Old times

I was under the weather all of last week with a cold and constant headaches and only resumed training after a week off (that's nearly as many days as previously during a whole year) yesterday morning.

I decided I needed to have a work our before deciding whether to start in the 20 miles on Sunday. 40 laps of the NSC should not be tackled if you are in doubt about your health. So after nearly four years of training in the morning I made probably only my second appearance in that time in an evening session with my old mates Mike Garrett and Paul Curphey. The bad news is that I have passed myself fit and will be in the lineup for those 40 laps.

Mo Kelly informed me that there are 18 others so far so it looks like there will be a decent field after all - there had been some worries that the field would be depleted.

But I definitely won't be at the next race - the Ramsey Fireman's race. And neither will the English National Cross Country Champion. I am interviewing Keith Gerrard at the time the race will be on and you will be able to see the extended interview on video here tomorrow.

DNA tests

The transfer of the face tagging of my photo collection to my new computer did not go too well. After a second run lasting three days it did group the photos had I had previously named but in only a few cases did it say who they were. I'm still on a learning curve, and even Google are judging by some of the forums (Google own Picasa whose software I am using for this). Hopefully it will be a few years before I need to make the move again and the technology will have moved on. In the meantime I am spending an hour or two every day on the tedious task of naming the people in the photos.

Judging by some of the suggestions though, you would be surprised who must be related to who!

Polls apart

I used to publish more polls on the websites than I do now. The one during the past week to see whether visitors to the website were going to watch the Olympics had a valuable component - there were several possible results.

I've not run a "best athlete of the year" poll for a couple of years because there there were so few contenders. That is not to say that we haven't got some great athletes who have performed well on and off the Isle of Man but there is one who is close to his peak and towers above the rest.

Unlike cycling with Mark Cavendish, we do not have someone who is the best in the world in our sport from this tiny Island. But to have the top British runner in the Great North Run (on his debut) was pretty special.

To have a winner in the National Cross Country puts Keith Gerrard polls apart.

FW: England Athletics eBulletin 23rd February 2012

 

 

From: England Athletics [mailto:communications@englandathletics.org]
Sent: 23 February 2012 23:09
To: murray@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: England Athletics eBulletin 23rd February 2012

 

If you cannot view this email please click here to view online

England Athletics eBulletin - 23rd February 2012 www.englandathletics.org Essential information from England Athletics This coming weekend sees a busy time for our up-and-coming athletes at the Aviva England Age Group (U20, U17, U15) Indoor Championships and also for our top cross country runners with the Saucony English National Cross Country Championships returning to Parliament Hill, London. Our officials will be out in force at both events and coaches will be using the championships to gauge the rest of the season ahead for their athletes. We also have our School Athletics conferences and events for officials coming up on the horizon so watch out for further details. Latest News School athletics conferences - pre-register now! England Athletics are organising a series of school athletics conferences across the country aimed at the school sport fraternity in Spring 2012 as we enter what is undoubtedly the most exciting period in the history of our sport. Next generation getting set to go! This weekend sees the Aviva England Age Group Indoor Championships take place at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena, and there should be some exciting talent on display as young athletes progress their age groups or step up into the next level. Chair of England Athletics' Board The search is on for an exceptional, dynamic individual who will lead England Athletics for the next four years. As the end of the existing Chair’s tenure in 2012 approaches, we are now seeking to appoint an individual to oversee the next phase of the Strategy from 2013-2017. Register to host a Try Athletics Day and claim your AVIVA series ticket discount code As a thank you to clubs that have signed up to host a Try Athletics Day and to clubs that sign up this week, England Athletics is providing clubs with a 25% discount on the Aviva summer series tickets. Tom Pink Relays at NIA: Hall of Happiness The 6th year of the AAA Tom Pink Memorial Relays and Field Events challenge at the NIA has upheld its reputation for athletics fun – relay races including trying to beat the times of some of our great distance runners and on the field, Sportshall activities such as weight throw for height, caber toss, shot put, standing log and triple jump, highland steps and soft javelin. 4000 expected as London hosts National XC Championships The Saucony English National Cross Country Championships returns to Parliament Hill, London on Saturday. It is London this year, as part of the National rota around the three Areas and of course it coincides with the Olympics being held in London in six months' time. Features Volunteer Roles advertising We've set up a new listing in our Jobs section - volunteer roles available. If you are a club or athletics organisation that needs a great volunteer to help out, why not advertise on our website for free? Just click on the Jobs news filter and you can choose volunteer roles only, or www.englandathletics.org/VolunteerRoles  Warm up for Winter with England Athletics branded kit Keep warm and show your support for athletics at the same time by wearing England Athletics branded kit - hoodies, sweatshirts, fleeces, hats and waterproof suits should do the trick. Find us on Facebook Keep up with all the latest news from England Athletics by following us on Facebook and Twitter. We also report from our events such as the Indoor champs this weekend using social media. www.englandathletics.org/LiveEvents England Athletics growing the next generation of athletics champions Athletics House, Alexander Stadium, Walsall Road, Perry Barr, Birmingham, B42 2BE General Enquiries: Tel: 0121 347 6543   |   Email: enquiries@englandathletics.org To unsubscribe click here

