He could train someone to walk 20km whilst we talked

Whilst resident coaches Albert Johnson, Allan Callow and Graham Young should take most of the credit for providing the coaching which established the Isle of Man as such as centre of excellence for race walking, they were never shy to bring UK coaches to the Isle of Man to back up their theories and to help with coach education.

One of the regular visitors in the 70s and 80s (in particular) was Liverpool man Julian Hopkins who held the position of national coach for several years.

He stayed with quite a few Manx hosts including Allan and Graham and also Derek Harrison. I took two or three turns to host him and one of them was in 1983, the year that the English Schools Walking Championships were held in the Isle of Man. To some extent we were in competition as he was doing the public address announcing and I was commentating for the very first time for a video that Graham commissioned and was shown to all the competitors on the return ferry crossing - that is the bits that didn't get wiped when the torrential rain got in the camera.

But we were really very much in partnership in 1983. I had asked Roy Corlett to help plan my training that year but with Julian to oversee it and offer technical assistance. Julian was critical that some of my training was too slow and he planned to help pace me for a sub 2 hour 25km walk on the Sunday of his visit; the day after the schools championships. But first I took him on an early morning Saturday walk on one of my "slow walks" which was probably sub 9 minute miling around Baldwin. He was so stiff from the hills that he could barely move the next day - I think he respected my slow walks more after that and I still achieved my aim of getting under 2 hours the next day.

I've not seen so much of Julian in recent years although he was the announcer for the athletics in the 2001 Island Games here in Douglas. the former physics teacher, continues to announce at meetings on Merseyside. Two years earlier he offered to help when Robbie was at Alder Hey Hospital which is just around the corner from where he lives. You never forget those things. Other than that it has been an exchange of Christmas cards and "contact Julian" in my "to do" list.

Finally I seized the opportunity to arrange a meeting at Liverpool airport on my way back from Amsterdam on 17 October. Well, you know the story about London buses and it is the same in Liverpool. There was no sign of him in the  arrivals hall and when I finally spoke to him a few days later he explained how three buses came along together after a gap of 45 minutes. One had broken down in the garage and the others couldn't move any further than Julian after a walk around Baldwin.

When we did talk on the phone I realised that we had taken just over 80 minutes to fill in the gaps of the last few years. He could rattle the names of a few walkers who could race 20km faster than that although it was pretty apparent during our chat that I couldn't.
      
I planned to add a photo but my router at home seems to have dropped out once again so I can't connect from work.