The pits

Yesterday evening at 7 pm I was watching and taking photos of the TT on Bray Hill. At 7 am this morning I was able to run through the pits. Its incredible how accessible the TT course is and how quickly the Isle of Man changes.

You would not have thought that the island was host to thousands of bikers if you took to the countryside as we did again yesterday on the Bank Holiday. We walked on yet another bit of Manx soil, or sand to be more precise, that had previously escaped my footsteps. From beach in Ramsey we went nothwards  and then around the backroads to Regaby and back to Ramsey for a bite to eat at the Grove (and another cuppa in the Mooragh Park).

Looking up towards the mountains, and comparing the gradients on most motor sports courses, it is amazing how much climbing the racers have to do. And I got my 2004 HP 945 camera working for the first time for ages yesterday when I realised that the rechargeable batteries were finished and tried another set. I make good use of the zoom features in my photos from which I have selected a few below (double click to see full size). 

Job done

The only good thing I can think about having bad weather on a Sunday is that you don't feel guilty about not going out.

I've spent most of the afternoon and evening working on my computer and cameras whilst following the two of the biggest motor sports events of the year, the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indy 500. Did anyone see the finish of the latter? Once again a 500 hundred mile race was decided in dramatic style just yards from the finish.

I'm really fed up with my new photo website. I thought that my photos were reasonable well organised until I started uploading them all to a single site back in January. I have over 56,000 online now. I have more than 90,000 images on my hard drive (plus back up drive and cloud backup!) but I won't be publishing some of them. I'm deleting most of those that belong to other people and I'm not including my family collections (although they appear in a few of the scenic photos).

I was more successful with getting my cameras organised and clearing out surplus cables. I've deleted all of the images on the SD Cards and reformatted those that have hard disk as my focus is on having everything ready for the Parish Walk.

The draw in my desk where I keep me cameras now looks like the above photo although of course it doesn't include the one I used to take the photo - a nice little Samsung compact that I got for Christmas and take in my pocket whenever we go for walks. And I had a last minute change of mind about getting rid of our 1996 Sharp Viewcam which cost nearly as much as the rest put together. That has gone up in the attic despite my promises to get rid of things from there not add to them.

So my contribution to the website arose from my photo clearout. I've just published  some old photos from the Bradda Fell Race.

Who's Tommy?

Anyone that saw The Who perform at the Peel Bay Festival in 2007 might remember Pete Townshend telling the audience how much he loved the Isle of Man and that he would be back soon. He went to school for a brief period when his parents were performing for the Summer season at the Villa Marina and claimed a great affection for the Isle of Man.

I was somewhat sceptical because the band arrived just before the concert and flew out 30 minutes after their encore. They obviously had a desire to see the place.

Townshend wrote "Tommy" a "rock opera" which made the stage and a film as well as an album and The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey is touring the UK this summer performing "The Who's Tommy plus Who Classics and More".

The latest advert has a new date on 28 July at the Villa Marina even though it is not listed on the venue's website or indeed the Ticketmaster site where the advert says tickets can be bought from.

I've not been in the most positive frame of mind during the past day or two and the thought of hearing Pinball Wizard sung by Roger Daltrey just a month after Elton John sings his version in Nobles Park has cheered me up and brings it home just how lucky we are in the Isle of Man when I can see both concerts and walk home within a few minutes.

Having completed the coverage of last night's Up & Running Ramsey Park Run I can only finish this piece with a photo of one runner. Who? Tommy of course.

It had to rain tonight didn't it?

Travis played their first concert since 2009 tonight and it was here in the humble Isle of Man. You could certainly tell that they hadn't played for a while.

I have been planning today for several weeks. How was I going to run today if I was going to be picked up from my hotel in Germany at 4 am (British time) today, get some work done when I returned to the Island and not fall asleep at the Travis concert.

I managed 25 minutes of running at 3.15 am so it's now 20 hours ago. I reorganised the website before I got back to work today but I have failed to do anything with my emails other than filter out all the sales stuff and news updates. I've had some really useful feedback about the Parish Walk database and I don't intend to be rude by ignoring them. I will catch up eventually.

Today (and the last few days away) will take its toll though and I have lots of family stuff to catch up with. My running is going to go backwards too after weighing in at a stone heavier than when I got back from the 10 miles last Sunday. I am full of pig!

Just in case you thought my earlier comment about Travis meant I didn't enjoy it you couldn't be further from the truth. The break from playing left them with an incredible enthusiasm. 90 minutes of variety. Boy they can rock as well as harmonise.