FW: Snowdonia Charity Challenge 2012

 

 

From: Action for Charity [mailto:events@action4charity.co.uk]
Sent: 24 February 2012 19:02
To: reservations@murrayandmarie.com
Subject: Snowdonia Charity Challenge 2012

 

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	Enter your company for the Snowdonia Charity Challenge 2012 We are looking for corporate teams from across the UK to take part in our famous Snowdonia Charity Challenge. The challenge is on for teams of four to cycle 40 miles, climb Snowdon and canoe Lake Gwynant. For more information and to register your team please click here If you have any questions please reply to this e-mail.

 

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BBC going uphill

You may have seen that the local BBC site has run the story of Ron Hill visiting the 50th Easter Athletics Festival. Its now been updated with some classic photos. Well worth visiting or revisiting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/17144890

Well worth entering the race too - or helping out over the weekend. www.easterfestival.info

Redundant backup

I was speaking to Robbie on the phone earlier - he thought there was a race for him  tomorrow night but I assured him there wasn't. "I'll just check when your race is on the manxathletics.com website I said." Imagine my horror when I realised that the fixture table from the front page had been deleted.

And there are so many backups I can keep - I haven't got all day to run these websites. One series of backups I started today was where I copy the content from the host site back onto my external hard disk. I decided to start from scratch but I archived the ones I had done just before setting up my new computer under "redundant backups" rather than deleting them. Thankfully that backup had the fixture table on the home page and all was not lost.

Things I've learnt following public transport for 50 odd years

1. Spending £800,000 on a new diesel engine because the existing 60 year old one is too old to support a heritage railway that is almost 150 years old is called an irony.
2. The people who say that they want an alternative to taking their car to work and want something a lot faster than the steam train should be told its call a bus.
3. The management of the heritage railways who think that £800,000 is money well spent should tell the one in fifty thousand (or whatever the odds are) that has to wait for a bus if the steam train breaks down its called an unavoidable inconvenience. 
4. The people who complain that the bus service does not stop outside their front door should be told that the service already exists - its called a taxi.
5. The media, who usually like to exaggerate but don't realise that if there are £50k of design costs in the budget and another £750k for building the engine the cost (before the overspend) is £800k, should be told its called sums,
6. Even when times are tough and the council of ministers draw up a budget that is addressing the issues that have needed addressing for many years they allow an exception and its called a joke.

Everyone has probably seen this but...

As people keep sending me copies. Double clip to see detail.

Over 70s record

John set an Isle of Man over 70s marathon record of 4:35:27 in the Salclear Isle of Man Marathon last August but Ray Shooter improved on this in China recently. Last week's Manx Independent reported that he ran 4:27:18 in his 175th marathon!

The photo above was taken when he was still young - in the 2003 Castletown to Peel run.

26 names confirmed for London

I saw a letter in the paper recently from Henry de Siva who is walking the Virgin London Marathon and was happy to walk for a charity. I have added him to my list. Keep them coming.

