Don't want to see the back of Adam Russell

Here is a side view of Adam Russell in the 2011 Snaefell Race. I've got a good reason to see the back of him after the stunt he pulled on me on Saturday.

I was helping him compile his Parish Walk programme for local radio station 3FM. I went to the studio in Victoria Street armed with all my statistics and before he switched on the microphone I checked with him about the type of question he was to ask me so that I could have the stats at the ready.

Then he pulled a fast one. "Name the first three in this year's race and their times?" he asked me. "Starting with third".

"Vinny Lynch in 15.10" I said assuming that conditions would be reasonable and that Vinny would make a further improvement. As far as possible I try to get other people to make the predictions so the heat, that had been so lacking when only an hour earlier I had been running up and down the nearby promenade in the pouring rain, was well and truly on.

Wanting to show faith in so many walkers that I knew I realised that this could only backfire if I predicted record times so in the time it takes to count to ten the times had stopped flowing from  my mouth. "Richard Gerrard will finish second and Michael George will win. But I'm not prepared to guess the time" I said.

Escaping from the second floor of what was once Martins Bank and where I last went above the ground floor to visit my Uncle John to open a bank account after it became Barclays, you would think I would be glad to see the back of Adam after failing to find a place in the top three for Robbie Callister, where I think he will be, never mind demoting the poll favourite to second and leaving the perennial over achiever Vinny Lynch trailing.

But I'm not. I've seen enough of it already.

Take the 10km at the Easter Festival for a start. I passed him at two miles only to see his back floating past me with a mile to go. The following week at St Johns he goes off too fast, I catch him up only for me to have to watch the back of him again for the last 10%.

We head for London. For 26.1 miles of the course I am ahead of him. We turn into the Mall and guess who goes past?

Since then we've raced again at St Johns and twice in Ramsey. Always I end up with a view of his behind.

I didn't like his question but I would rather such an affront than allowing him to continue as a past master.