learn more about this opportunity,
click https://secure.itdomainnames.net/store/order/easterfestival.com

Kind regards,

John Timmers

InTrust Domains

4845 A Pearl East Circle

Boulder, CO 80301

No more please: http://initrustbestdomains.org/store/unsub/f2afcc97-d596-450f-83e6-db346fdf50e8

From my mail box 4

You might recognise someone in this promotion. Double click the image to see the full file.

From my mail box 3

Dear Mr Murray
Sol Sports has the pleasure to present to you the 22nd Half-Marathon in Torremolinos, Spain.
　
The event will take place on February 7 2010. See leaflet for more info!
　
Should you wish to stay longer or add other services, we are more than happy to adapt our offer accordingly. One of our Sol Sports members will pick you up from the airport and assist you throughout your stay so you can focus on the competition.
　
Torremolinos is situated just 12 km South of Malaga and even in February temperatures tend to be pleasant, so next to the competition you should be able to get that special \"holiday-feeling\".
　
For any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.
　
We are looking forward to hearing from you!
　
Yours in sport,
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
Marc Majerczik
Sol-Sports S.L.
Los Patios de Santa Maria Golf
Bloque B / Apt G06
29600 Marbella
España
　
　
　
Tel.: +34-952 826 827
Fax : +34-952 826 827
Mobile: +34-607 924 446
　
Email: m.majerczik@sol-sports.net
Web: www.sol-sports.net
　
　

From my mail box 2

GeoCities, the free website that was taken over by Yahoo 10 years ago closes down today.



I used it for a time when webspace was much more expensive than now and the first Millennium Way Relay website was published there.



It is still there now and I have just had a final look at it - I tried not to cry!



http://uk.geocities.com/mwrelay/index.html



More recently (2002) I moved my archives there and the new stories from 2002 are there:



http://uk.geocities.com/murraylambden/



When I first received notices that it was to close in three months, two months etc I intended to just move the files somewhere else for old times sake.



I must have them on my PC somewhere but for now I have to be realistic and realise that it is just too much effort.



Bye bye Geocities.

From my mail box 1

I'm going to make an effort to clear a few things that I have been in my mailbox for ages which I have not had a chance to talk about.



I get this one every year - possibly because I have loads of references to running, athletics and Boundary on my site (Boundary Harriers was one of the two clubs that merged (with Manx AC) to become Manx Harriers:




This email is being sent to all clubs who had at least one member taking part in the Baildon Boundary Way - a multi-terrain half marathon - in the past few years. Entry forms were emailed to all such participants (where we had their email address) about 10 days ago so that they had the first chance to enter the next event that will take place on Sunday, 28 March 2010.
　
As other members of your club may wish to take part, we are attaching an entry form that you may wish to copy and make available to your members in general.
　
Apologies if the email address used is no longer the correct contact point for your running club. With ever-changing committees and email addresses, it's a nightmare trying to keep our records up to date though we do try hard to do so. If you would kindly forward this email to the correct person we would be very grateful. To help ensure that any future emails are correctly directed, could you drop us a brief note advising of the 'old' and 'new' email addresses and we will update our database accordingly. Equally apologies if you receive this email more than once; in some instances we have more than one contact address for a club. Please let us know your preferred address to use.
　
In some cases, the club email address used will be the same as that of an individual entrant - apologies for any duplication.
　
Please email us if you have any queries about the event or visit our website: http://www.baildonrunners.tk/ where further entry forms can be downloaded.
　
Baildon Runners

I used to share a stage with Brian Adams

I went to see Brian Adams in Milton Keynes in 1977. He had performed the previous night at Crystal Palace but he still topped the bill on the Saturday as well.

He always wore "Walk with Jesus" on the front of his vest but I didn't see it at Milton Keynes because he lapped me.

The event was the National 50km race walking championships which he won having taken part in the AAA Champs 3,000 metres the previous night.

He also performed well in Canada the previous year at the Olympics.

So it was a big of a joke to the race walkers when a recording artist of the same name took to bigger and bigger stages a few years later.

I didn't think I would be planning my day around queueing for a couple of hours for tickets for Bryan Adams 32 years later. I imagine that I will be moving even slower than during my final 5km on that scorching day in Milton Keynes.

We were entertaining last night and so I had only a few hours sleep before I went out to run at 6.45 this morning.