Name	Club	Charity
Adrian Shorthouse		Alzheimer's Society
Alan Sandford	Isle of Man Veteran Athletes' Club
Andy Watson	Manx Harriers
Barry Moore	Western Athletic Club	/
Caroline Moran	Western Athletic Club
Clare Ledger		Get Kids Going!
Emma Rogan	Metros Running Club
Eugene Wilson		Anthony Nolan
Gianni Epifani	Manx Harriers	Hospice Isle of Man
Helen Taylor	Western Athletic Club
Henry de Sila
James Moffett		St John Ambulance
Keith Green	Manx Harriers
Kim Hicklin		Anthony Nolan
Mark Peberdy	Isle of Man Veteran Athletes' Club
Mike Garrett	Manx Harriers
Murray Lambden	Manx Harriers
Nigel Armstrong	Manx Harriers
Paul Curphey	Manx Harriers
Rebekah Pate		Get Kids Going!
Richard Radcliffe	Northern AC
Rob Gillanders	Isle of Man Veteran Athletes' Club
Roy Faragher	Western Athletic Club
Sam Comaish-Coole		Anthony Nolan
Sarah Curphey	Manx Harriers
Sharon Cheeseman	Northern AC	Prostate Cancer Charity
Tadhg O’Mahoney	Isle of Man Veteran Athletes' Club

AW plugs Easter on the Isle of Man

There was a nice editorial in Athletics Weekly recently adding to the run of excellent adverts designed by Steve Partington. Have you put your Easter entry in yet? Don't leave it too late.

Richest student

Just heard of the passing of Frank Carson and I quickly found a photo of his son, Tony (centre)  whose father's fame in the 70s made him by far the best off of the students on his business studies course in Stoke. He also had slightly better dress style than his fellow students.

Picture this

Entries for the Manx Telecom Parish Walk were received in record numbers before the end of January by which date a £5 discount for Manx Telecom customers was available.

Since then, it has been a bit quiet but one of the interesting aspects has been the evenness between male and female entrants. In case you are are unaware, for seven months of the year I write a second blog about the Parish Walk, mainly about the statistics.

http://parishwalk2012.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile the commissioning of my new desktop computer continues. I had problems with the Picasa face tagging export and so I have started from scratch again in the hope that it will be running by tomorrow..

I'm also taking care that my off-site photo backups are working from the new location.

I don't have offsite backups for video files other than those that are published at YouTube of course.

It was five years ago today that I opened my Youtube account. YouTube had only been operating for 2 years at that time and only three months earlier had been acquired by Google. In those early days some of my films would appear on the front page of sorts for mountain biking and race walking and, indeed, at one time four of the top 10 listed fell running videos were mine.

The site has expanded exponentially since then  whilst my production (almost 400 including publishing some of David Griffiths') have flattened. I think the initial novelty of people seeing themselves on YouTube has worn off and it is still time consuming to do a half decent job of editing.

Buts its for those days when I do want to publish photos, videos and features online in haste that I spend so much time getting my resources organised.

New computer up and running

If I didn't have a family, a job, a business, run marathons and a few websites, I still wouldn't have enough time to take advantage of all the electronic entertainment in our house. I've installed a new computer in the last few days and rather than using something like PC mover to copy all the installations (which I did last time and got confused by some of the Sony files I had on my HP) I chose to install every piece of software after reviewing whether I really needed it.

I had forgotten some of the things I had and there are so many things that can be networked around the house such as music streaming on radios that also play music from my computer and TVs that play iPlayer, YouTube etc.

And why did I need a new computer? There were four reasons all solvable but was it worth it for a 4 year old PC when a new one would be so many faster.

1. The card reader for photos had not worked for several months and I had a complicated way of copying files from a laptop.
2. The USB ports had not been working properly since Christmas causing me more problems.
3. The graphics card would not work with my video editing software for over a year and an attempt to upgrade the graphics card had failed when the motherboard didn't like it.
4. I was getting extremely short of space on my 500Gm hard disk.

Whilst preparing to copy files 1-2 mysteriously started to work again. Then I found a software upgrade that finally solved 3. Now that I have loaded my files I am left with just 90GB of a 1TB hard disk free - I had forgotten that I previously had 2 hard disks in the old one - 400GB and 500GB!

So I am going to have to add a second hard disk at an early stage

But it was nice to do everything in one place on Saturday and I think I completed the photos and video uploads in record time.

I'm still keeping Picassa and my photo collection on the old PC for a while though as the face tagging is not working on the new PC yet. Having spent 100 hours or more doing that I am going to be extremely careful.

You know when you are getting older

They say you know you are old when the policemen look too young. Thankfully I'm not too worried on this score as I know one recent recruit (a regular Parish Walk entrant) who does not make me feel old at all!

One of my criteria for feeling old is when you realise that it is the children off your contemporaries that are being written about in Athletics Weekly.

AW recently ran a story about Adam Cotton, the European junior 1500 metres champion, and his move to the states.

