Tuesday, 31 January 2012
One for every mile - thanks to the recycling bin
Monday, 30 January 2012
Another addiction returned
I added more than 200 photos to my collection at the weekend (from the Greeba Fell Race). Only 13 short of 99,000 now!
I thought that I would face tag them before they became part of the archives although there were quite a few people I didn't know and the results list didn't have the numbers on which made it harder. Some of the people were not even recognised as people at all due to the relatively dark conditions and I had to add them manually.
Once I had started that i decided to do the same with previous Greeba Fell Races and so it went on. I have 1,296 people identified in my photo collection.
After adding a lot more by going through the races, Picassa then makes further suggestions to add photos to existing names and the more you confirm the more it finds. Where did my Sunday afternoon go to?
The worst bit is that I have more than 143,000 people to identify on my photos - and that was more than when I started yesterday as the software trawls through over and over again looking to identify people.
Apart from my wife, Michael George is still number 1 for identification with 550 images.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
More action as I write
So was my coverage of the Jude's Sports Hall event. I am told it is a wonderful every year and a fitting tribute to Judy Perriam on Western AC who died so young. All the club websites have covered the event from the perspective of their club athletes, so everyone should have known it was on, but there wasn't really any central publicity that I could add. I am sure there will be a real buzz at the NSC.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Greeba rave
Murray has been watching Murray
Murray watching Michael tonight.
http://www.travelnews.im/island-to-feature-on-bbc-railways-show-tonight-january-27
Thursday, 26 January 2012
FW: Murray, watch the Aviva International Match LIVE this Saturday
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Tired already
I do encourage people to check the links and let me know any corrected or better ones. The object is to make it as easy as possible for new athletes to enter a race or join the sport. We don't always make it easy for them.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Free photo site - but only for three months
http://www.picnik.com/
but in the meantime Google are giving everyone the premium service for free. If you are short of somewhere to host your photos for a few weeks it might be worth considering.
Give the Manx some space
http://www.channel4.com/news/the-latest-space-race-on-the-isle-of-man
Although it is nearly three months since the link was sent to me and I have only just watched it, it is well worth a few minutes of your time.
Emails
No pun intended with my previous post about photographs and transparency.
Focused on the Manx Telecom Parish Walk on the site last night. I'll try and plug some of the other big events of the year again soon too. The Easter Festival is less than three months away, entries open for the Ramsey Bakery end to End Walk next week and entries are already open for the Salclear Isle of Man Marathon and Half Marathon.
Got drenched at the NSC on my early morning run today.
FW: Your Zenfolio account was RENEWED successfully
I guess I am going to have to carry on taking photos now!
I am just sharing this in the interest of transparency. This cost is paid by me and not deducted from photo sales when making charitable distributions.
Murray
From: Zenfolio [mailto:noreply@zenfolio.com]
Sent: 24 January 2012 13:24
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: Your Zenfolio account was RENEWED successfully
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No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1901 / Virus Database: 2109/4762 - Release Date: 01/23/12
Monday, 23 January 2012
How deep is the field?
The field was pretty deep in places - full of mud. But my main comment is about the depth of the field as in quality.
One of my moans about our sport, and I was passing this opinion when warming up yesterday, is that the quality of so much of the sport has declined during my time of involvement.
I remember when hundreds took part in national race walking competitions but now you can count the starters on your hands. I remember when good athletes would fail to make their club team for the national cross country but now average ones have to persuaded to run to make up the numbers. I remember when hundreds of British runners used to break 2.30 in the London Marathon but now you are a star if you do.
But stop. Let's have a look at the local cross country championships over the past four years. How many people have finished within 20% of the men's winner? Excluding the winner himself it was 11 (2009), 6 (2010) and 14 (2011). Yesterday there were 17.
Of course this measure of depth to the field is also a factor of the speed of the winner but I suspect that Kevin Loundes is every bit as fit as when he won in 2009 and 2010. When you consider that eight of those in the "window" last year didn't run yesterday (Andy Barron, Martin Malone, Simon Skillicorn, Mike Garrett, Paul Clarke, Stuart Christian, Richard Jamieson and Paul Cawley) then I think we have genuine reason to feel a warm glow from the improvement.
A warm glow would have been welcomed by the officials yesterday who starred every bit as much as the athletes in the cold wind. Thanks everyone.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
I can only find four Manx runners on the Brass Monkeys website
Kevin Deakes | 55 | 01:21:32 |
Barry Moore | 333 | 01:32:52 |
Jackie Moore | 1204 | 01:57:06 |
Sue Furner | 1559 | 02:14:58 |
Friday, 20 January 2012
London calling
Email murray@manxathletics.com with updates and corrections. Here are the 24:
FW: UKA e-Newsletter - British sprint duo to launch 2012 campaigns with Aviva Series test
From: UKA [mailto:intouchgoodform@yourcrm.co.uk] On Behalf Of UKA
Sent: 19 January 2012 16:16
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: UKA e-Newsletter - British sprint duo to launch 2012 campaigns with Aviva Series test
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Thursday, 19 January 2012
Keith in top three
As Richard Wild pointed out to me recently, their "teaser" (listing the top three in each event) includes Keith Gerrard. See it here:
http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/uk-merit-rankings-2011-men/
Neat timing
Last year, however, I had to pay extra to hire a timing chip so I was cautious in case I had forgotten to add this to my entry. This year, however, the fee includes the use of a single use timing chip which appears to be more discrete than past versions:
http://www.mylaps.com/index.php/us_eng/Websites/B2B/run/services
Emma web presence
Whilst checking I stumbled upon this feature about her performance in one of her many endurance races:
http://www.sportsister.com/2009/06/17/sportsister-talks-to-emma-rogan/