Run, write, queue, clean, TV, sleep. That's my day today. I'll be back on the case tomorrow. Unless the queue is so big this morning that I walk away and come back to my PC.

Thou shall reply to 10 emails tonight

Does anyone remember when they used to give out "lines" as a punishment at school? I doubt very much if they still do.

If you "forgot" to bring your homework to school you might have to stay in detention and write 100 lines of "I must not forgot my homework" as a punishment.

I thought of these when I was driving home from work tonight when I was trying to impose some discipline on myself deciding that I must try and make some inroads in my email mountain tonight and reply to 10 before I did anything else. So I was repeating the above line in my head until now.

Having achieved that target I have just worked on a quick promotion for the Easter Festival. The action starts on 2 April but get your entry form out of the way now.

I've got a stack of other things to do now so my next line to repeat in my head is: "I must not touch the website again tonight".

Announce your sponsor

I only realised today that the fixture list for next year had been published. I have just updated my quick list.

If the club webmasters would like me to link to a specific page on their website rather than the home or landing page then just let me know.

If you would like to add your sponsor's name then I can do that if it is not on the front page.

Finally, if there are any corrections then please let me know as soon as possible - not the night before the event.

Announce your sponsor. Publicise your event.

Remember the power of Google will only work if you publish the words that you want people to search for.

A weekend of half finished tasks

I left work on Friday evening with one of the easiest October weekends that I could remember. Until a couple of years ago (for 7 years) October was the busiest month of the year with September accounting year ends in both my previous jobs and so weekends often involved trips to the office.

But this year I had none of that. I also had my first weekend off from our cotttage cleaning for five weeks (still someone in but staying two weeks). Unlike some of my "younger" days too there was no 12 miles around Baldwin the day before the cross country instead it was a case of resting up.

But everything job I started this weekend seemed to be half finished. Including the cross country.

Thankfully others did their jobs well and there was good weather, a good course, some well prepared athletes, good organisation and plenty of photos from the cross country yesterday. Well done to all involved. I'll continue to add one of more bits to the website today as further photos and information come to hand.

Silverdale

4 people have mentioned Silverdale which I didn't. Maybe a should a second round of voting next week. I'll take the top 9 from the current vote and then add Silverdale to make it 10.

At least 21 cross country courses

I left the 20th option on the poll blank as I was sure to have missed one. And I had. Andy Fox reminded me about his favourite - Kewaigue.

So I made Kewaigue the 20th and I have already got the 21st. I included Derbyhaven thinking of the course that was only used an odd time starting and finishing at King Williams College. But of course there is also the Langness course that was used for four or five years in the 90s.

Any more? To count they must have been used in an Island League at least once.

You can turn the sound back up

I've fixed the problem with my computer much quicker than expected so I have been tinkering with the front page.

As well as adding a poll for you to chose which is the best cross country course, I have taken the "Many Rivers to Cross" music off. Even I was getting tired of that after a couple of days!

Thank you Microsoft for the worst birthday present

I had a rare day off the website yesterday as it was my birthday. Went out for lunch in Castletown, took the afternoon off work and catered for a small gathering out the house last night. I've never been into parties so that was as close it gets entertaining my running group.

Despite my warning to other people here about a big Microsoft update coming this week, my automatic updates didn't pick them up until last night.

And it has completely screwed up my computer. Every single application has been wiped out! I need to think this one through carefully before going to a restore point tonight. Might well be another night without an update. I'm sure it won't be a night when Microsoft and a few swear words are used in the same sentence!

No particular reason to be back here

Have spent a couple of hours chilling out trying to get as many of my half read newspapers ready for the recycling bin tomorrow. Oh, and that wine bottle that still had at least three glasses in it needed to go as well!

Every time I reload the front page I just love seeing the picture of Mike. I don't know what it is about cross country, I am much better running at a steady rhythm, but you have just got to try it to understand the love hate relationship that most of us have with it.

See you there on Sunday!

Quota up

I'm pleased to get the front page all nice and tidy earlier than expected tonight.

I've just been watching the video from a couple of years ago and its made me nervous. A couple of days ago I wasn't sure if I would be taking part but now I'm back up for it. Next job: entry forms.

See through windows

If you are like me and leave your computer on tonight do make sure that you close your applications down.