By the time they got to "Why does it always rain on me" it had stopped raining. But in any event, this was a concert where we didn't have to worry whether the venue was booked. It was music without the bullsh*t.

Thankfully it was a concert without ash cloud too. I had no delays whatsoever flying from Munich to Manchester (Singapore Airlines) and Flybe. There will be delays with my emails and websites though. Please divert to another channel.

3 am training

We are an hour ahead over here  and getting collected to go to the airport at 5 am so if I am going to get my run in.....

when in Rome do as the Romans

X marks the spot

This church spire in Landshunt is the tallest brickwork structure in the world and the 20th tallest church spire.

What chance that health and safety regulations would allow such a building these days. The dangers of such buildings are marked in Landshunt - there is a x at the foot of the tower where someone landed when they fell.  There was no happy ending.

Watering it down

Although its not worked yet, I've had a month of healthy eating and drinking since the London Marathon. Staying in Landshut in the heart of Bavaria and there are only two beer glasses on the table tonight (between three) as I continue to abstain.

I'm afraid I am abstaining from the website too and it is too late to achieve anything tonight (we are an hour ahead) and I will be up early to run tomorrow morning.

It was 23C when we arrived today so hopefully my fingers will not end up like last time in Germany when I get frostbite.

Off to Germany

I would have liked to have extended the feature on the Northern 10 miles yesterday but we were out at a dinner last night.

I'm off to the airport shortly en route to Germany for some meetings tomorrow. I'll have my laptop with me so if I get a chance I will try and add one or two more bits about the N10. Thanks to Nicholas Bradley for the photos.

Apologies for the build up of email again. Some go back a long time.

Another 3000 photos

I've had a much quieter day for a Saturday than usual with no long run, no cottage cleaning and no events to cover.

I managed a 20 minute jog (my first for a long time), some household purchases and some family time. But I have still been using every opportunity to disappear to the the computer to upload another batch of photos to my new photo website the launch of which is getting a lot closer now.

Injebreck not always full

I've been out running around Baldwin this morning and I remembered some photos I had taken of the reservoir back in 1995 when it was completely to the background scenes from the Carraghan Fell Race the other night. The foreground is slightly different too and I suspect I might get asked to remove this photo!

Parish has moved

In case you weren't aware, the organisers of the Scottish Widows Parish Walk put the event back a week last year to avoid clashing with the Bay Festival. They weren't consulted for this year such was the importance of the Bay Festival!

Well its cancelled now but too late for the Parish to change. But the feature on this year's record entry has been moved from the front page on this site to http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/Lineup.html

The focus remains on the Carraghan Fell Race for the next day or two and so I have published a photo of Peter Bradley above.

That's a relief

Anyone who has visited the site in the last hour will have found they had to stroll half way down the page to get to the main content. I only made a few changes to the content when I got up this morning but then wasted 20 minutes trying to work out why I had such a problem.

During my run I came up with the solution which was to go back to an old template and cut and paste the content into that. I'm glad to say it worked and I love to see the photo of Lloyd Taggart on Carraghan. I just wish I could retrieve the video but I'm afraid all those great views are lost for another year.

Double trouble tonight

I really enjoyed climbing Carraghan tonight to take photos and video and I'm pleased with the photos.

The video was not so good. I took (what I think was) good film on the way up and the first two coming down onto an HD card but the card seems to be corrupt. I had a second camera on a tripod and young Oliver Ashe very kindly turned it around for the descent but most of the runners decided to run on the other side of the wall from the way they went up. Sorry about that.

Some of the downhill hand held camera (I switched to the hard disk) is quite reasonable so it should be on YouTube soon. I was going to get something to eat before I started on the video and loud rumbling noises are telling me its time to do that!

Looking forward to 2 hours time

I've been writing the "other blog" all day. http://parishwalk2011.blogspot.com/

It never ceases to amaze me how late so many people leave it to enter the Scottish Widows Parish Walk. For five and half months it has been possible to spend a couple of minutes and get the entry out of the way. Instead a quarter of the entries have come in the final three days.

I wasn't able to attend the Race the Sun event (again) yesterday although I was "on the go" for almost as long as the race.

After an enjoyable longish run I working inside and out at our holiday cottage until 4 pm (with the odd peep at the TV). We've not got a big garden there but it is the best time of the year for it.

Then it was furniture moving time. We are delighted that Robbie moves into a permanent home tomorrow at the new Carnane Autistic Centre on the Old Castletown Road after many years of uncertainty.

He will learn to look after himself but with a lot of professional help. Uncertainty and autism are two words that should never be used in the same sentence. Throwing things out and autism did fit together very well either and during the past week I have moved many car loads of his possessions and he inspected his bedroom, the attic and the garden today to ensure that I had done my job properly. Yesterday I had help to move his bed and a couple of other large items.

