Defar ahead

With such lovely weather last week I went unprepared for the chill of the wind at the top of Snaefell yesterday. I wouldn't have liked to have stood up there for long had it been really cold!

As it was I was grateful to Nigel Armstrong for helping, I thrust my camera onto him leaving me free to concentrate on video (I'm not sure that my numb hands could have done both), and to Lloyd Taggart for running so fast. His record breaking speed meant that we didn't have to wait long to see the first runner.

I was expecting to get some good shots of the snow covered hills but most of filming was instead of the mist covered hills! The breaks in the cloud gradually became longer as the race progressed.

I got the photos published pretty quickly when I got back home as I usually organise my folders and programs before I go out but as always the video took longer than planned. I try to set a deadline for completion to avoid the exercise taking over too much family time but it is hard to ignore phone calls and I ended up publishing the film much later than planned.

It was first time for many years that I have not watched a good chunk of the Inter Counties Cross Country live but I ended up with about 8 hours of athletics recorded yesterday after setting Sky+ for the World indoors as well.

It is great to read about the Manx performances in Birmingham (see manxharriers.com and the forum) and Gemma Astin was prominent on TV in the early stages. I didn't get the chance to convert the film from Sky+ into something suitable for the website.

In fact much of my viewing of of events had to be done as fast forward or I would have had no time left today. Good to see Jessica Ennis and Dwain Chambers taking gold but whilst writing this I have just realised that I have forgotten to record today's action so I don't know any other results yet.

A remarkable performance by Defar to win the 3,000 metres for the fourth times. Defar ahead made me think back to the Snaefell Race - Lloyd Taggart was Sofar ahead.