I remember his dad Dave as, among other things, the winner of the National 50km walking championships at Trafford Park. In fact I took a photo of him (on my old Kodak Instantmatic) on his way to his victory in 4:14:25.

I should have been competing (I was living just a few miles away that summer in Manchester) but I had suffered the worst case of (self inflicted ) sickness and "the trots" I have ever had in my life after taking some sausages to a hotel room in Preston (without a fridge) to save using my expenses to eat out. Trots and race walking are not supposed to go together.

Actually I am beginning to worry less about my age as I write this because I can remember so much about the weekend when Dave won that race.

It was the weekend that Derek Harrison shared a bed with Graham Young in my house in Levenshulme. Don't worry, it was Derek on the Friday night and Graham on Saturday!

Missed signed on

We were going out and Marie was urging me not to be late. When I heard something like the above I thought she was reminding of me of how I missed the start of the cross country the other day and wanted to ensure that the same thing did not happen again tonight.

So, as a quick update to the website, I set up a piece about the Race the Sun which I had told organiser Mark Eastham of the Children's Centre that I would put on at the weekend but then deferred it. In fact I have quite a few bits and pieces that I keep putting off.

I am certainly well  behind with the Parish Walk website although I couldn't keep up the effort I was putting into that a couple of weeks ago so it will have to wait.

My training has been going well to the point of putting me under strain with another 5.30 start this morning.

So it was great to get out for a change tonight.

It was actually Miss Saigon that Marie was reminding me about. What a performance by the Douglas Choral Union. Proud to be Manx.

Don't missed the sign on for Miss Saigon.

Cross country extension

The cross country season was extended for me yesterday. (Son) Robbie was particularly careful (slow) in the Glen Lough mud and finished a full 18 minutes behind the next runner even though there was a suspicion that he ran a lap short. I was relieved that he did not insist on doing another lap but thanks to all the officials of Western AC for waiting for him.

And the time taken from the race starting to me finishing was also extended.  Although I had been at the venue a full hour before my race was due to start at 2.25, I had just completed my final preparations and stopped to talk to Dave Newton who incredibly won his first cross country championships 40 years ago and is still in good shape, when Ian Callister shouted at 2.23 that the race had already started.  It was still only 2.24 as the three of started chasing the rest of the runners who had already long departed the top field.  

I wasn’t too worried about my late start as I had completed a long run the previous day and in some ways it took the pressure off and turned the race into a handicap.  It would soon have been water under the bridge but instead, because there was no bridge, I was left to negotiate the 24 river crossings that make the Glen Lough course unique with Peter Bradley, who started even later, in pursuit.

I used to see a lot of Glen Lough course in my school days as travelled  from Kirk Michael to Douglas High School for Boys and we would stop outside the farm each morning for the Quayle brothers to take the bus.  I remember Peter, who was watching the race yesterday, sitting next to my brother each morning and John and Martyn (later) were also regulars.  Later I remember Peter setting off for agricultural college to Beverley with my cousin Graham.

It’s all too easy to take the landowners for granted and we are all grateful for the Quayle family for allowing us to use their land, just as with all the other land owners who make the Medis Cross Country league so enjoyable.

It takes so many people to take advantage of those facilities and, in addition to the three clubs who promoted the five events there are a number of people such as Lewis Veale, David Griffiths and Cheryl Pryke who are involved in all races and publish the results by the middle of the evening.

As I ran up the hill for the final time pulling an ugly pained face I did realise, when I saw photographer Ian Astin, why some people tell me to put my camera somewhere unpleasant. But I was soon thanking Ian for the great selection of photos that we have come to expect from him.

I had my wellies in the car and as I was cleaning the mud off my legs, clothes and shoes when I got home I thought how much easier it would be next winter to wear the wellies and stick to filming the races.  But within minutes I was noting that I needed new cross country shoes for next winter.  My cross country career is a lot shorter than Dave Newton’s but it will continue for another year.

Another great athletics story

I've actually been reading today's papers and this story is worth a read:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-eye-shes-buddies-with-bolt-but-this-golden-girl-revels-in-anonymity-6699732.html

I don't mind looking like a prat

"I hope I don't wake you when I get up early tomorrow morning" is a part of conversation held many times in our household during the past four years since I have been training in the mornings.