Robbie inspecting new pad today with his athletic trophies on display in the window.

There have been another 9 entries for the Parish Walk whilst I have been writing this 1740 now.

Not its www.manxathletics.com that won't connect

So here is the video. Good night.

Same music

Just uploaded photos, completed video and updated Parish Walk stats whilst trying to get some nutrition. I've used the same music as at the same event three years ago but who cares?

Cut backs

The parishwalk.com has been consuming vast amounts of time lately as I continue my 30 year quest to provide good quality information about all the previous performances of entrants.

But there have been cutbacks tonight and I have only spent as much time as it too to publish the promotional material for the Island Games fundraiser which I raised tonight.

The priority this week is actually a family matter which we have been waiting for for about 10 years. Its good news but more another day.

Roger back with Steve

http://www.isleofman.com/News/local/article.aspx?article=35708&area=communityhome

20KM walk

I only had an hour to cover this this morning and I have just about stuck to this with a few photos and a short video 81% uploaded to YouTube as I talk.

Taking my mother-in-law out next.

Fotopic (and Pikfu) update

For those who have been following the problems with the photo sites, you may be interested in this). Joel was the founder of Fotopic who did so much to help out again when they started having problems a couple of years ago but eventually started work on a new site.

Joel Rowbottom <joelr@pikfu.com> May 07 06:46PM +0100 ^

Hello everyone --

I'm breaking radio silence on this. Are you sitting comfortably? Then
I'll begin. I've also posted a version of this to the
former-fotopic-users list.

Background: Snappy Designs assets (ie. the Fotopic servers and
intellectual property) were purchased by ANY-Web, former Snappy Designs
shareholder, who has expressed a wish to put the servers back online and
allow people to download their photos. See http://fotopic.net for the
proper statement - I don't believe their general strategy has changed at
this stage.

Their issue is that I have in their eyes a competing product and
consequently I can't do anything with Pikfu until that is resolved.
Although I have put in a lot of effort to assist them in the technical
side of things, this morning I received an email which I see as a major
setback: it has been suggested that in filling the void with Pikfu 3
weeks after Fotopic disappeared I have been acting criminally (!); the
loss of revenues in Fotopic.net are directly attributable to Pikfu which
is in their opinion why Snappy Designs went bust; therefore they will be
exploring litigation despite there only being 79 users on Pikfu (whereas
Fotopic had about 40000). Most of those users are friends and family and
of course nobody's paid a brass farthing to Pikfu yet. Hell, we hadn't
even finalised subscription levels.

I've also been accused by said former Snappy Designs shareholder of not
caring about the Fotopic users, which surprised me.

The first time I can meet with the ANY-web directors in person is 18th
May so I'm not expecting any resolution before then (if at all). While I
would love to refer them to the response given in the
Arkell-vs-Pressdram case, I believe that is counterproductive. Whatever
happens, it is likely that this will be dragged out even longer.

For the avoidance of doubt, Pikfu.com Ltd is a privately owned company,
solely owned by me (at this stage).

The person who has bought all the hardware, servers, intellectual
property etc. of Snappy Designs Ltd (t/a Fotopic.net) is Angie Barrow of
ANY-Web. I do not know if she bought the assets personally or if one of
her companies bought them but I suspect the latter. They were purchased
just before the company was placed into liquidation.

I can't begin to even express how utterly gutted Nicky and I are right
now as a result of what's going on, but as attempts are being made to
hold us personally liable I have to tread very very carefully.

We almost got there with making the Fotopic data available too :(

Best wishes

Joel.

Extra photo assignment

Our guests arriving at our holiday cottage were married earlier in the day and travelled to their reception in Castletown past the cottage in a special carriage. I stood on the bank in the garden to take video and photos but if the train had been half an hour earlier I wouldn't have done, wedding day or not, because the heavens had opened.

I missed a chance to take photos of the lightening almost overhead at home tonight. I didn't even think about getting me camera out - I was scared!

Park run video

The video file is being generated but it looks like it will be the early hours before it is published. If you are reading this in the early hours then just click the YouTube link on the left hand navigation bar on the home page.

Oh no!

Only the regular readers will know what I have just bought on ebay.