Microsoft are releasing their biggest ever series of patches to known problems with their software - even some for Windows & which has not been released yet!

Boring YouTube

I hope that doesn't fit your description of my 243 films that I have published to date on YouTube!

The heading is intended to reflect the job I have been doing tonight.

I started off watching the film I made last night of the walk at Ronaldsway and thinking how pleased I was that it had moved from the National Sports Centre. For the sake of filming anyway as it gets very hard to find a new background at the NSC.

I then looked at the stats and chilled out for a few minutes watching a couple of the National Cross country where David Griffiths did the filming.

I noticed that the 2008 films were considerably more popular than the 2009 equivalents and realised that I had not got around to one of the most boring tasks associated with publishing these films.

If you were making a blockbuster then it would be very important to give the file a good name, describe the event giving everyone a mention, add tags (the words that people might find the film by if they search) and marking the location on the map.

But I am not making blockbusters. Usually when I get to the publishing the film stage I've got the vegetables boiling for Sunday lunch after doing all sorts of things since getting up in the morning and I'm getting pretty hungry.

Then again, if you want people to find your film by searching, for example, by "National Cross Country" then I suppose these things have to be done.

So tonight I started working my way through from the most recent backwards. But after an hour or so I had only managed 16 of the 60 odd that I have failed to publish properly. It really was boring YouTube and I can't face any more.

Neither can I face changing the front page towards the cross country. But at least you have some new photos from Jackie Moore of the fell race which I rather embarrassingly found in my Junk folder tonight!

Back up to speed

I spent a pleasant morning watching the walking and felt so much better for it as I was able to talk to a few of the people to whom I had been meaning to return emails to a few weeks. I took plenty of photos and video footage and had the photos uploaded by 11.45.

I had hoped to get back to the video editing soon after but a succession of phone calls left me short of time to get some other jobs done to which there was a deadline.

After some family time and some Sky+ (mostly at 30 times speed to save time) I got around to the video editing at about 9 tonight.

There is never enough time to get all the jobs done we plan for the weekend but at least my computer is working at a decent speed again after three weeks of pain. Well almost, I made things worse when I tried to reset the router on Friday night (it is knackered but just out of warranty). Luckily I had the old one in the attic but its not ADSL2 compatible. If I only I had not thought "lets not be greedy and grab a free router when I don't need it" I would have had that video uploaded three times faster tonight.

I've not even been near the forum today so it will be tomorrow before I take note of the things that have said today.

Big build up for the cross country this week too. And that interview with Maurice Herriott. Back up to speed.

Walk but no run

I hadn't expected to make it to the Welbeck Hotel 1 Hour Walk this morning but, because my running training has not gone to plan in the last few days, I will now have time to pop down to it. So hopefully I will have some photos and a video around lunchtime.

Running, cleaning but no photos from me

I had hoped to get to Glen Roy this afternoon to get some photos but my timetable doesn't permit. I won't be starting the cleaning at the cottage until 10 am today.

I'll tidy up the front page late this afternoon and if anyone else takes some photos of the Hill Race I might be able to put one or two on the front page. My time available in the early evening will depend upon whether the England football watch is available on the internet. I have subscribed but a lot of people are predicting technical failure...that is with the broadcasting not the tactics!

Law of diminishing returns

Even with my computer going slower than time added on in a Manchester United match, I have been pleased to get my photos from the Firemans Runs and a video edited and uploaded within an hour and 10 minutes of walking in the door tonight. I couldn't have done it without that cup of tea Marie!

I had 24 minutes of video but by the time I got the first 8 or 9 down to the length of the music track I had chosen I stopped. Spending two or three times longer on the editing doesn't produce two or three times as much pleasure for anyone.

I wanted to give Chris Quine credit ...but not that much

I told Chris a few days ago that I was planning to do a video interview of Maurice Herriott before his 70th birthday. It is something that I have been talking about for years and Chris had previously given me his contact details (Maurice is ex-directory) but I had mislaid them.

I spoke to Maurice yesterday lunchtime. As Chris says in his forum tribute Maurice has not been in the best of health and he said that he had only just come back from having an operation on his foot in Walton Hospital. So he preferred to leave it until next week. I enjoyed the 15 minute "warm up" that we had on the phone and shall look forward to meeting with Maurice next week.