A week ago there was a taste of my own medicine when Marie announced that she was getting up even earlier than me on Saturday morning to join the queue for the best seats at the Young Farmers Concert. Including that day, three times in the past week I have now been up soon after the clock would have struck five, if we had one that chimed! I had to catch the "red eye" flight on Tuesday for a meeting in Manchester and on Wednesday I was up early for a more normal reason (for me) to run 12 miles starting at 6 am.

I regretted an early start two weeks ago on Saturday. Although it was only 7 am that I hit the road  that day I was on the Marine Drive running a multi-lap course trying to avoid the icy conditions. There was ice there too and the first few laps were extremely difficult, in fact I fell twice in the slowest place as I turned.

My feet were pretty sore after the session and much to my surprise remained sore around the toes for the whole of the following week. There was no sign of blisters and I just thought it must be the cumulative affect of all my winter training. Even when I wrote about it being the anniversary of getting frostbite on my hands I didn't twig until I looked more closely around my usual set of blackened toenails to realise that I had more frostbite. It may have only been minor but it was still pretty uncomfortable for 10 days or so - they were least sore when I got warmed up and into my running.

When I have been saying "I hope I don't wake you when I get up early tomorrow morning" I have been reminded to wear my extra gloves. When I say "You don't mind if I go to take photos of the fell race on Saturday afternoon" I get told to where my extra hat and my extra thick jumper that she has donated to my cause. So it you see someone running with extra socks you will know the reason why!

Smart Alec

For once I have completed all the tasks I set for myself this evening (on time) and I intend to chill for a while.

The photo shows the three events I have entered tonight - the 20 miles, Easter Festival and Marathon. It is probably only the Syd Quirk Half remaining for me to enter this year.

And now I can be a smart Alec and lecture on why everyone should enter races in good time!

Don't forget that you can enter the Parish Walk and End to End Walks online and entry forms are also online (in addition to the three I mention above) for the Manx Harriers Open Walks, the Sara Killey Walk and the Veterans Handicap.

But don't enter as Mr S Alec as I have just done!

Music kept me from the website

I received a note from Graham Davies yesterday to say that he had a link to Harriet Pryke's record breaking 400 metres video. I decided to make it the main feature of the website last night as it would also highlight the Bushy's Great South Run 10km which Graham organises.

I have to say that, although I appreciate the efforts of all my fellow webeditors, the music of Graham's site drives me crazy if I leave it connected for more than 10 seconds. To my surprise, when I mentioned it my reply email to Graham, he agreed!

So when I checked my own website today I kept the sound muted as the music would otherwise have kept me away from it.

Music kept me away from it for most of this evening whilst I watched the BBC Radio 2 folk awards on the red button channel. I loved the story from Ian Campbell, who was introduced as a legend, but explained the sales of his 19 albums up to 1980. They sold well, as far as folk albums go, with 50,000 to 70,000 sales each. Then two of his four sons joined a band in Birmingham and their first album sold more than his 19 combined! He has not worked much since then which is quite appropriate for a band named after an unemployment benefit form - UB40.

The awards tonight were at the Lowry Centre in Salford a venue at which I have never seen a concert. But I have seen a medal presentation for the Commonwealth Games on its doorstep.

And I bought tickets to see Ian Campbell's son's band play at the Villa Marina last year. Unfortunately fewer people booked tickets to see the Ali Campbell band than turned up to watch the 50km walk passing the Lowry centre in 2002 and the event was cancelled. A total washout - just like the 50km walk.

Alongside the Commonwealth Games course in 2002

A real horror story

Security at the Olympic Games is costing a small fortune but the organisers cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Horror is a word that must not be used to describe the London Olympics whatever the cost.

I was only 13 when the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics were attacked by terrorists. I probably didn't realise how much sport was going to change as a consequence. Did anyone?

11 Israeli athletes and a coach, a police officer and five of the eight terrorists were killed.

One of the Israeli team who escaped the kidnapping was a race walker - Shaul Ladany.

It was some 10 years later that I became familiar with his name. I won the Bradford 50km in a time of 4:26:49 and the only faster time on the trophy at the time was Mr Ladany. One of my friends insisted that my time was the real record because  the other time (20 seconds faster) was on a short course (it had been altered due to road works).

I didn't loose any sleep over twenty seconds  at the time but it was only on reading an article about Shaul in the Independent recently that I realised just how secondary twenty seconds would have been to him.