Northern AC's website

In case you have not seen it, Northern AC's website is being updated much more often and you will notice Kevin Deakes's skilful hand on the fixtures pages (including Google Maps>

http://www.iomnac.co.uk/ 

Commonwealth Youth Games England selection

I bookmarked this a few weeks ago (due to its links with the Isle of Man) but forgot to post it so not sure if others have seen it (or are interested).

http://www.englandathletics.org/news.asp?itemid=6224&itemTitle=England+Team%3A+Commonwealth+Youth+Games+Selection+Policy&section=42&sectionTitle=England+Athletics+News

TV on the beeb

DIAMOND LEAGUE - DOHA
Friday 6 May
BBC Red Button (1700-1900)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - SHANGHAI
Sunday 15 May
BBC Red Button (1300-1500)

GREAT MANCHESTER AND GREAT CITY RUNS
Sunday 15 May
BBC Two (1000-1200 and 1530-1700)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - ROME
Thursday 26 May
BBC Red Button (1900-2100)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - EUGENE
Saturday 4 June
BBC Red Button (1800-2000)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - OSLO
Thursday 9 June
BBC Three (1900-2100)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - NEW YORK
Saturday 11 June
BBC Red Button (2000-2200)

EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 June

DIAMOND LEAGUE - LAUSANNE
Thursday 30 June
BBC Three (1900-2100)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - PARIS
Friday 8 July
BBC Red Button (1900-2100)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - BIRMINGHAM
Sunday 10 July
BBC Two (1800-2000)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - MONACO
Friday 22 July
BBC Red Button (1900-2100)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - STOCKHOLM
Friday 29 July
BBC Three (1900-2100)

WORLD TRIALS AND UK CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 July

DIAMOND LEAGUE - LONDON 
Friday 5 August
BBC One/Two (1900-2100)
Saturday 6 August
BBC Two (1430-1630)

DIAMOND LEAGUE- ZURICH
Thursday 8 September
BBC Two (1900-2100)

DIAMOND LEAGUE - BRUSSELS 
Friday 16 September
BBC Two (1900-2100)

GREAT NORTH RUN AND GREAT CITY GAMES
Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 September

EUROPEAN CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS 
Sunday 11 December

Interest in Parish Walk heats up

Yesterday was one of the first days outside of the Parish Walk weekend when there were more visitors to the www.parishwalk.com website than to www.manxathletics.com - 333 compared to 305. I've published a full list of the 1039 entries (at 6.30 this morning) so if you know anyone who is intending to enter but has not yet done so give them a kick.

Had it been less windy I might have been on this

There was a round the island trip on the Mannanan on Sunday. I saw it going past Port Erin.

Nature in spring

Rather than being a (complete) slave to the computer, Marie and I did loads of walking at the weekend. I suspect the majority of people take the Isle of Man's countryside for granted. And its animal folk:

Fastest Manx resident

On 29 June 1990, 21 years ago next month, 29 year Colin Moore ran 28.13.13 to win a 10,000 metres race in Gateshead. He stayed at the top of that year's British rankings for just over a week when Eurosport commentator Tim Hutchings set 28.07.57 and then in August Andy Bristo ran 28.04.04. He  remained third fastest Britain in 1990.

Less than a decade later Colin moved to the Isle of Man and more than a decade after that he remains 50th on the all time fastest list.

Up to 81st on that list is Manxman Keith Gerrard. I broke the news to Colin this evening, when I met him at Shoprite where he works, that Keith is closing the gap between the fastest 10,000 metre runner on the Island and the fastest Manxman living in the USA. He was impressed.

Another deadline missed

I'm putting back my own self imposed deadline for the launch of my new photo website (containing tens of thousands of photos) back for a further month. Originally scheduled for 1 April and then put back to today, there simply haven't been enough hours in the day to complete the work.

In the meantime my temporary photo site containing recent events is at https://picasaweb.google.com/murraylambden/

All of the historic collect from the last eight or nine years are not available on the website for the time being following the demise of the www.fotopic.net site.

Website records

There were 355 unique visitors per day during April. I'm fairly sure that was a record.

In fact in the 12 day period from the London Marathon to just after the Easter Festival the average was an amazing 460 per day (see chart above).

Two and half hour marathon

Its probably not far out to say that if you are really well prepared for a marathon its the first 80% that set you up for the crucial 20%.

That's about the score with the website in the past 24 hours. I spent 2 hours last trying to tidy up the design of the home page only to lose almost an hour of that work and then be beset by technical problems in the second and having to shelve the update.

Then tonight I was able to get everything finished off and updated in about half an hour. It was the work last night that paid off. Hope that you find your way round better now. I'll filter any emails from people who preferred the links to the club sites on the left into the "luddite" folder.

If that was my marathon running then I am going to have to take up endurance running to tidy up the features page. Perhaps even run several ultra races. I think I will go for the links page first. But not today or tomorrow.