Chris achieved a lot under the guidance of Maurice - but not the BRITISH record that I attributed to him holding for 24 years! That was what appeared on my website for 10 minutes earlier this evening!

Back to monopoly

I am one of four brothers and sisters and we get on pretty well. We try to share each others joyful moments as well as each other's more difficult times.

In recent months, however, I have communicated less with them than I have for years. There have been two reasons. Firstly, unlike previous years we have been away from home quite a lot and this always disrupts schedules when you prepare for your trip and then catch up again. But secondly, there have been weeks when so much of my spare time has been spent in front of a computer screen, with planning for and publishing things on the website being the biggest monopoliser of time.

So last night my priority was to write a long email to my family. It makes it easier to then catch up by phone at the weekend.

Feeling better that I have started something that I have been planning to do for weeks I now plan to allow the site to monopolise my time again tonight.

There will be a new feature ready for tomorrow morning. It will be slightly smaller than originally planned with part 2 next week.

It took me (I think) more than 20 years to visit the Ramsey Fireman's runs when I took photos and videos in the opening round last year. I've not yet decided when to wait another 20 or whether to visit the northern town tomorrow.

A night of email but probably not to you

I had yet another evening of trying to tackle my email mountain. But it was largely work relating to our holiday business, making arrangements for visitors over the next few weeks, thanking recent visitors and dealing with recent enquiries.

I'm afraid that I have lots of other emails from people within the sport that I have not dealt with yet.

I am planning an extra feature for the site this week but juggling my other commitments and to fit it in I need to be sure I have other things under control.

Just time to add the link to the Cross Country page this morning. The information page http://www.iomaa.info/crosscountry.htm should have everything you need to take part in the Manx Gas Country Country League. As has been said before, the site is a great addition to the local scene. It was set up by Cheryl and David Pryke during the summer. David Griffiths has been working hard with the publicity and has been distributing the entry forms.

Watch out for Paul on the Switchback

I've managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions on the website today to feature the Western 10.

When I first started the website it was largely to publish databases but after building them with all the results of the Parish Walk, the Syd Quirk Half Marathon, the Peel to Douglas Run and Walk, TT40 etc (every known result) I vowed not to start any more until I had other things under control. I always intended to compile the same information for the Western 10 from Gordie Brew's records.

Thankfully, someone at Western AC undertook this task two or three years ago and it is really helpful to have all the results available.

I've used them to start building my own database and I have started with all the times under 1 hour. The stats I published in the early part of the afternoon really do illustrate how much higher standards were in the 1980s.

I returned to the task a little while ago to make a few corrections (do let me know if you spot any others) and to add the bit about Alan Postlethewaite.

I am very aware of how well Alan has run throughout his veteran years, particularly on the Western 10 course. My friends are tipping me to run a lot faster than I have confidence to do tomorrow and I don't expect to come close to Alan's best over 50 time, even if the wind falls a bit.

I have been quite edgy throughout the day as it is the first race that I have prepared anything like reasonably well for since the London Marathon. I've only trained over 5 miles once in the last five weeks but the short stuff that I have done has gone well.

I heard this afternoon that my good friend Paul Curphey is turning out. You will see from the stats that he has one of the most consistent records in the history of the event. His two best times were recorded before I started training with him in 1992 but we prepared for this in 1993 and then 1997 and regularly thereafter. Paul has beaten me in four of the six times we have been "head to head" but on at least three of them I have been ahead of him on the big climb but he has powered past me on the switchback.

The photo shows the two of us in 2002 (with Peter Hughes close behind) and that was one such occasion when he beat by by 24 seconds.

More than 2 hours but less than 2 videos

The night before last I said that I would be spending a couple of hours on the website last night.

I was also delighted to see that YouTube had reached an agreement with the Warner Music Group which will allow me to restore some of the videos where the audio had been blocked. It will also allow me a great choice of music for future groups.

So I decided last night to start republishing a few videos. I soon as I started looking through the folder with all my video in I realised what a mess it had become in the past 16 months or so when I last organised it.

So I ending up spending more than the plannned two hours last night but with little to demonstrate where the time went to. There is a lot more to do.

But at least I have more one video with music. I had uploaded three different versions of the Arthur Jones Fell Race and they were all blocked. So here is the first.