The fact that his life has lasted 75 years is quite remarkable. Not only did he survive the terrorist attack on the Israeli team but he survived a concentration camp during World War II.

I have found a link to the article online and it must be read to be believed:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/shaul-ladany-still-king-of-the-road-6295322.html

For the record Melvin McCann beat both our times in Bradford.

And for the record too, horror is a word that will not be used to describe anything less than its real meaning on this site. And I just hope that I won't need to.

Its all in the planning

We have enjoyed perfect weather in the Isle of Man this morning. So different to large parts of the UK and certainly eastern Europe and even southern Europe.

I popped down to take photos of the Up & Running Winter League Walks at the National Sports Centre this morning. The one above is of Chris Cale who, together with Lisa Motley, runs the local franchise in the name of the event sponsor.

Earlier I had been out on my regular 12 mile Sunday morning around the Marine Drive and it was as good as it gets. I can't remember the wind at all.

In between I was watching the news reports from around Europe over breakfast. A few degrees of frost and some snow in London and there were more than 300 flights cancelled. Meanwhile Munich Airport had 29 degrees of frost and was operating as normal.

If you plan properly things normally go smoothly. Grabbing my cameras at 9.50 when the event started at 10.00 did not constitute good planning. The battery in my video camera was flat. But it left me with an extra couple of hours to plan better things to do on this lovely Sunday than editing video!

No flash points or brownie points

I had been thinking of going to the Ramsey Firemans runs last night to take some photos. After not visiting the event for more than 20 years I went to them all for a couple of years when Robbie ran but now that his has withdrawn from that event, for health and safety reasons, I have not ventured down there yet this winter.

Had I gone it would have given me a chance to put my new flash to good use. Although it is only modest, it is the first time I have had a flash other than the built in ones.

A friend persuaded me to spend the time at home but I didn't really sit at home earning brownie points. I spent another few hours tag photos.

I've got a few tweaks to the fixture list before I leave for work but my stomach won't wait any longer.

I love other people's lists

Thanks to David Griffiths for compiling the list of competitors in the Merseyside Schools Cross Country, which are to be held this weekend.

I know how painstaking it is to put these together so its nice to use some else's labour.

But I was also able to match it to my own labour - the face tagging of photos. I was able to find plenty of old photos of Keith Gerrard from 2002 and 2003 at the search of his name. Here is another one, marshalling at the Easter Festival in 2003.

I wound a few people up with my comments about it being the second of every division of time today. Of course its not the second millennium!

Almost forgot to share David's other comments.

"It’s the Merseyside Schools XC this coming Saturday 4 February at Sefton Park in Liverpool. I have been keeping stats on all IOM performances in the champs having researched back to 2002 (can’t find any results online before that). I can’t find any results for 2004 (not sure if IOM Schools went that year?) and in 2007 the plane didn’t go due to fog, but one athlete was already over there. I am told there are 18 IOM athletes competing on Saturday, the biggest party for a few years, so hopefully they will add to the 6 gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze medals won since 2002."

Just a second

I was down at the NSC this at about 6.30 this morning and it seemed fairly cold.

Then I remembered that it is exactly a year ago since I got frost bite running in Germany.

My hands feel rather good this morning in comparison.

I didn't manage to get my fingers into the feature I planned for last night - deferred until lunchtime.

Just remembered that it is the Ramsey Fireman's tonight. Will add a link for that.

I'm told its the second day of the second month of the second year  of the second decade of the second millennium today.

Race entries catch the focus

Entries for the End to End Mountain Bike Challenge opened 13 and a half hours ago and there are already 836 signed up. I think that is almost half the total that will be accepted.

Its already passed the number entered for the Manx Telecom Parish Walk - even though there are more than twice the entries that there were at this stage last year. I spent a good part of last night analysing the entries as they arrived as it was the last day for Manx Telecom's customers to enter and get their £5 discount.

If you want to know more go to www.parishwalk.com and use the links to Facebook, Twitter, my blog or the entry list but don't tell me you can't find out what is going on!

Entries also opened last night for the Ramsey Bakery End to End Walk and the first 5 have arrived.

Back to the Parish Walk - I have published the 1982 results sheet on www.manxathletics.com as a further illustration of how much the event has grown. Count the number of women who took part  and compare it to now where for the first time ever more women than men have entered.

Is this just because men and slow to get around to enter? Man or women, enter those races online today - particularly the bike one or it will be too late.