It gave me an idea to publish one of my oldies collection from when I competed in the event between 1976 and 1979. Nearly all the photos, understandably considering they were taken by my family, were of me and so I went for one I took myself in 1980 of the Boundary Harriers team.
1976 was the most memorable of my runs because, although I had done several long distance walks by that time, I had never run more than 8 miles in my life. I still hadn't when I got to the finish but I made it in 6:15:15. In 1977, aged 20, I finished in 5:43:33 thinking I might be the fastest Manxman but Ian Callister, who started two hours later in the elite class, took that honours in 5:29;58. The course has varied since then so to make a comparison with the top guys of that era I'll record that Mike Short won in 4:26:39 from Joss Naylor in 4:31:48.
I was elevated to the elite section in 1978 but dropped out at St Johns in freezing conditions. I can't find what time I did in 1979.
Until now I had never looked at my photos from the different years at the same time but it is now amusing to see that I ran in the same North Staffs Poly sweatshirt each year and on each of my three finishes had added my school track suit bottoms before the finish. The photos below progress from 1976 onwards (the 1978 one is at Injebreck).
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